I finished Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road" yesterday. I couldn't put it down and read it in about 24 hours. I'm not going to go into a deep, thought-out essay about it, but I want to say a few things. It's one of those books that lingers after you finish reading the last page. It's about a man and his young son in a post-apocalyptic world, following a road to the coast and, they hope, salvation. It's a dark, ash covered world where fires melt the tar on the road, roving bands of cannibals terrorize the countryside, and nothing lives or grows. The only thing that keeps them alive is their deep bond, which fosters an indomitable will to persevere. Unlike other books of this nature, the point is not on what caused the world to die - there are no detailed recollections of the last days, weeks, or months of the many who perish - it is irrelevant. What matters is how the survivors react. Some turn to cannibalism and pure evil. The little boy is only the true "good guy" for even his father commits sins to survive. Unlike the other McCarthy book I've read, "Blood Meridian", there are signs of hopefulness throughout the novel, although they are outweighed by the bleak. Any other author would take this subject matter and make it unreal and melodramatic. McCarthy's gift, among others, is to strip the superfluous away and elevate the prose to truly Biblical stature. It was one of the best books I've read in a long time and I'll have to revisit it sometime to truly unlock more of its treasures.
I hear it's been made into a movie coming out this year. Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, and Charlie Theron star in it - should be interesting. I'll reserve judgment.
Three day weekend!
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