Friday, August 28, 2009

The Road (A Book Review)


Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006 (unabridged audio book, 6 hours 40 minutes)

The Road grabbed my attention for the very beginning. A father and a son are traveling by foot down the road. He’s pushing a cart. As I’d not read the cover (I listened to the book), I wondered, “Are they homeless?” Slowly details begin to emerge about this post-apocalyptic world. They’re heading south, trying to beat the winter, trying to reach the sea. The world is dark and dead. Even at midday, the sky is gray and the air filled with ash. They cover their mouths with cloth, moving on, keeping a constant outlook for trouble. The road is a dangerous place and there are those who have resorted to cannibalism to survive. When someone comes along on the road or when they make their camp at night, they hid. Danger is never far away.
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All the boy has ever known is this nightmare. His dad tells him stories of the way things were and through his dreams we learn of his love for his wife, the boy’s mother. The nightmare started in the early morning hours of night. There was a brilliant flash and the father got up and ran a tub full of water as the power went out. We never learn of the war or the conflict, just the aftermath. The father tries to instill into the boy his values. They are the good guys, he tells his son. But as they travel on, the boy questions whether or not they are the good guys. They’ve not resorted to cannibalism, scrounging for leftovers, mostly canned food, from the former world. But they’ve had to fight to keep what is there and haven’t been able to help anyone else. They finally make it to the sea. (I also listened to the last hour of this book sitting on the beach!) Their journey done, the dad dies. He’d been coughing and not well throughout the book and there’s been a sense of urgency in him to teach his son what he needs to know to go on. The book ends with the boy being adopted by another family. Interestingly, the boy is told that they’ll have to leave the road for safety.
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This book gives the reader a lot to ponder. The question of suicide is raised, an option chosen by the boy’s mother. They were down to three bullets in his pistol and she wanted her husband to take them all out, to save them from the horrors of the world. But the father can’t do it. Yet, when danger arises and the father finds that he must leave his son behind to search for food, he leaves the pistol with the boy, having instructed him how to shoot himself in the mouth. But that seems a necessary precaution to protect the boy from the horrors of the world. The father has the will to live even though there is a question about what the future will look like. Everything is dead, trees and streams and rivers. What will be left when there is nothing else to salvage? Why keep on living when the odds are stacked against you? There is also the question of God. When the son is asleep, the father cries out in agony. Is he crying out to God and if so, does God hear? The narrative allows the reader to ponder such questions.
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There is no doubt that the father loves his son and is willing to sacrifice for him. When he finds a treat, such as packaged drink mix, he insists the boy enjoy it. In this dark world, little things are special. When they find a bunker with lots of canned food, they have a feast and the father heats water and gives his son a bath in a tub, a luxury the boy has never experienced. There is something special about the boy. The father keeps telling him he’s carrying the fire and despite such a gloomy world, it seems to be true for goodness seems to flow from the boy.
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It is interesting that McCarthy wrote the book without names. The boy and the father are nameless. A name is given to only one person whom they meet, Eli, and sickly old man who is kind of a philosopher. But the man admits that Eli isn’t his real name. In addition, the man and boy are traveling though a nameless world. The descriptions of the journey had me thinking they’re traveling though the Appalachian Mountains and down toward the coast. Throughout the book, the father lays out pieces of an old map, trying to figure out where they are located. But the location is kept from the reader, leaving us to wonder.
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I also found myself wondering about the timeline from the beginning of the post-apocalyptic world. The boy was born after the destruction. The author provides clues that it’s been a while since the world changed. Once, the father looks up on a ridge, thinking of the cults that had existed along the hilltops, but are no longer present. Also, I found myself wondering about the leaves they sleep and hid in, when the trees are all dead. Or, the apples the father finds under the dead fruit trees. Were these trees still alive until the recent season or were these apples there from before the new world began? The latter doesn’t seem possible. Time and location are left vague.
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I enjoyed this book. Although there are horrific elements in it, The Road has given me much to ponder.

16 comments:

  1. I identified with the mother. I would not want to live like that and the boy still had his dad so I'd be hightailing it out to die a.s.a.p. too.

    The man talked to God in the book. What was your take on that and his thoughts of a higher power? I always thought there was something more to it but I never figured it out.

    The movie is coming out soon. Viggo Mortenson is the dad. I'll be going to it.

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  2. The Road can become a reality. That is Scary part about it.

    As I read the book, I liked how it was worded. It has stayed in my mind.

    Have you read The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood? If not, go for it.

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  3. That's scary, but as you said, it gives a lot to ponder. I liked a lot your review.

    It made me think of a movie I've recently watched on the TV: 'The mist' based upon a novel by Stephen King, where a small town in Maine is suddenly envelopped by an unnatural mist, concealing strange creatures who attack any human who dares to go out in the open. It has similar elements with 'The road', basically suicide as the only way to avoid an uncertain gloomy future.

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  4. Sounds interesting, if not a little negative- but I like the comments about how "little things are special in such a dark world." Thanks-

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  5. Now THIS is a good one for a book discussion. I will most definitely look into it because your first paragraph really grabbed me.

    I didn't read all of this post on purpose so I don't know too much going into it. Thanks for a great review, Sage (what I read of it!). :)

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  6. Murf, I was moved by his cries to God--prayers of lament--it seemed the whole world was going through a "dark night of the soul"

    Gautami, you're right, as a race of people, we do have the power to create such a world... and that's frightening.

    Leni, the book is well written and although there's great horror, there are also glimpses of grace.

    Beau, yeah, there's a lot of darkness, it isn't for the "faint of heart!"

    Scarlet, I look forward to reading your review!

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  7. I loved this book a lot. Really a fine work.

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  8. This book contains so many interesting levels, it's hard to wrap them all up. There's the overt "anti" (as in opposite) Biblical imagery. There's "Eli" a Hebrew name which, along with it's derivations, means "God." There's McCarthy's portrayal of women and motherhood: (The boys mother; the camp "cookout," etc.

    I've read the darn thing about six times. I fear that the movie version is really going to suck.

    (My review of a few years back is here for what it's worth.)

    Cheers.

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  9. I still haven't read this one, although I have it on my list. I think I'm waiting for just the right time. And this month isn't it.

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  10. Charles, I remember you praised "The Road" in your book "Write with Fire"

    Randall, thanks for the link to your review, well done, you've also given me a lot to think of. And you're right about El being a hebrew word for God... It does seem that it's Paradise in Reverse (to play with Milton's titles)

    Sherry, I'm not sure this is a book for everyone, but there is a lot to consider here.

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  11. This sounds like an amazing very scary book
    I think suicide is never the answer but perhaps in a post-apocalyptic world--though the mother had a husband and child and that itself is a gift
    I love your questions. I find myself pondering much about books
    My WF has the word road in it--that must mean something :)

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  12. Sage: This was very intense. I would have nightmares after reading it. But it is a work of the imagination for pondering. That's certain. :)

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  13. Good and in-depth review Sage. Hope a movie will come out of it soon.

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  14. I never seem to find/make time to read books... need to do that!

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  15. @sage-

    Your review of McCarthy's book is another "nudge" to bite the bullet and finally delve into a book that I've heard/read quite a bit about.

    The audio book realm is intriguing, particularly since I've come to enjoy Books on CD, putting my time on the road to good use.

    Now that I'm done with DF Wallace's gargantuan of a book, Infinite Jest (900+ pages), I have all kinds of time for other books, especially a "mere" 256 pages.

    @gautami-

    Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale is a worthwhile read, but I highly recomment Oryx and Crake, if you like your novels with a dystopian flavor.

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  16. Sage,

    BTW, it's great to see such a healthy community of readers frequenting (and commenting) here at SCH.

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