The Road

[rick derris]

finished it this weekend. it got a lot of positive vibes on here, plus obviously great reviews and awards generally

sorry, but it was bollocks

300 pages of nothing. I kept waiting for something to happen. they spoke to approx 3 people, he kept saying to his son "yes, we will be fine and we wont kill anybody to eat them. carry the flame" etc. nice mentions of trains and cows being extinct and the way he seemed an alien to his son as he came from a different world, but that was it.

its meant to be an insight into a parent and the love the dad feels for his son. as if thats news, every parent adores their children and will do everything in their power to protect them. surely? That kind of insight a pulitzer winner does not make

if you want post apocalyptic fiction, get an xbox and play fallout 3

[Brandenburger Toro]

The Road

[Sundeporino]

The Road

I dont know how much credibility literary criticisn from a Colin Pascoe fan who prefers Hull to Sunderland as a place carries...

[Guest]

The Road

It's a mind-bendingly boring book for the most part.

I began reading it a year or so ago, stopped at page 156, and haven't felt the slightest need to go back to it in the interim.

[Guest]

The Road

Hmm. I read it in about 2 days, and thought it was one of the best books I'd read in a long time. It was genuine harrowing, and I found it quiet upsetting to read it surrounded by people on my commute. I actually had to close it a couple of times as it was getting to me too much.

its meant to be an insight into a parent and the love the dad feels for his son.

I don't know. That's part of it. Other people have suggested the driving idea is a thought experiment of life after "the Rapture" which I find unlikely. For me the reason it held my attention was the depiction of a world where empathy has totally succummed to self-interest in the face of overwhelming hardship.

By the by, a lot of the Amazon reviews this book got really disturbed me; numerous one-stars claiming the book wasn't gory enough, or that when it got to a good bit it cut away, or they ran off, or some other horrific idea. There are some fucked up people out there.

[WOM]

The Road

I wonder if it affects people with kids (perhaps a son, in particular) differently than those who don't. I wonder if affects men differently than women.

[Guest]

The Road

WOM - that's interesting. I don't have kids (sorry if I gave you the impression I did in that thread I was raging about the mail being mean). I am a guy though.

There's a section in it which in particular disturbed me, where they see two men and a pregnant woman hiking and follow them. It's really vividly burnt onto my imagination,. It's fucking horrible.

[WOM]

The Road

For me, I think a lot of the power of the book came from putting oneself in an unimaginable situation with an imaginable duo - you and your son. By power, I don't mean the words and imagery of the book itself as much as the feelings it created inside me.

How would it be to look at my own young son lying beneath the tarp sleeping? How far would I (or could I) go to keep him alive in a seemingly futile situation? How would I keep his spirits up while dodging the daily threats to survival? I can't read it as both father and childless man, so I can't compare. And I can't know how I'd read it as a single woman, say, or a mother. My experience with the book wasn't so much about the story as it was the emotion. Having heard McCarthy speak about the book and his motivations for writing it (seek out the Oprah interview on Youtube), I suspect the mechanics of the story were secondary for him, too.

[rick derris]

The Road

seriously, how will they make a film out of it? I will of course see the film as omar is in it

BTW,

HUGE SPOILER**************************

at the end, when dad dies. the guy that takes the boy in, was there anything to suggest they were cannibalistic savages, or were they genuinely benevolent. I skim read the last 50 pages

[Brandenburger Toro]

The Road

********* ALSO SPOILERS, ALSO************

I think so, yeah. The mere fact that they came across as trustworthy.

There was nothing else, which I think was deliberate and part of why it was so artfully done. They just felt right. Because I took part of his point to be that we are all, always, ultimately dependent on blind trust in the goodness of at least some others; and that that is not restricted to family members, for all their centrality and for all that they are more likely to earn or deserve our trust. The community is wider than that, it has to be. I think that's what he was getting at, a note of hope at the end.

[Wyatt Earp]

The Road

Broken Clock wrote:

I dont know how much credibility literary criticisn from a Colin Pascoe fan who prefers Hull to Sunderland as a place carries...

I prefer Hull to Sunderland.

Hang on a minute, I've used the wrong vowel there.

[robbietancred]

The Road

Spoke to Cormac last week. He's working on the prequel. Lorraine Kelly as the missus. Tender novel for all its brutish moments. Nowhere near as good as Blood Meridian. Now there is a dystopian world that you can believe in. Broons or Oor Wullie?

[Pinback]

The Road

I read this in a couple of days and found it a really moving, gripping story.

Since then I've revised my opinion down a few notches. On reflection, the post apocalyptic world he has created just doesn't ring at all true. So for me, the implausibility of the situation compromises the book very badly.

[Guest]

The Road

robbietancred wrote:

Broons or Oor Wullie?

McBroontrouts. Everytime.

[WOM]

The Road

Pinback wrote:

On reflection, the post apocalyptic world he has created just doesn't ring at all true.

In comparison to post-apocalyptic worlds of your own experience?

[Pinback]

The Road

Yeah, that's right. Good point, not snide.

[WOM]

The Road

What was it that didn't ring true?

I found it a believable imagining of that sort of world. Horrible, haunted, violent, but with green shoots of hope.

[Guest]

The Road

I have to say though, Pinback, I am a bit puzzled about what you mean. Was there specific logical points you thought made the world unrealistic? Or was it the overall feel?

I don't see how it's implausable, to be honest. There's very real examples of people acting lin just as horrible ways in this pre-apocalytic world, so it can't be the violent behaviour.

The cause of the apocalyptic state is never brought up, so it can't be that. What was it you found difficult to get along with?

[Pinback]

The Road

I couldn't see any mechanism that could possibly bring about that kind of apocalypse.

All life destroyed save for a fair smattering of human beings. That's a very specific and absurdly unlikely disaster. I'd be interested in anything even vaguely plausible that could be used to explain this.

To me the author shows a certain contempt for his readers by offering up this scenario - though I am of course aware that he felt this was necessary as a backdrop for his characters.

[WOM]

The Road

Ah. So it's the whole premise of 'just a few people left on earth' rather than any particular details of the post-apocalyptic world.

I think that particular point requires a suspension of disbelief, which is likely why McCarthy didn't go into the details of the apocalypse to begin with. It's beside the point. Something bad happened. Most were wiped out. A few survived. Okay, now let's start the story.

I mean, we could posit theories, but the real dramatic tension is about the relationship between father and son, and survival.

[VTTBoscombe]

The Road

Although I think I was less than 100% in saying how much I liked The Road in the original thread, it is one of the most thought provoking books I have read.

My wife (who amazingly is a woman) is a big fan of it - and can identify with the characters and their situations as much as I can.

*********************************************
SPOILERS INFERRED**********************
Regarding the doubts about the world and how it is - I think that it holds up pretty well(as far as a fictional happening can ever be portrayed) - the food has run out long ago, mankind is clever enough to survive -there were billions of us buggers before whatever happened, we are a resourceful bunch.

We can even open tins with old food inside; but even they have run out - things are pretty shit and a lot of the people are shit and many are resourceful in a very shitty way,
- but there are as, Toro says some hope, and just keep on trying and always look for something.

I still don't like the lack of speech quotes though.........

[Guest]

The Road

See it never even occured to me to look into the specific likelyhood of the catclysm. I sort of took it as read that it was assumed it had happened, wasn't going to be coming up, and accepted that. Different strokes I guess.

Also, I like writers who use the physical way words are put together on the page to contribute to the meaning of the text, so I loved that aspect. I think it matched the bleak nature of what was being described and the breakdown of structural rules and discipline that the novel portrays.

[Pinback]

The Road

There is nothing currently conceivable that can kill all life, animal and vegetable, but leave a few people wandering around.

The implication is that it's a weapon of war, and perhaps the scenario is supposed to be a nuclear winter, but the authors contempt for plausibility in what is supposed to be an otherwise realistic scenario really got under my skin.

Edit: If the book weren't otherwise so beautifully put together, this wouldn't have bothered me so much. As you say, different strokes.

[Guest]

The Road

Pinback - I'm not sure there is a weapon of war implication in then book. I think there's an implication that the disaster was somehow precipitated by mass human action, but that fits with the climate change and Eschaton theories as well.

Is it made explicit in the book that all animal life is dead? I can't remember.

[WOM]

The Road

What implies that it was a weapon of war? What about massive volcano?

I mean, whatever wiped out the dinosaurs but didn't wipe out everything else could surely be an acceptable comparison.

Regardless, it's sort of the price of admission that you accept the scenario and get on with the tale. I can't see how it's in any way contempt for the reader that keeps the author from making it an airtight scenario.