The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
by Cormac McCarthy
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Book Reviews of The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: Yoda-speak, 7-words and Repetition wins you a Pulitzer!...
Summary: 2 Stars
The first novel written using only 7 words: gray, black, ash, dust, cold, dark and okay. Am I exaggerating? Only a little.
Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's HOW you use the words that matter. But there were times when the "okay"-heavy and repetitious dialogue made me want to punch the wall. It's the sort of dialogue that's just too easy to lampoon (as other reviewers have done). Here's an excerpt from p. 170:
I don't know.
You don't know?
People give you things.
People give you things.
Yes.
To eat.
To eat. Yes.
No they don't.
You did.
No I didn't.
Or from p. 159:
I threw it away.
You threw it away?
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Or p. 63:
Where are you going with the truck.
I don't know.
What do you mean you don't know?
I mean I don't know.
You don't know where you're going?
No.
(Arrhhg!)
Or how about a Cormac impersonation?:
You just repeat what I say.
I just repeat what you say?
Stop it.
Okay.
Okay?
Okay.
Okay.
What?
Huh?
What?
Huh?
Echo?
Echo.
(You get the picture)
The syntax is also often flat-out bizarre. I think one reviewer mentioned it as being "British-like." I think it's closer to Yoda-speak myself. You'll have lines like: "Cold to crack the stones" (instead of the more normal "Cold enough to crack stones") or "Of a sudden he seemed to..." (instead of "All of a sudden he seemed to...") or "But he had no life other" (instead of "But he had no other life), etc. After awhile you start wondering if maybe George Lucas/Yoda collaborated with Cormac: "Darth Vader, destroy you must." "Stones crack with cold of a sudden other."
They call this "minimalism." Yet, it's more a hybrid of minimalism and self-indulgent maximalism. Take the many moments of metaphysical meandering that pop out of nowhere: "Like the great pendulum in its rotunda scribing through the long day movement of the universe of which you may say it knows nothing and yet know it must."
There's also a heck of a lot of esoteric words. You'll give your arms a good workout looking up all of them in a collegiate dictionary: "insocline," "discalced," "intestate," "krugerrands," "catamites," "clerestory," "sedge," "kerfs," "soffits," "sleavings," "swags," "dentil," "windrow," "harrow," "haspstaple," "crozzled," "dolmen," "bollards," "salitter," "vermiculate," "travois," "geirgtos," "hermlattles"...okay, I made the last two up. I couldn't help it! After awhile, you start to go a little crazy.
You'll also have to stomach a lot of ultra-pro-Christian statements: "My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God," "...the breath of God was his breath," etc. Made me wonder if the character (and author) had been an evangelist or was just a right-wing nutjob.
But there ARE some powerful scenes (and lines) in this book, e.g., like the band of brigands with the pregnant women slaves and the "catamites" (eek!), the infant on a spit, the house of cannibals, the leave-taking. But like the father and son of the story you're gonna have to trek through a LOT of "gray" and "ash" to get to them.
As one who studies writing styles it was worth trekking through. But for the casual reader I'm not sure if he'll find the monotony worthwhile.
Yes, it won a Pulitzer. Surprising? Yes and no. On one level it reads like a heavily padded short story. On the other hand it does have some of those "difficult-to-read" and "hard-to-enjoy" qualities that so many so-called "literary" books define themselves by. Maybe this is the Pulitzer committee's way of changing things up a little. Besides, rarely is it the outright entertaining book that wins the Pulitzer. Also, it certainly helps to be a "big-name." Once you're a big-name writer you're practically guaranteed some incredible reviews no matter what you write.
Book Review: The Road by: Cormac McCarthy
Summary: 3 Stars
THE ROAD The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
by: Cormac McCarthy
In his novel of a not too distant future, Cormac McCarthy paints for us the theme of our collective nightmare. In that nightmare you wake up one morning only to find that all who lived around you are dead and you are the lone survivor on the earth, at least for the breadth of your horizons. You've had that dream, right? Haven't we all? Steven King shared with us his vision of the same nightmare in "The Stand", and more recently, Richard Matheson in "I Am Legend". There have been many others written in a more distant past, I'm sure. Perhaps even some classics I'm failing to mention here.
I recently read a very well written short that expressed this apocalyptic theme in a unique literary style. It was written by Pinckney Benedict and published in Image magazine. The title is, "The World, The Flesh and The Devil". I mention this short story because its title really focuses the theme of all that has been written about our collective, apocalyptic nightmare. At its core, the theme is a classic confrontation between good and evil in which we, the characters of our tiny world, become victims; caught up in a struggle of galactic proportions.
In Cormac McCarthy's 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning vision, the setting for the story, that tiny world, is, "The Road" between the destruction of what had been and the hope that something "good" has survived in the South. Our characters, "The Man", who it is clear is father to "The Boy" have set out on a quest of survival to try to find and join with something good that may still remain of humanity. There is no reason for the convention of names, or place in this charred, gray world of ashes, cold, and roving bands of murderous marauders. The two are alone in their intimate knowledge of one another and there is no one with whom they would share even the knowledge of their existence, let alone their names. For them, distrust to the level of paranoia is the fortress behind which they hide for the sake of their own survival. The higher they can build that fortress the more protected they are, but, as we all know, life is risk. And without risk there can be no reward. So our characters struggle along in as much anonymity as possible. They keep moving South, down the road to an uncertain destination and future.
The plot is simple, an aspect of McCarthy's writing I found also in "No Country for Old Men". Although he moves the plot forward with riveting pros from chapter to chapter, McCarthy is really a master at using character and scene to develop his theme and "The Road" is a fine example of that style of writing. Even in a gray and indistinct world without contrast, catastrophe brings the line between good and evil into sharp focus. The Man and The Boy have made their choice from the beginning. They will follow the narrow path, "The Road", to whatever good may still exist. As they seek their goal, surrounded by evil and destruction, they struggle also to find food, water, and shelter from both the elements and their enemies.
Just as in real life, however, the real struggle in seeking the higher ground of good lies within, not without. It becomes clear, as our protagonists move South, that The Man, who represents the older generation of distrust which led to destruction, will never find the good. He is, within himself, so filled with fear and the distrust that it breeds that he cannot make the sacrifice of fellowship with anyone they meet on their way. Unless we can overcome our fears and our mistrust of one another, unless we are willing to make the sacrifice of extending the hand of good fellowship, we, who have chosen the good, will never find one another. Unless we can overcome self and move toward selflessness, "The Road" of destruction we travel will never end. Perhaps there is hope in The Boy, who represents the innocence of a new, younger generation who's hearts have not been hardened by their own selfish fears.
Book Review: The Road: Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
Title: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Pages: 287.
Time spent on the "to read" shelf: None.
Days spent reading it: 1 day.
Why I read it: I heard that The Road was a post-apocalyptic book and that it was stark and good. That's all I need to convince me to read a book.
Brief review: I am scared to write this review because I know I cannot communicate how unbelievable I think The Road is. Cormac McCarthy may easily be one of my favorite authors ever, and this was the first book I ever read by him. Reading McCarthy was an experience I will not soon forget. People say he's like a cross between Hemingway and Faulkner. He's sparse with some details and conversations like Hemingway, and you feel like there's something more there. And yet, at the same time his words are almost poetic and describe the scene and situation with a beauty that I have found unmatched in the books I have read. Faulkner is often described sort of like this from what I've read about him. I have only read one Faulkner book, so I'm no expert. The writing was smooth, deep, beautiful, and powerful. At the same time there are moments in The Road that are deeply disturbing and unbelievably dark. I loved it.
The short synopsis is that The Road is about a man and his son (never named) who make their way to the West coast along a road (duh!). However they do it after an apocalyptic event, which leaves humanity in shambles. There are evil men on the road. They hunt for people to enslave and sometimes to eat. It's a stark world. But the man and boy push on bravely despite the fact that they are slowly starving and have few prospects for long term sustainability. The hope of reaching their destination is what drives them forward in the midst of great despair. They encounter hardship, loss, and unbelievable evil in their journey. But they also inspire the reader to have great hope in the power of love and loyalty. The boy is a great foil to all of the evil around him. He is loving and caring even to people he does not know. He shows great compassion and trust when the world outside has never shown him these traits. He obviously gets these lessons from his father who is jaded, but tries to teach his son how to have hope and love even in the darkest situation.
I believe The Road will be considered true literature and read in schools in the years to come. It was a gem that I hoped would be good, but did not expect to be as good as it was. It was perhaps my favorite book I have read in the last year, and definitely near the top of my top 10 books ever. I started it at 10 pm, trying to finish a little while Susan finished up a book of hers. I did not stop until almost 3 am when I finished it. I felt compelled to finish the story in one sitting, and I would definitely recommend that kind of experience to the reader if possible. There are no chapter breaks, only occasional hard paragraph breaks through the text. It is one continuous story, which is part of the driving force of this book.
I loved The Road, but must warn potential readers there are some harsh realities of evil depicted in this book. They are not glorified, but there were some very ugly moments in the book. Not for the faint of heart, but worth the read. Because in the midst of great despair there is a story of great hope as well. Just wonderful. I think there are many great Christian themes presented in this book, even if not intentionally Christian (although perhaps?). Depravity, sinfulness, hope, redemption, love, and justice all show up, just to name a few. This is a book that provokes thought and reflection. There is a great depth to the themes that are presented, and I can easily say it is worth reading and then taking time to reflect on the themes McCarthy writes about. I highly recommend.
Favorite quote: He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the word and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not.
Stars: 5 out of 5.
Final Word: Beautiful.
Book Review: An American Literary Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first Cormac McCarthy book I have read. I had heard from so many people that I would love him as a writer and this book was a good indication that they were correct.
The book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature last year, is a bleak narrative of a father and son's journey through the post-apocalyptic South. A non-specific, but apparently human-caused catastrophe has destroyed most of the earth and killed almost all human life. People survive on leftover non-perishable food (the cataclysm happened a number of years earlier so these items are almost non-existent) and cannibalism. It is a desolate and dangerous world for a father and young son to walk through and walking seems to be the one universal activity in this world. And it's a dangerous activity because both "the good guys" and "the bad guys" are on the move, scavenging for scraps of food and instruments of survival. Houses have been vacated and left to rot, everyone is the road, on the move. The few houses which are still inhabited are places of unimaginable horror, which McCarthy uses to illustrate the animalistic evil which thrives in this dismal environment. This flourishing of evil is one of the main themes McCarthy wrestles with throughout the book: what will men do once there is nothing left to live for and little to live on? (In this way, the book is similar to another apocalyptic book I have reviewed here, Children of Men and revisits themes of William Golding's The Lord of the Flies.)
There is not much in the way of plot or denouement. There are few clues as to what event has destroyed life and hope. There are no chapter divisions, mirroring it would seem, the endless march of the unnamed characters. And there are only a handful of geographic markers (though the one I liked was the barn that read, "See Rock City"). Yet, even devoid of these traditional literary markers, the narrative is utterly gripping. I had a difficult time stopping reading and was I not in the middle of visiting family with my four children I probably would have simply sat and read to the end without pausing. The book is simply a narrative of events, observations, and pain. But the writing is so beautifully descriptive, both of the landscape and the human condition, that the spare plot line is absolutely spell-binding.
At the end of "the road", you will have gotten to know the two main characters with a familiarity that lesser writers usually need 600 pages to convey (this book is less than 300.) You will feel like their aspirations and their despair are somehow yours to bear as well. And, even though you don't know their names, you will likely care very deeply about them, as I did. The fact that McCarthy invites the reader to care so deeply about the main characters, and because the father and son are just like many fathers and sons we all know, he is able to make this grotesque world seem less outlandish and implausible. As I read, I began to visualize myself in the circumstances of the book and ask, "what would I do?" or "how would I fare?" And, though his characters primary concern is their immediate survival, they ask those questions that arise in any human situation, prosperous or desperate: "Am I a good person?", "Are we some of the good guys?" (Those that are left.) At one point in the book, the father suggests to one of the travelers that they meet that his young son is a "god", and in this apparently god-forsaken world, it is a poignant image. Though the boy is a dependent on the father and not the other way around, he is also the father's only source of joy and comfort, and is his moral compass, reminding him that as one of the "good guys", they should help others, even if it puts them in greater danger.
This book is beautiful and gut-wrenching, it's a serious work of literature and a page-turner. I highly recommend it and I look forward to reading more of McCarthy's work. (I also recommend keeping a dictionary handy while you're reading it.)
Book Review: Decent but occasionally overwritten mashup of literary & pulp fiction
Summary: 3 Stars
The Road is a literary mash up composed of equal parts William Faulkner, Raymond Carver, Samuel Beckett, and pulp sci-fi. This sounds great on paper but works only about 50% of the time.
For the first 25-30 pages of The Road my BS detector rang like a fire alarm. It soon quieted down, but ultimately the things I disliked about the book--it's egregiously overwritten in places and some of McCarthy's more "experimental" techniques seem arbitrary --kept me from fully appreciating its virtues. It took James Wood's definitive review in The New Republic to help me see what there is to like about it. Wood praises The Road for: the way the McCarthy taps into a post 9/11 fear of apocalypse; his combination of an ornate lyricism a'la William Faulkner with the deadpan minimalism of Raymond Carver; and for McCarthy's rigorous attempt to imagine what a post-apocalyptic world would look and feel like. The Road doesn't extrapolate a dystopian future from some present fear or potential calamity. Rather it plops its characters down in a world engulfed by some kind of nuclear winter (the cause of the catastrophe is never specified) and obsessively imagines what that world would look and feel like.
Despite these virtues, there's just something about the way The Road is executed that puts me off. Critics praise McCarthy for his linguistic inventiveness, and there are some beautiful passages in The Road, but the writing often struck me as showy rather than inventive. I mean, what's so "inventive" about the arbitrary splicing together of two words? How much linguistic creativity does it take to call a cash register a cashregister, or a pump organ a pumporgan. Such devices occur frequently enough to annoy but not often enough to add much to the musicality of the prose. Then there's the frequent use of antiquated words: gryke, discalced, scribing, laved, etc. There's nothing wrong with this in principle--writers should make maximum use of the linguistic resources available to them. A generous interpretation of this tic would be that it adds to the sense of inhabiting a time that's spiritually detached from the present, or makes the point that the future involves regression rather than progress. But it struck me as showy and gratuitous--a kind of screw you to 21st century sub-literates.
The other thing that bugged me was the frequent dropping of profundity bombs--brief portentous statements tacked onto the end of a paragraph that hint at philosophical or religious themes. Two problems with these: First, they are almost always duds; they are never developed and rarely explode into meaning. Second, they often come wrapped in convoluted syntax that I suspect obscures their banality. So, in this case, is McCarthy tweaking the language to make the banal sound profound?
Despite these misgivings I liked the book and found it hard to put down. When McCarthy stays in his minimalist register the writing is quite good. He definitely creates a mood, and many of the word-pictures he paints, especially when describing landscapes or the objects necessary to the two main characters' survival, are quite beautiful. And I do have to give him props, as Wood notes, for advancing the post-apocalypse sub-genre by creating a remorselessly unedifying world in which our present concerns have almost completely faded from memory. Most of the dialogue in The Road is banal in the extreme, and the characters are almost completely without inner lives. But give McCarthy credit for credibly representing the psychological reality of a world in which the things that support inner lives--history, culture, community, an unacknowledged but ever present sense that humanity will extend into the indefinite future--have all but disappeared. McCarthy doesn't tell us how to avoid the apocalypse, but he gives us a pretty good sense of how we'll be spending our days when it comes.