Average Bufph Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Cormac McCarthy
2006
Publisher description for "The road"--"A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece. 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. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, 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."
Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' is a stark, post-apocalyptic narrative that diverges from my usual selections in its focus on human survival and the father-son relationship. The minimalist prose and bleak setting demand a different kind of engagement, one that is more emotional and visceral. McCarthy's work is a powerful reminder of the human condition in extremis, and while it lacks the speculative elements I typically favor, it offers a profound exploration of morality and resilience in a world stripped of its former glory.
