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The one star rating signifies nothing, like the book. Funny though, the author's talent is heavy enough to penetrate and light enough to soar. Strong imagery, depressing, one long pointless video game. And please, spare me the Eastern slant.
Couldn't have said it better.As posted by Grayjay 4/24/2007 as Mass Psychology. Thanks to Grayjay. This is a quote from another Amazon review. Why didn't I read this before "The Road." What a tremendous waste of paper and ink.
good easy reading with a post apocalyptic theme, unsettling but with rich messages and warnings about barbaric human behavior interlaced w occasional humans w uncompromising values.
Just notice the low ratings given the book by students who have been forced to read it for classes. Highpoints are reduced to finding dried out apples or old cans of food. It is also far and away the most human of McCarthy's books. Appropriately, to each other they affirm that they are carrying with them "the fire." This is not literal fire, but the fire of living, the refusal to give up, the insistence on preserving their humanity, to be one of the "good guys."In keeping with the simplicity of the story, McCarthy employs a clean, plain prose style, much simpler than what one encounters in his other novels. THE ROAD isn't a feel-good book, but despite the nightmarish world that it depicted, it is a profoundly moving one. The earth has been devastated, denuded of all life except a very small number of humans. But my brother convinced me that this was something that I would need to read sooner rather than later. I have long thought that Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy are perhaps the two greatest living American novelists.
Since there is no other life, whether plant or animal, eating becomes an overarching concern and is not, for some survivors, restricted to old human canned food. His sentences, like life in the novel, have been reduced to the bare minimum. I knew about it, of course, given McCarthy's stature as a writer, but I usually have so many books that I'm hoping or planning to read that it is hard to squeeze new books in. I defy anyone not to cry like a little baby in the novel's final pages.I have to thank my brother for encouraging me to read this. Cannibalism is something to which many resort. This novel has fully reinforced that opinion. While I've had nothing but enormous respect for McCarthy, I've frankly found his books to be a bit too depressing to enjoy. I strongly recommend this novel to any mature reader.
And the Man is a genuinely heroic figure.The end of the novel - which I won't reveal - is one of the most moving that I have ever read. So also with the events in the story. There is apparently no radiation, which would seem to rule out nuclear conflagration, but on the other hand we see the man and boy in the story come across numerous signs of the world destroyed by fire. I do not recommend this for beginning readers.
This novel, as one of the finest dystopian novels ever written, will play a major role in his study. But I can't imagine any competent, experienced reader not finding this brilliant novel as anything less than a masterpiece. He, by the way, is currently working on a critical survey of eco-disaster fiction. I marveled at his poetry-like prose in books like BLOOD MERIDIAN, even while finding them too violent.
In the hands of a lesser writer it might have come across as too neat, but it felt right. What has obliterated life is not important to the story; what is important is that the two main characters in the story, a man and his boy, are striving to flee from the frigid temperatures of the north to warmer weather in the south. The story is a simple one. It has becomes Hobbes's universe, where life is "nasty, brutish, and short." We don't know what has reduced the earth to such a condition.
We¡¯re the walking dead in a horror film.¡±¡°He tried to remember the dream but he could not. There are components of this story that made me think about deep, heavy issues. What¡¯s wrong with that.¡±¡°When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will be and you are happy again then you will have given up. I mean, he taught his kid all of these things about the earth and now all they say is ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± BUT, there are some things in this book that make you think hard and long. It didn¡¯t even know they were there.¡±¡°When we¡¯re all gone at last then there¡¯ll be nobody here but Death and his days will be numbered too. SOOOO¡¦. On the Library Thing & Amazon.Com Rating: ¢¾¢¾¢¾
Some of those issues include being faced with the death of my child, having to murder another human in the face of survival, and the basic elements of human kindness. But, I may be getting ahead of myself.For those 3 people who most likely haven¡¯t read this book (sorry about the sarcasm¡¦ but, I¡¯m feeling as though I may be the only person left on the planet who hasn¡¯t read it), the tale of this novel is one that is difficult to describe without giving away too much of the ending and the ¡°good parts¡± of the story. The ¡°good ones,¡± ¡°carry the fire.¡± The ¡°bad ones¡± are cannibals, thieves, and murderers. Waking in the cold day it all turned to ash instantly. That¡¯s what you said.¡± ¡°I know. I feel horrible saying it. Do you understand.
He¡¯ll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. The way that the book is written is with incorrect grammar, so getting used to the rhythm of the book took some adjustment. Even now some part of him wished they¡¯d never found this refuge. The reader is not informed of that. The ending, for me, leaves a lot to be desired. But I won¡¯t.¡±¡°What in God¡¯s name are you talking about.
But, they do make me want to continue to strive towards salvation and entry into the Kingdom of Heaven because God KNOWS that I could never face the atrocities of living on earth post-apocalypse. This shall not be misinterpreted to say that I¡¯m not glad that I read the book¡¦ I am. And that¡¯s how it will be. What if the colors, smells, and everything that we take for granted about our planet is replaced with only shades of black and the smell of death and fear. How else would death call you. As I was on vacation, I didn¡¯t have a dictionary handy so that was frustrating. I have absolutely no idea how to rate this book. Of what.
As the waters, rains, streams, lakes and snows are filled with ash, there is a lack of potable water. In my opinion, this book is about the condition of human nature when faced with the certainty of death and the total devastation of life as you knew it. I am giving it a 7 out of 10. The ending didn¡¯t help much.
I wanted to know what caused this entire mess¡¦ never got that. And you can¡¯t give up. The lack of names for these characters bothered me. He thought perhaps they¡¯d come to warn him.
You must think I¡¯m crazy giving a PULTIZER PRIZE WINNING BOOK a 7. Some of the visualizations that I received in reading this work are images that I¡¯d rather not be in my head at any given point. Think about it. In addition, why did some people survive and others not.Cormac McCarthyNow, in speaking of the survivors¡¦ McCarthy sets forth the distinction between good and evil, dark and light. Some of the vocabulary words in the book, I¡¯ve never heard before.
The best way that I can describe what this book is about is the story of a man and his son, faced with a future on earth described hereinabove while attempting to find food, water, and shelter while on the road to the coast. The quotes of the book stated herein reflect what about the book that I did like and/or forced my thoughts.Favorite Quotes of the Book:¡°And the dreams so rich in color. What if you lost everything you knew about this beautiful planet and saw nothing but a charred skeleton of Mother Earth with no remaining life existing thereupon it. He¡¯ll say: Where did everybody go.
Was it the biblical apocalypse. The reader accompanies the man and his son across the burned terrain on their goal to reach the ocean. I didn¡¯t believe in that. Some part of him always wished it to be over.¡±¡°People were always getting ready for tomorrow.
I think about it and I can¡¯t imagine how I would find the will to survive in such conditions, as such, I can understand why the mother of ¡°The Man¡¯s¡± boy ¡°jumped ship¡± on them. Now, what I didn¡¯t understand is what happened to the earth to create this situation. Tomorrow wasn¡¯t getting ready for them. never really got that answer. I kept reading because I wanted answers¡¦ I wanted to know the truth about the boy and if he was an angel/savior/son of God with a purpose¡¦. The lack of richness in the communication between the man and his son left much to be desired. That he could not enkindle in the heart of the child what was ashes in his own. (ugh, hate to give this rating)¡¦.
We¡¯re not survivors. Some of the quotes and lessons in the book are stunningly brilliant, at least for me. In addition, as the earth has been thoroughly burned, there is no plant life nor animal life to sustain human life. I won¡¯t let you.¡± Sher¡¯s ¡°Out of Ten¡± Scale:Truthfully, I am dreading this part of MY standard review. All that was left was the feeling of it. What happens to them along the way, what they witness, who they meet, and how they survive is the nuts and bolts of this novel. Like certain ancient frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day.¡±¡°If you break the little promises you¡¯ll break the big ones.
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