Book Review: The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy
Title: The Road
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Drama, Classic
Pages: ebook
First Published: Janurary 1st, 2006
Where I Got It: Borrowed ebook from my local library

"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."



I swore I typed up a review for the movie of this book. I watched the movie a few months ago (before ever knowing it was a book) with Boyfriend. I thought I made a review for it. Huh. How odd. Maybe I'll do some more digging. Golly....my brain is fried so I wouldn't be surprised if that review never existed....

ANYWAYS....

I technically had to read this for my Contemporary Literature class, but since I had this on my TBR list it seemed like an excellent excuse to put this on the front burner and get it read now. haha. Funny how life works. 

This was super, super dark. Super gloomy and super depressing at parts. I recommend that you need to have a thick skin to read this, because there are a few scenes that are rather disturbing. I love it. Okay, I don't love all the cannibals and the putting infants on a roast spit, but I love how McCarthy didn't shy away from the truth. If there was a huge disaster and 99% of animals and vegetation were destroyed, yes, the people that survived would turn to desperate measures. People would lose all of their humanity and become little better then animals in starvation mode. It's a shitty world and people do shitty things.

Simple truth. Which I'm so glad McCarthy didn't try buttering anything up. However, there is a light of hope in this world. The Boy (and one can argue the Father shows this once in a while) has a golden heart and is filled with goodness. He has hope. I can't spoil the end, but I will say that...there is goodness out in the world. Small as it is, it is there. 

Another good thing about this book, it wasn't long at all. It took me virtually no time to finish (took me a long time to actually sit down and write this review though). I am thankful for McCarthy doing this, because it was a hard book to get done. It was rather simple in writing, it was just emotionally hard to get through from time to time. Just some scenes made me shake my head and have to walk away for a moment. Which...I'm glad the author also included some happy memories and flashbacks, which temporarily added the sun to this ashen world of terribleness. 

In the end, it was a good book. I feel that the movie and this are near equal. Some parts of the movie were better and some parts of the book were better. This may have been a dark novel to read, but if you are an avid (adult) reader I highly suggest this. You may not fall in love with it, I know I didn't, but it really makes you think. I also highly suggest this to those who love the classics. This is a modern day classic and will be remembered throughout literature. Out of five stars I shall give this 4 stars. 

Favorite Character(s): The Son
Not-so Favorite Character(s): The Woman (what a selfish, selfish bitch)