 2008-11-16 - The Road
This month's book club leader chose it. Something I probably never would have read. That is what makes being in a book club and others choosing each month fun. It was an "interesting" book. I found it very slow at the beginning. As I got into it I could not put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen to the characters. The love between father and son was very strong. I feel the father would have done anything for the son and in a way did. He may have just given up if he did not have his son to protect.
 2008-11-16 - The Road
This is the last time I listen to Oprah regarding any book. This book is dark but meaningless. I had to force myself to finish this pointless tragic story.
How this became a best seller is beyond me.
 2008-11-16 - Wow. What a great book but - whew - don't expect to be lift up.
Another outstanding book from Cormac. And out of his normal genre. I really enjoyed the book but it is gonna leave you feeling like you need some sunshine afterwards. Dark book, dark story telling done very well.
 2008-11-15 - Flat and endless
Pulitzer winner, great reviews, and I was bored by the tenth page.
I have no problem with McCarthy's prose style, the run-on sentences and sparse prose aptly illustrate the landscape of a devastated, post-apocalyptic planet and the minds of those who inhabit it. Jose Saramago's Blindness uses similiar literary style to much better effect. It also worked in McCarthy's brilliant, morally ambiguous No Country For Old Men. McCarthy's prose has never been a problem.
My problem was that- for the entire book- nothing happened. The man and the boy travel south. The boy rarely speaks. When he does, he usually says "Papa, I'm scared, I'm scared Papa." The Man shows no humanity to anyone besides the boy, but they're the "good guys". Man and boy journey to the sea. At the sea, things suck as much as they do everywhere else.
There is no enemy to overcome, no joy, no hope, no anger at the misery the world has been brought to, nothing but apathy expressed throughout the entire book. The rest of humanity has apparently become depraved and degenerate, but the contrast doesn't make father & son any more heroic by comparison. I found nothing compelling about either the boy or his father. Their story was flat, repetitive and boring. For a truly brilliant tale of disaster and redemption look to Jose Saramago's Blindness... or Max Brooks' World War Z... or Stephen King's the Stand. All of which are more profound than The Road.
2008-11-15 - A Thought-Provoking Nightmare
In a world somehow burned to a crisp, a few people survive. A father and young son travel south along a partially-melted highway to escape the winter. They have no names; nothing has a name any longer. On the way, they encounter others trying to survive, often by preying on the helpless, even enslaving and eating some. The child wants to help some of the more unfortunate, but the father's focus is entirely on saving the boy and himself. He trusts no one, and hides from all human contact. Eventually, the father dies of TB, and the boy, left alone, shows himself to a band of travelers, expecting to be eaten. But instead they adopt him, and it is obvious that the group of good people will form the basis for a renewal of civilization.
The theme appears to be that good will always triumph over evil eventually.
Four Little Old Men: A (Mostly) True Tale from a Small Cajun Town
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