NATIONAL BESTSELLERPULITZER PRIZE WINNER National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistA New York Times Notable BookOne of the Best Books of the YearThe Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York, People, Rocky Mountain News, Time, The Village Voice, The Washington PostThe searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac … Post
The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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In trying to read at least one thing by the most important authors of fiction, I asked a bibliophile friend to recommend the best book by Cormack McCarthy. He recommended The Road, and I was not disappointed. As soon as I read the blurb, I realized I had seen the movie with Viggo Mortensen. Nonetheless, the book was a bleak and depressing revelation. In retrospect, I should have followed my custom of looking up and listing all the words I didn’t know in my Lexicon, where I store new words and their definitions. But, alas, I was too anxious to get on with the story and abandoned my due diligence. One thing I really liked about this book was McCarthy’s unorthodox and compelling prose style. For Instance, he uses no quotation marks for dialogue and few if any apostrophes. As an author this was very instructive to me and I’m thinking of trying it on my next venture. This is Dystopian with a capital D. I highly recommend it for serious readers who appreciate the work of a master.
One of the darkest and most thought-provoking books I’ve ever read.
Bleak and uncompromising, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a masterpiece. It’s a terrifying thriller and its take on society is downright chilling. It’s truly unforgettable. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
See full review here: https://thebookreviewcrew.com/the-road-a-review-by-tanya/
The Road is one of my favorite books of all time, not just in the story, but also in the style and format of the novel itself. There are no traditional chapters, just breaks in sections written with some of the most beautiful language I’ve ever read. There’s one line comparing the sun behind clouds to an old woman holding a lantern that blew my mind. A definite must-read!
Wow, this was a heavy read. A really dark, utterly devoid of hope, gray and desolate read that instantly plunges you into a post-apocalyptic world where one’s death is only a matter of time and where eternal nuclear winter paints the very sky leaden and dreary. A nameless man and his son travel south along the road in the hope of finding shelter from the cold and something more ominous following them on their heels. They survive the best they can, hunting for old preserves in abandoned houses and gas stations and sheltering away from the road to avoid the cannibalistic gangs traveling along it as well.
I must say, I haven’t read something so powerful and frighteningly real in a very long time, despite the story technically belonging to a dystopian genre. The raw emotions, the terror, the hunger, and mounting desperation seep from the pages and straight into your heart, leaving it aching for the boy and his father. But even in a world on its last breath, humanity is not dead as long as there are people in it who carry the light and share what they can’t possibly afford with the less fortunate ones. “The Road” is one of those books that will stay with you long after the last page is turned. It’s by no means an easy read, but one I would highly recommend to everyone.
Rating: Very Good
Genre: Dystopia + Modern Classic
A devastating story of a father and his son in post-apocalyptic America. The country is burned and people try to survive in different ways. According to the main character who is trying to teach his son, there are good guys and there are bad guys. The bad guys are those who have resorted to cannibalism due to a lack of food and resources! The real hero of the story is the world itself. The writing is more about giving the reader the new image of this destroyed world and a little bit about the relationship between the father and his son.
“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
You forget some things, dont you?
Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”
I have watched the movie adaptation when it was released and loved it a lot. I liked the story and the relationship between the boy and his dad. It was engaging which made the ending very sad and heartbreaking. The Road is not a long book yet I had some issues with it. I felt there were repetitions of events despite being a short story. I feel if the characters had names it would have made things less confusing especially when there was another character in the scene, but I guess the author wanted the reader to feel that in this dark world nothing else mattered but survival, not even names.
“You have to carry the fire.”
I don’t know how to.”
Yes, you do.”
Is the fire real? The fire?”
Yes it is.”
Where is it? I don’t know where it is.”
Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it.”
This is not an easy book to read especially with the world’s current situation. It gives a very gloomy and hopeless picture of what could happen with the collapse of civilizations and lack of resources. But if you are brave enough and would like to experience this world and the sad story of this family then you should not hesitate to pick it up. That black cover with the red fonts fits the story very well!
Well written, but left too many unanswered questions.
Still not sure what to make of it but writing and language are masterful
Boring.
Poor writing, lousy plot, wasted time.
Cormac McCarthy is one of a kind and so is The Road. The Road challenges its reader on every level: mental and spiritual. You can feel the cold, smell the rotting earth, see the blinding ash, and when the characters struggle, so do you. This is one of those few works that will change you on a level deeper than the skin and transform how you perceive the world.
Did not care for this book; however, it good be a future aftermath of a horrible atomic war of nations. I was compelled to read to the very end. I, personally, enjoy a lighter story.
One of the best books ever
So bad it should not have been written.
No explanation of why this happened. But scary what happens to and around the principals of story. Had to read it after I saw the movie. Frightening stuff!
Good book…but perhaps 2020 is not the right time to read it.
This is a very dark story. But it is very well written. You feel yourself there…lost in the horror of the pages.
interesting read, enjoyed it.
I don’t particularly like “end of the world” stories – (too depressing) – but I somehow didn’t put it down.
A story of father and son that will haunt you. This is the quintessential apocalypse tale, with deep shadow and a sliver of light.