Review of "Bloom's Guides: Cormac McCarthy's The Road" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I'll be honest, I thought the book was pretty good - the simplistic prose with occasional glimmers of beauty used to capture the bleak emptiness of the world - but then I saw a negative review and was a little won over by it. Maybe I was just fooled by McCartney. Tricked by sparse prose into thinking the book was better than it really was. Hoodwinked into thinking the repetitive plot was very clever even though I didn't get it.
It's definitely possible and I can't shake that feeling, so I have to call this book average.
I'll tackle Blood Meridian one day, from some glances at it I think that one is much more undeniable in its brilliance.
Review of "Bloom's Guides: Cormac McCarthy's The Road" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
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 …
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.
Review of "Bloom's Guides: Cormac McCarthy's The Road" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Just finished it, in tears. So bleak but I couldn't stop reading it. I didn't much like the writing style when I first started reading it (sentence fragments, missing punctuation, kind of a Stephen King style just-the-facts-ma'am thing going on), but either I got used to it or it started to seem right for the story.
Most postapocalyptic novels take place in the time directly after the breakdown of civilzation, in a world populated with feral animals or human cults fighting for survival; but this story is later, in a haunted and deserted world, a world where almost nothing remains. The main conflict is not human versus human or even human versus nature, but human versus despair.
The more I think about this book, the more I feel like there was a lot going on, despite the unadorned writing and the ambiguity of many of the plot elements. It's a …
Just finished it, in tears. So bleak but I couldn't stop reading it. I didn't much like the writing style when I first started reading it (sentence fragments, missing punctuation, kind of a Stephen King style just-the-facts-ma'am thing going on), but either I got used to it or it started to seem right for the story.
Most postapocalyptic novels take place in the time directly after the breakdown of civilzation, in a world populated with feral animals or human cults fighting for survival; but this story is later, in a haunted and deserted world, a world where almost nothing remains. The main conflict is not human versus human or even human versus nature, but human versus despair.
The more I think about this book, the more I feel like there was a lot going on, despite the unadorned writing and the ambiguity of many of the plot elements. It's a story pared down to just the grim essentials, just as the man and boy found their lives reduced to a hopeless journey, one day at a time. McCarthy sketches in the vaguest of hints, leaving a lot of space for you to fill in the details from your own imagination. In an echo of the boy's life, you start the story somewhere in the middle, able only to infer what came before; and like the man's death, you leave the story with loose ends undone, with no assurance of what will happen after your part is done.
Overall, a little too gritty and realistic for me to want to read it twice. I hoped for some kind of redemption at the end, but McCarthy only offered up more ambiguity, as if to shrug and say "this is the best I can do, this is the world as it is."
I sense in it hints of [b:Winter's Tale|12967|Winter's Tale|Mark Helprin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328874917s/12967.jpg|1965767], though, and I love it for that. The barest implication that there is a hidden justice to the workings of the world, something wilder and more incomprehensible than a god, but present nonetheless. Or possibly just humans and the way we carry hope like a flame in our hearts, even in a world where the worst has come to pass and there is nothing left to hope for.
Review of "Bloom's Guides: Cormac McCarthy's The Road" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
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 …
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
