| Author: |
|
Cormac McCarthy
|
| Title: |
 |
The Road (Oprah's Book Club) |
| Moochable copies: |
|
No copies available |
| Recommended: |
|
| Topics: |
|
| Published in: |
|
English |
| Binding: |
|
Paperback |
| Pages: |
|
287 |
| Date: |
|
2007-03-28 |
| ASIN/ISBN: |
|
0307387895 |
| Publisher: |
|
Vintage Books |
| Weight: |
|
0.65 pounds |
| Size: |
|
5.1 x 7.9 x 1.0 inches |
| Previous givers: |
|
| Previous moochers: |
|
| Wishlists: |
|
| Description: |
|
Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as "an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century," Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we've read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Dennis Lehane
 Dennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching Mystic River, blew fans all away with the mind-bending Shutter Island, and switches gears with Coronado, his new collection of gritty short stories (and one play).
Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little place for love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in The Crossing. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In The Road, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --Dennis Lehane
|
| Reviews: |
|
AK_BH (USA: SC) (2007/10/09):
This book is hard to stay with for the beginning, as you want to know more than what is told. But once you realize that some things will remain unexplained, it is a terribly gripping read which challenges the mind and the stomach. All I can say is WOW, I read it in two days and have been thinking of it for longer.
David J (USA: HI) (2008/05/26):
"The Road" starts off a bit difficult to follow, mostly because the author chooses to keep the reader in the dark about certain details. Such details aren't necessary as the book continues, and you begin to appreciate the freedom with which you're able to envision to story as it progresses.. By book's end your want for more information still isn't sated, but somehow this doesn't matter, and you're left sitting quietly to yourself as so many post-apoc books tend to do to us.
Christie (USA: KS) (2008/06/27):
I can sum up my feelings about this book in one word; Amazing. You will not be unmoved after reading this.
Francis Valletta (Malta) (2008/09/15):
Amazing book, unlike anything I've read before (and I have read a lot of books). All I can do is repeat what Time magazine said about it, "remind yourself it is only a novel"!
Jeff & Carmen S. (USA: IN) (2009/01/07):
I thought this was a good, quick read. Like others, I only took two or three sittings to get through it. It's the structure of the book (no chapters) and the writing style (less quotations, punctuation, etc.) to contend with. Liked the story as well. The narrative flows quickly and it makes you feel as if you're driven along and into hiding with the main characters. I would've liked to have seen more of the other "road people" written into the book though. All in all, great book. 3.5 out of 5 stars from me.
|
|
|
