Amazon.com Review 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
The Road is now a major motion picture based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, starring Academy Award-nominee Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Enjoy these images from the film, and click the thumbnails to see larger images.
Product Description 'The first great masterpiece of the globally warmed generation. Here is an American classic which, at a stroke, makes McCarthy a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature' - Andrew O'Hagan. A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other. 'McCarthy conjures from this pitiless flight the miracle of unswerving humanity. Gripping beyond belief' - Chris Cleave, "Sunday Telegraph". 'One of the most shocking and harrowing but ultimately redemptive books I have read. It is an intensely intimate story. It is also a warning' - Kirsty Wark, "Observer Books of the Year". 'A work of such terrible beauty that you will struggle to look away. It will knock the breath from your lungs' - Tom Gatti, "The Times". 'You will read on, absolutely convinced, thrilled, mesmerized. All the modern novel can do is done here' - Alan Warner, "Guardian". 'A masterpiece that will soon be considered a classic' - "Herald". 'McCarthy shows that he is one of the greatest American writers alive' - "Times Literary Supplement".
Haunting....July 28, 2010 Bobby T(South Riding, VA) This book was simply haunting. It captured my attention, sucked me in, and did not let go until it was finished. I was literally shaking during parts of this book and I completely attached myself to the Father and Son during their quest for survival.
WONDERFUL book!!!
ImpressiveJuly 27, 2010 CJM -(London, UK) 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Man and boy struggle along a harsh and surprising obstacle course and gain our sympathy.
Is it possible for a book to be perfect?July 27, 2010 David Heafey(Boston, MA) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is not a happy book. This is not a story where you walk away feeling warm and fuzzy. Rather, you may feel, as I did, frightened.
The Road, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by one of America's greatest talents, is an unnerving, bleak, and dark tale of a father and son trudging through a post apocalyptic vision of our world. To call a post apocalyptic tale bleak, unnerving, and dark is somewhat obvious, but McCarthy explores the subject with a skill that borders on perfection. The realism with which he portrays the characters and the world around them is nothing short of stunning. There is no flash; there is no glamor; and there is little hope. It all seems very real.
The key to understanding this story's arc is to get past all of the pain and the gruesomeness surrounding the father and the boy. The story is about hope and an infinite love between a father and son, so infinite that the father endures endless suffering to insure his son survives.
McCarthy's writing, as I stated above, is nothing short of astounding. This is a short book with far less on the page than one may be accustomed to, but it has far more impact. 1 page is equivalent to 5 in another story; McCarthy uses vocabulary, meter and punctuation masterfully to bring his point across. His words are chosen carefully to evoke a certain emotion. This book borders on prose, so thick and dense that you may need a break after just a few pages, a break to contemplate and digest what you've just read.
In a world where most readers have short attention spans and need to be led through the story, McCarthy gives us a shining example of what writing should be: a masterpiece that lingers with you for a very, very long time.
A Glimpse into a Bleak World Where Love Keeps a Father and Son Together, SurvivingJuly 26, 2010 Steven(Colorado, USA) The Road is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Cormac McCarthy (author of No Country for Old Men, The Orchard Keeper, amongst others) which depicts post-apocalyptic survival.
A father and his adolescent son are trekking south after an unknown (to the reader) catastrophic event. The world is barren, cold, unforgiving. The duo hope that by traveling south along a desolate highway to the shores they will find warmth and 'good people'. A majority of this book is spent following the footsteps of the father and son, reading about the horrors they witness along the way, and there are plenty.
McCarthy's melancholic prose serves well for the most part, however many passages start to feel repetitive. You are often reading about how cold it is, the ashes, the hunger and he fills in the gaps with short, repetitive dialog between the father and son, plundering or running/hiding from the 'bad people'. At times it felt like McCarthy had to force this into a full-length novel.
In the end, I can't help but feel that McCarthy worked to pen the most depressing scenario plotted by the most disturbing circumstances only to depress the readers and make them feel 'moved' by the work. I'm no stranger to depressing books, however often times when I'm finished reading these books I have a lot to think about. This is by no means a terrible book, it did pull at my heart-strings, but when it comes down to it there wasn't much for me to think about after finishing this book other than "Man, that was effed up!".
The Road by Cormac McCarthyJuly 25, 2010 Linda Woodard(Texas) It was so sad but the author did a great job of tying it all in. I would recommend it.
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