The Road by Cormac McCArthy

[christie1]

I got this from the library on a whim and read it in a day, couldn't put it down. I didn't find it as hopeful as it was advertised to be, quite bleak, but the relationship between the father and son really hit home. You wonder would be have the courage to carry on. I certainly would not have taken the route the mother did.

sounds interesting whats it about

i read this while pregnant and found it devastating. It is now in the category of 'books I shal no longer read now that i have a child', see also Beloved by Toni Morrison

It is one of those catastrophic end of the world books. He doesn't tell you what caused it except you know that the US is destroyed by fire, and the survivors are left. The is a boy and his father who are walking to the california coast ( a bit of grapes of wrath-like theme going on) but the author doesn't really say why but one can surmise he thinks it is a safer place as he talks about finding "the good guys". The book is full of bad guys and it is horrifying in parts but the love of the father for the son and vice versa is worth the read. Not a book for the pregnant or faint of heart.

I meant to add, the book seems to ask the question as you read it, what would you do if you survived a disaster and have a child alive with you, would you kill yourself and the child, try to survive in any way you could, or try to survive but retain some humanity and "goodness"? Bear in mind all these questions are asked with you being responsible for the life of a child so your decisions affect someone else directly.

also read this in a day, eating the newborn, what a shocker. read no country for old men after, just as shocking, love Mccarthy, read them all.

it made me cry! wonderful, horrific, life affirming...

it made me seriously think what would happen in a disaster, also very frightening that you probably couldnt protect and care for los as well as you think. also thaught provoking on how parents must feel when faced with famine and civil war, not far fetched at all.

I have just read this and thought it was really excellent. Anyone else? the ending was perfect IMO.

I was reading this but had to give up as I found it too depressing. Will attempt it again at some point though as it was good despite that!

I broke down and really really sobbed when I finished this. Frightening book. And I still think about it quite often, it's stayed with me.

It is the only CM I understood. I was completely gripped by it, all the little ways in which the child redeems the father and keeps him going. The child playing on the abandoned train, just as any ds would enjoy.
And the bit with the dog, when you see what a big difference a dog would have made to them, warning them of danger etc - so utterly different to the way we value dogs.

He's brought up this child with perfect moral judgement as well, either it's innate goodness or he has just done a fantastic job of cherishing him - putting the child first has made the child entirely unselfish.
It is so well written in that just when you give up hope, they find food, or the son finds someone to look after him, otherwise it would be completely unbearable to read.

But I wanted more information at the end, more good news, even if it wasn't poetically appropriate. I wanted a bird, or some green somewhere.

Also the constant oppressive fear in it, everyone wants the food or what's left of it, everyone is an enemy. The bit where they hide in the bunker and it has everything, but they can't stay because there is no place of safety.
And the supermarket trolley they push!!! Like some hellish emblem of materialism gone wrong. Imagine how slowly it would go.
It is the sort of book which makes you want to make emergency piles of food in secret places all over UK.
Also the way the father has in fact gone slightly mad, he is just obsessed with the road like some journey that he cannot avoid making, whereas the son keeps suggesting alternatives to this. The father is not an entirely reliable narrator.
It made me think about some of the ways parents see things, matters of life and death and how children view them differently, though of course we don't generally deal in such extremeties.

I wasn't all that impressed by it, to be honest, although I found some bits v gripping. Didn't like the ending.

It is being filmed with the gorgeous guy who played Aragorn.

swanriver - "some hellish emblem of materialism gone wrong" - brilliantly expressed. All the way through you are led to believe it is the son who is in the most danger of dying, but actually it is the son who survives...I thought that was so apt. And that he finally finds 'one of the good guys'. Makes me want to re-read it right now!

I couldn't put it down either, though I kept wondering whether I liked it or not. I'm not sure what my final verdict is on this book, yet, I often think about it (and I seem unable to throw away warm jackets and old blankets, since reading it...)

I found it a fantastic read. I found it tense and taught - too frightened to read on too gripped to put it down. I love Vigo Mortensen (sp?) but may find film too tense to watch!!

I found it almost unbearable to read. I thought it was amazingly powerful, but I had to skip over some sections because I was so stressed and upset I could barely breathe. I would advise serious caution to any pregnant woman or new mother tempted to pick it up. Agree that it is in the same category as Beloved - a brilliant book, but too painful to reread.