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It is difficult to assign this novel a genre. Horror? Science Fiction perhaps? Regardless, it is a compelling read - hardly surprising given its Pulitzer Prize winning status. It is both bleak (VERY bleak) and beautiful, the story of the love between a father and son who remain unnamed throughout the story, and who are on a journey to survive(the Road of the title)in a post apocalyptic world. We are left to draw our own conclusions about the cause of the apocalypse. This is an existential piece in which cause and history is irrelevant, nothing that was is any longer. The future is a meaningless concept, all that matters is to survive the day. The father and son however, hold onto a remnant of hope - "the fire". They are "good guys" and this keeps them going.
It is impossible to do justice do McCarthy's prose. Through his profound talent with words, McCarthy takes us on the journey with the two protagonists,in language that like the landscape,is terse and sparse but overwhelming in its descriptive power. It is ultimately a triumph of the power of a father's love and belief in his son, and a little boy's trust that somewhere, in some of the few of the world's survivors, there is still good to be found among the horrors encountered almost daily, in the struggle to survive. Perhaps it is also a comment of hope for the world, that even in the most unspeakable and evil circumstances,somewhere at sometime, the flame of humanity will continue to flicker.
---- Reviewed by Barb, guest
1 comment:
I'm glad someone's written a review for this. I read it earlier in the year (it was recommended to me) and was thoroughly absorbed by it. It's my favourite read this year.
I'd call it dystopian fiction and I think the power of the novel is as much what McCarthy hasn't included as what he has. e.g. the lack of punctuation. Nothing between the covers was wasted and it fitted the desperate struggle well.
Cheers, webgurl
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