Defintely read 'The Road'

I can't really remember, but I was probably about 18 when I first picked up Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. I couldn't get into it and quickly abandoned my efforts. Brad bought his recent book, The Road, and something about it intrigued me. I am so glad I branched out of my comfort zone to finally read one of his books. I truly believe that future generations will read McCarthy's work as part of high school literature classes just as they now read Faulkner and Hemingway.

The Road is unlike any book I have ever read. Here is the summary from the back of the book: 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 can't summarize it better than the publisher: The Road is haunting in its desperation. It is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

Not since The Kite Runner have I read a book that got so inside of me. I finished it weeks ago and I still think of it from time to time, for it explores themes that speak to some of the most basic fears and questions about life. There are no chapter breaks, I think because the father and son never have the luxury of resting in their desperate struggle for survival. The ending was not what I expected, or even wanted, but the more I've thought on it, I think it its further proof of McCarthy's brilliance as a writer, because how you decide to end the book ultimately reveals how you personally answer most of the questions about life that the book poses.

While the story was overwhelmingly painful to read at times, I kept going in part because McCarthy mesmerizes you with his writing. Here is just a sample that gives you a taste of his skillful writing: "He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it."

Even if this genre is way outside of your normal reading sphere, I encourage you to pick up a copy and see what you think. In October The Road is being released as a major motion picture. I can't even begin to think how they are going to translate this story to the big screen, but I already know that there simply won't be a way to compare the novel with the movie. Once you read it, let me know what you think!