English language
Published 2020 by Suntup Editions.
Cormac McCarthy's tenth novel, The Road, is his most harrowing yet deeply personal work. Some unnamed catastrophe has scourged the world to a burnt-out cinder, inhabited by the last remnants of mankind and a very few surviving dogs and fungi. The sky is perpetually shrouded by dust and toxic particulates; the seasons are merely varied intensities of cold and dampness. Bands of cannibals roam the roads and inhabit what few dwellings remain intact in the woods.
Through this nightmarish residue of America a haggard father and his young son attempt to flee the oncoming Appalachian winter and head towards the southern coast along carefully chosen back roads. Mummified corpses are their only benign companions, sitting in doorways and automobiles, variously impaled or displayed on pikes and tables and in cake bells, or they rise in frozen poses of horror and agony out of congealed asphalt. The boy and his …
Cormac McCarthy's tenth novel, The Road, is his most harrowing yet deeply personal work. Some unnamed catastrophe has scourged the world to a burnt-out cinder, inhabited by the last remnants of mankind and a very few surviving dogs and fungi. The sky is perpetually shrouded by dust and toxic particulates; the seasons are merely varied intensities of cold and dampness. Bands of cannibals roam the roads and inhabit what few dwellings remain intact in the woods.
Through this nightmarish residue of America a haggard father and his young son attempt to flee the oncoming Appalachian winter and head towards the southern coast along carefully chosen back roads. Mummified corpses are their only benign companions, sitting in doorways and automobiles, variously impaled or displayed on pikes and tables and in cake bells, or they rise in frozen poses of horror and agony out of congealed asphalt. The boy and his father hope to avoid the marauders, reach a milder climate, and perhaps locate some remnants of civilization still worthy of that name. They possess only what they can scavenge to eat, and the rags they wear and the heat of their own bodies are all the shelter they have. A pistol with only a few bullets is their only defense besides flight. Before them the father pushes a shopping cart filled with blankets, cans of food and a few other assets, like jars of lamp oil or gasoline siphoned from the tanks of abandoned vehicles—the cart is equipped with a bicycle mirror so that they will not be surprised from behind.
Through encounters with other survivors brutal, desperate or pathetic, the father and son are both hardened and sustained by their will, their hard-won survivalist savvy, and most of all by their love for each other. They struggle over mountains, navigate perilous roads and forests reduced to ash and cinders, endure killing cold and freezing rainfall. Passing through charred ghost towns and ransacking abandoned markets for meager provisions, the pair battle to remain hopeful. They seek the most rudimentary sort of salvation. However, in The Road, such redemption as might be permitted by their circumstances depends on the boy’s ability to sustain his own instincts for compassion and empathy in opposition to his father’s insistence upon their mutual self-interest and survival at all physical and moral costs.
The Road was the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Literature. ([source][1])
The day-to-day of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic USA. This is falls under my category of books read once for a class and long since forgotten about. The straightforward dialogue between father and son are the best parts.
Are we still the good guys? he said.
Yes. We’re still the good guys.
And we always will be.
Yes. We always will be.
Okay.
I made a mistake of reading the rest of this book last night before bed. There was a moment when the man was on a ship and the boy was on the beach, and I wanted to make sure the son would be okay so I kept reading.
The momentum from that carried me through the end where about 10 pages before the end I began to cry, and it took a while for me to stop. I felt so much for the father who tried desperately to protect his son.
This book slogs you through a dreary wasteland where a man with a young son cannot risk trusting anyone - where people are cannibals and will take everything from you.
As you follow these two, you feel all the hard choices, disappointments, fears, love. You wonder if death would be better, if it's the right thing to do. You …
I made a mistake of reading the rest of this book last night before bed. There was a moment when the man was on a ship and the boy was on the beach, and I wanted to make sure the son would be okay so I kept reading.
The momentum from that carried me through the end where about 10 pages before the end I began to cry, and it took a while for me to stop. I felt so much for the father who tried desperately to protect his son.
This book slogs you through a dreary wasteland where a man with a young son cannot risk trusting anyone - where people are cannibals and will take everything from you.
As you follow these two, you feel all the hard choices, disappointments, fears, love. You wonder if death would be better, if it's the right thing to do. You distrust people and feel shame when the son is more forgiving and loving than you would be.
I found that the way it was written - fairly direct language breifly interspersed with near poetry - was effective. It was immersive and terribly, terribly sad.
The cycles of extreme hardship with respites of protection were an experience for me. If they were in a safe place, I felt like I could relax with them for a moment and it made the suffering they went through feel more painful.
Overall, it was a book that made me grateful to not face those decisions, and it made me profoundly sad for a man who'd tried so hard.
Jesus. I think I need to call up my dad.
Page turner. A living thesaurus. very good.
I think, on the whole, I’d have rather read a book about the cannibals.
A very dark and disturbing vision of life after a catastrophe. Told in a fragmented but easily readable style, grim and bleak.
I love post-apocalyptic stories, and this one is very well done. I'd compare it to the likes of "A Canticle for Lebowitz", which is of a high caliber.
I didn't want to put it down, which says something.
The only thing I didn't like was the ending. How do you end a story like this? I wasn't sure how McCarthy would do it, but I took faith that it would be excellent. I was a little disappointed, but it's no reason not to read the book. The ending doesn't hold the book together - each section does that on its own.
I love post-apocalyptic stories, and this one is very well done. I'd compare it to the likes of "A Canticle for Lebowitz", which is of a high caliber.
I didn't want to put it down, which says something.
The only thing I didn't like was the ending. How do you end a story like this? I wasn't sure how McCarthy would do it, but I took faith that it would be excellent. I was a little disappointed, but it's no reason not to read the book. The ending doesn't hold the book together - each section does that on its own.
I thought this book was fantastic.
Bleak and depressing, it tells a tale of what our future could be. The imagery is cold. I needed a warm blanket and a cup of tea while reading it. It's the tale of a father's love, a tale of hope, and a tale of life continuing on.
Cormac McCarthy has a way with words. I could picture every location as they traveled along the road. I could feel every cold wind in my bones, and my stomach was clenched in fear and hunger for our travelers. If you haven't read this book, just do it. It left me changed. 4 1/2 stars.
I thought this book was fantastic.
Bleak and depressing, it tells a tale of what our future could be. The imagery is cold. I needed a warm blanket and a cup of tea while reading it. It's the tale of a father's love, a tale of hope, and a tale of life continuing on.
Cormac McCarthy has a way with words. I could picture every location as they traveled along the road. I could feel every cold wind in my bones, and my stomach was clenched in fear and hunger for our travelers. If you haven't read this book, just do it. It left me changed. 4 1/2 stars.
"Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again."
Ha, ha, ha! McCarthy may be as monotonous as hell, but every once in a while he winks out an hilarious zinger... It was meant to be LOL funny, right? (But I think I'll cry if I find the above in the quotes database.) Alas, as ridiculous as that line was, it wasn't enough to make up for the rest of the tedious puerility.
The fire's inside you, boys, don't you forget it. Happy trails.
"Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again."
Ha, ha, ha! McCarthy may be as monotonous as hell, but every once in a while he winks out an hilarious zinger... It was meant to be LOL funny, right? (But I think I'll cry if I find the above in the quotes database.) Alas, as ridiculous as that line was, it wasn't enough to make up for the rest of the tedious puerility.
The fire's inside you, boys, don't you forget it. Happy trails.
Postapokaliptyczna wizja świata. Ojciec i syn skazani na tułaczkę, w poszukiwaniu lepszego jutra. Powieść oparta głównie na dialogach, które mimo swej prostoty zawierają głęboki sens.
"Droga", jako połączenie powieści drogi, powieści przygodowej oraz horroru jest uznawana za największe arcydzieło Cormaca McCarthy'ego. Przez wiele tygodni była bestsellerem New York Timesa, przyjęto ją także do Klubu Książki Oprah Winfrey. Oprócz wspomnianej Nagrody Pulitzera została również wyróżniona najstarszą angielską nagrodą w dziedzinie fikcji. The Tait Black Memorial Prize.
"Droga to powieść przejmująco sugestywna i niepokojąca, to książka, która ukazuje, co czai się pod warstwą żalu i grozy. Nigdy wcześniej nikt nie opisał zagłady świata w sposób tak przekonujący, zarówno w wymiarze duchowym, jak i fizycznym." (Time)
Postapokaliptyczna wizja świata. Ojciec i syn skazani na tułaczkę, w poszukiwaniu lepszego jutra. Powieść oparta głównie na dialogach, które mimo swej prostoty zawierają głęboki sens.
"Droga", jako połączenie powieści drogi, powieści przygodowej oraz horroru jest uznawana za największe arcydzieło Cormaca McCarthy'ego. Przez wiele tygodni była bestsellerem New York Timesa, przyjęto ją także do Klubu Książki Oprah Winfrey. Oprócz wspomnianej Nagrody Pulitzera została również wyróżniona najstarszą angielską nagrodą w dziedzinie fikcji. The Tait Black Memorial Prize.
"Droga to powieść przejmująco sugestywna i niepokojąca, to książka, która ukazuje, co czai się pod warstwą żalu i grozy. Nigdy wcześniej nikt nie opisał zagłady świata w sposób tak przekonujący, zarówno w wymiarze duchowym, jak i fizycznym." (Time)
He is very good at describing desolate landscapes, portentious with meaning.
Very repetitive, and a little boring. The author is quoted as saying he did not know how the book would end while he was writing it, and I believe him.
Maybe if I were 15 and this were my first postapocalypse novel I'd rave more or at least understand the praise. At my age I just found it clumsy, formulaic, poorly developed. The apocalypse scenario is not credible. Character or relationship growth nonexistent. At the end you feel like you've just plodded wearily along a bleak road without accomplishing or learning anything.
Maybe if I were 15 and this were my first postapocalypse novel I'd rave more or at least understand the praise. At my age I just found it clumsy, formulaic, poorly developed. The apocalypse scenario is not credible. Character or relationship growth nonexistent. At the end you feel like you've just plodded wearily along a bleak road without accomplishing or learning anything.
I think this is where I officially give up. I cannot bring myself to finish reading this story. The language is great but I find no connection to the story being told. It's too much post-apocalyptic dreariness and it makes me depressed just thinking of this book. It's most probably a good book but it turns out maybe I am not the kind of person that reads McCarthy books. I tried.
I think this is where I officially give up. I cannot bring myself to finish reading this story. The language is great but I find no connection to the story being told. It's too much post-apocalyptic dreariness and it makes me depressed just thinking of this book. It's most probably a good book but it turns out maybe I am not the kind of person that reads McCarthy books. I tried.
I think I need to read it again now my perception has been completely changed of what it is, in fact, about by the final page.
