Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 2121-2125 of 2292
 you might not want to take this road, less travelled. December 12, 2006
J. Mashke (Chicago Il)
14 out of 29 found this review helpful
Normally i would not write a negative review as a book that doesnt appeal to myself could very well appeal to others. It seems that is the case with 'the road' which i read based on so many glowing reviews here. It even just showed up on Stephen Kings top 10 books of 2006. Ive chose to write this negative review to warn folks of what they are in for if they decide to read 'the road'.
The good? Well Mccarthy is good at descriptive settings of the surroundings. Thats about it. The bad? This book has no plot, no storyline, basically two characters whom we learn nothing about, and never ending pointless single line exchanges between the father/son. Do not be fooled into thinking its a book about survival: it isnt and the main characters prove that when they find ample supplies and leave them. The characters journey makes no sense either as they continue walking in the very same direction that their 'enemies' (random folks that come along and we never learn anything about) are traveling when passing them. Clearly many folks love this book so im not saying you shouldnt read it, im just warning you to not expect anything but two people walking down a road, hiding, and exchanging dialogue such as "Popa, are they bad" "Yes".
 Intensely depressing, unsatisfying December 12, 2006
C. Emmons
7 out of 22 found this review helpful
A few reviewers jump to conclusions by stating it was a nuclear war, or that it takes place in a certain region of the US. Untrue. The author specifically leaves it completely ambiguous and NEVER explains either issue. In fact, one can only surmise that it was NOT a nuclear war as the characters are never concerned with radiation. One flashback mentions streaks from the sky and low booming sounds in the distance. Based on this I guess it was either an asteroid hit or a super volcano. Both would rain huge chunks of debris down across the globe, causing all the fires and devastation explained in the book, and have no radiation issues.
But, the big problem is that he never explains it!!!
 When the whole world is lost, only love remains December 11, 2006
Cassie W. (Ohio)
13 out of 17 found this review helpful
The world is dead. The sky is the color of slate, hiding a wan sun that barely lights the day. Gray ash covers every surface. The air is bitingly cold, the wind unceasing. The animals are gone, and the trees will never grow again. There are no animals and few people; there is little food. All that remains is silence, emptiness, and the road.
It is on this road that readers meet a man and his son, shuffling ever south through the ash in hopes of reaching the coast, conscious of the roving bands of cannibals who would call them food. They walk not through an alien world, but through the United States of America, in the aftermath of what readers can only assume is nuclear war. We don't know their names or where they come from, or how long they've been walking. All we know is where they're headed, and that between them there exists a love and devotion that transcends the end of the world.
In THE ROAD, Cormac McCarthy paints an all-too-vivid picture of a very possible future for humanity -- and it is terrifying. THE ROAD is at once a horror novel, a religious tome, and a political statement. It will make you weep, make you think, make you reevaluate your relationship with God, make you celebrate your days and those you share them with a little bit more. McCarthy's prose is some of the sparest I've read, and yet it will haunt you long after you close the final page. I finished THE ROAD more than a week ago, and I still can't fully articulate what a heartbreaking experience it was to read it. This novel is almost surely destined to become an American classic.
THE ROAD contains some of the most affecting imagery I've ever read in a novel: a human fetus roasting on a spit; a gray beach beside a grayer, dead ocean; human flesh embedded between a cannibal's rotting teeth; a man teaching his young son to swim in tainted water; an old man, incoherent and nearly blind, hobbling through the ash down a mountain road. McCarthy shows us all this -- and yet, hope remains. The end of the novel is surprisingly uplifting and, although we know what will eventually become of humanity on earth, we are given a brief respite from this bleak future.
What a startling, beautiful, heartbreakingly bleak work of fiction. What a profound, thought-provoking, powerful reading experience. What an unequivocal triumph of storytelling from one of America's greatest voices. This book changed me -- read it, and you'll know what I mean. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.
Disappointed December 11, 2006
janetex (Healdsburg, CA United States)
5 out of 13 found this review helpful
I've been on my local library's waiting list for this book since its release - after finally reading it, it's a disappointment. A description of a desolate land with a few animal-like humans left roaming the land, and the two "good guys" a father and son. A few days in their lives followed by an ending that is completely implausible (based on the few encounters the father and son have had with any other humans.) Too many missing pieces to add up to a satisfying reading experience. 12/11/06
Brilliant December 9, 2006
Henri C. Ransford
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
All the favorable reviews here below say it all, so I'll just comment on the language McCarthy uses. The author's apparent flouting of the normal rules of grammar in favor of stark, harrowing rhythm works beautifully. Also, he uses all those wonderfully precise words we somehow almost forgot - skifts and catamites, gimbals and gambrels, stoven faces and balefires .... A bleak, beautiful read.
Showing reviews 2121-2125 of 2292
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