The Road ***

By Cormac McCarthy
Copyright 2006
Published By Alfred A. Knopf
Pages 241.

This is dark, dark stuff, but it's great. Basically it's a post-apocalyptic book. The interesting thing is that it's done from the viewpoint of the protagonists who are a father and son trying to make it south, where it's warmer and to the sea.

There is no explanation of why the apocalypse happened or how it happened. The only thing that the reader knows is everything is burnt and they are living in a world of ashes where there are no living things. All is dead except for a very small handful of survivors. The lack of food, remember there is no plant or animal life, makes their situation particularly grim and hopeless. In fact hopelessness is pretty much the theme here. There is no escape from certain death for the father and son, and certain extinction for mankind and the Earth itself.

The hopelessness is oppressive. What little hope there is is usually crushed. There are a few holes or errors in the narrative. For instance, I can't imagine that no plant life had survived if some animal life had survived. And even if everything was killed, wouldn't there be seeds buried in the ground that could sprout later? The book never tells us if this destruction is worldwide or only regional. Perhaps there are people living in other continents or even in more distant parts of the U.S. How could flames engulf an entire world and still have survivors? But those are flaws, and perhaps glimmers of hope that the author does not directly state, that we have accept as part of the narrative if we want to enjoy the book. A suspension of belief. It is after all a post-apocalyptic story, so some suspension of believe is always required.

Besides this is really a story of a man and his son and the love they have for each other even in the most hopeless and severest of situations. The grim setting amplifies these feelings of love for each other that the characters have. The father is very clear in his desire to do anything to protect and feed his son. He'll kill to protect his son. Note how I said kill and not murder. Through out the whole book, the father and son are trying to be the "good guys". They are trying to civil in a world gone horribly awry.

There is a movie coming out and I am very excited by it. I read that Nick Cave is doing the Soundtrack. On that basis a lone this will be a must see film.

here is an interview with Oprah. By the way this was an OOprah Book Club book. Interesting choice for Oprah.



And here is a trailer for the upcoming movie.