Bloom's Guides: Cormac McCarthy's The Road

I bought this book maybe 10 years ago and started reading it, but then I stopped not very far into it, and didn’t try again. Not because I hated it, but I guess it was just too dense and a little too slow for young, impatient me at the time. I picked it up again after reading somewhere how this book was a “love story between father and son”, and as a father myself, I immediately wanted to read it. I did and I can say that statement is true. I felt the frustration and desperation of the world the man and the boy were living. I was able to relate to the emotions the man felt for his boy, and I shed a tear at the end. In my opinion, a book that is able to stir emotions in you is a good book. And this was one of those for me. Like the man, I hope I can carry the fire for my boy and help him do the same.

When it comes to books, I try to read the book before seeing the movie. There have been many occasions where I saw the movie first; often it does make it harder to enjoy the book (American Psycho and Psycho) but I try not to let that effect my rating. When it came to The Road things were a little different; sure the story is almost exactly like the movie, but we book was far more superior. The writing was splendid, full of darkness and making this wonderfully bleak and even brutal.

The Road is a story of a Father and Son travelling south in order to survive the winter in a post-apocalyptic world of ash. It’s a beautiful tale of survival; no just from the gangs or “Bad Guys” but also from constantly starving or freezing. While I’m not sure what happened to the world, all it says is “The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions.” I suspect it was a nuclear holocaust.

The Road is a wonderful read, but be forward this isn’t a fast paced, action packed Post- apocalyptic book, this is a story of a survival. My only main problem with this book is the fact that the father is never seems to get angry with his son, even if he loses the gun or leaves the gas on, he never seemed to get upset about the situation. I just feel that a normal human would react to a situation like that