Ooo, how do you mean that the boy was imagining it but McCarthy didn't mean that? Am intrigued. Completely get you re needing counselling afterwards.

I know this thread is old but I just finished the book and feel like I need some councelling

I didn't see the ending as a cop out, I did rather suspect that the boy was imagining it, but not sure that is what McCarthy had in mind?

My wish list on amazon will get even longer with these suggestions...

Earth Abides is good read too -- another Civilization-as-we-know-it ending, but in a sort of Lord of the Flies way.

Becky: I've read On The Beach. I love these dystopian apocalptic novels.

Can I REALLY also recommend John Christopher: The Death of Grass and The Winkle in the Skin are both utterly brilliant and very very similar genre. These were written in the 1960s and similar to John Wyndham in style but very McCarthy in theme. You will LOVE them.

I didn't think the end was a cop out; I wondered whether at other times in the book they might have found other 'friends' but the father's paranoia meant that there would be no opportunity for that. I'm thinking of when they feel they are being watched in the deserted town? (read it a while back so hope that is right). I agree with reallyreally about the father only taking him so far.

The more I think about the book though, the less I like it. I finished it just full of shock and sadness, but as time has gone on I don't think it is really a great novel. It's a brilliant story about two people in an awful situation, but I didn't feel that the utter bleakness always rang true. Ditto the disaster that caused this - I couldn't work out what it could be.

Has anyone read On the Beach by Neville Shute? Because reading The Road made me think of that, which although it is full of 1950s people facing the end in a polite organised way(!) I think in some ways is a more powerful 'end of the world' novel because the science and scenario feels more plausible and the sense of the world as a whole is stronger than The Road.

Ah, yes, that's another huge issue about the book, WHAT was the disaster that led to all this? Could it be a virus? A nuclear war? Something altogether different? I think the author must have purposefully left it vague for us to wonder & figure it out ourselves...

Lots of interesting views on this thread. Thanks

Somehow, I didn't really think it was a nuclear war that cause the disaster when I was reading the book.

or lung cancer.

I thought it could be TB.