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Original poster

Anyone read ''The Road'' by Cormac McCarthy?

59 replies

ilovespinach · 02/06/2009 19:03

Have a voucher to spend and I wondered if this was a good read?

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StrangeTown · 12/12/2009 21:58

It really, really frightened me. I cried quite a bit.

imnotaceleb · 12/12/2009 07:52

Don't let the baby bit put you off, it was one paragraph. It really is a worthwhile read.

teameric · 11/12/2009 21:20

I have heard great things about it, maybe I'll just try and skip that part

MattBellamysMuse · 11/12/2009 21:19

Just one. it's a short but powerful scene. Don't let it out you off.

teameric · 11/12/2009 21:06

I was going to read this but after hearing about roasted babies think I will give it a miss,

MattBellamysMuse · 11/12/2009 21:03

I'm guessing that means the cellar full of food people and the half eaten man are in it.

MattBellamysMuse · 11/12/2009 21:02

I'm glad they left out the roasted baby. That's not something I want to see, even if it's not real.

CupOChristmasCheerfulYank · 11/12/2009 18:21

Loved it. Howled through the end. Thought it spare and beautiful and interesting.

imnotaceleb · 11/12/2009 18:16

The film really does do it justice - it's really good.

You will be happy to know that the roasted baby is the only part they left out. That would of just been too much.

SmoothCriminal · 10/12/2009 09:41

It was wonderful - I took frever to read it I found I had to keep putting it down to digest it.

I really can't see how a film version can to it justice.

TisTheSeasonToBeHully · 10/12/2009 09:36

Agree re debatable ending

TisTheSeasonToBeHully · 10/12/2009 09:35

Sjolly good. In similar vein and better in many ways (philosophically principally) is Jose Saramago's Blindness.

MattBellamysMuse · 10/12/2009 09:33

Movie trailer here

MattBellamysMuse · 10/12/2009 09:20

I just finished it last night.
The people in the basement and the roasted baby will haunt me forever

deaddei · 08/12/2009 21:27

I have just finished it tonight- started it yesterday!
Very harrowing, and bleak, and intensely moving. Not sure what to read next- maybe something completely different1

LightShinesInTheDarkness · 03/12/2009 23:14

The Road by Cormac McCarthy was voted the best book of the last decade by 'The Times' recently. In case that is relevant to anyone!

nigelslaterfan · 03/12/2009 13:00

haven't read it yet partly as a protest against dh who keeps banging on at me to read it but it sounds so bleak!

imnotafuckingceleb · 03/12/2009 12:54

I have just seen the film in New York (yes CT is the mum in it).

I read the book the day before we saw it, so was still feeling VERY sad.

Have to say the film is brilliant and very true to the book, however I did cry the whole way through (but was probably worse as had just finished reading it).

overmydeadbody · 18/11/2009 20:38

Wickermum the boy never went to school as far as I am aware.

I just finished the book and feel rather like I've sufferd post traumatic stress.

Miamla · 27/06/2009 06:57

new thread with spoiler warning here

paisleyleaf · 26/06/2009 12:59

Maybe start a thread with a 'spoiler' warning to talk about the end.

Wickerman, I read Oryx and Crake about 6 years ago, so can't remember it so well.But yes it was good - i really enjoyed it and recommended it to several people.
I think Thats what the MN book club voted on this month
I also love post apocalyptic stories and have a stack of books.

artifarti · 26/06/2009 10:47

Oooh, yes, have just read this at our Book Club and have a lot to say about the ending! [Arti holds self back..]

Miamla · 26/06/2009 06:20

when everybody on here has read it, can we have a chat about the ending? obviously not yet though!

Zorayda · 26/06/2009 00:07

Read it in one go as I couldn't put it down without knowing how it ended. Think it would take a long time before I could read it again though - is v harrowing.

Robert Swindell's Brother in the Land is another good book, but slightly dated and aimed at teens, if you want something in a similar genre.

wickerman · 25/06/2009 23:35

I got bored.
not harrowed
just bored
but then I am very neurotic and always imagining post apocalyptic scenarios and how I would cope

so i didn't finish it

I think oryx and crake is better
less poetic, more annoyingly smartarse, but more thought through

but I like this line from the kid

"What are our short to mid term goals?"

Or is it mid to long

It's very cute, obviously something he has learnt at school and very poignant under the circumstances