Scarier Book..."The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

[Bonobo]

I'm surprised no one here has posted about this. It is a fantastically well written book,but quite dark and dismal. You cannot read this and be unmoved.

It will make you grateful for the life you have and hug your loved ones closer.

[InternalDialogue]

1. Book fight!

I don't know anything about Cormac McCarthy. Shoot me if I should know, but what can you tell me?

[LWolf]

4. Here ya go:

http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/

I haven't read the book in the OP; I read "All the Pretty Horses" and "The Crossing" in the 90s. I appreciated them enough to keep my copies, yet I've never reread them. I remember them as gritty, and portraying a kind of despair with a slight glimmer of hope that resonated. I could hardly tell you the plots, though. Something about a rural ranch guy losing or leaving home, striking out on his own, a trip to Mexico.

[InternalDialogue]

6. I'll check him out.

I wasn't familiar with him at all, but it sounds like the kind of writing that fits my mood right now.

Thanks for the recommendation -- I love to add new authors to my reading list.

[LWolf]

10. Let us know what you think when you've read him! n/t

[China_cat]

11. I've read those,

'No Country for Old Men' and 'Blood Meridian'.

McCarthy can get downright gruesome.

[Orrex]

7. Read "Blood Meridian"

Horribly violent, stark, and beautiful. The writing is frankly incredible, and McCarthy creates characters simultaneously monstrous and compelling. It's not an easy read, but it's one of my all time favorite books.

[InternalDialogue]

9. I'm going to swing by my local used store this afternoon.

I'll take a look for it. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Diego360]

2. I was actually a little disappointed

in The Road-- having read a lot of post-apocalyptic literature, I thought his novel broke little new ground. The writing was brilliant-- his prose has sharpened down to a rapier-like economy-- and the scenes of desolation and human suffering were truly terrifying (when they discover the people locked in the cellar-- whew, deeply disturbing).

The relationship between father and son was the main focus of course and I agree that as an exploration of that bond, The Road is a fine piece of work. I just wish he had expanded the scope of the world his characters inhabited (as he did in Blood Meridian, where the American West lurches about, strange and unfamiliar)-- The Road presented a world that others had already mapped.

But perhaps that was the point, to take a familiar genre and whittle away all the scrabbling survival cliches and focus on the humanity of a father and his son. If so, The Road is a remarkable success-- I suppose I just expected a more ambitious work from a writer as talented as Cormac McCarthy.

[Vexatious Ape]

3. Good. I just ordered it off of Zooba.

I had read a few really good reviews--can't wait till it arrives.

[abluelady]

5. Took it out of the Library Yesterday

How does it compare to his last one "No Country for Old Men." I was amazed at all the violence, but he is such a terrific writer...

[Orrex]

8. I was a little let down by "No Country" (no real spoilers)

The writing is magnificent as always, but I found it too abrupt in its conclusion, and it seemed that a lot of important stuff happened mostly off-stage. Maybe McCarthy and I didn't think that the same stuff was important...

[abluelady]

12. His Writing is Magnificent

Sometimes I get so caught up in his writing, I lose track of the story! Wonder if he does that on purpose....

[Sequoia]

14. That was the one I read!

Violence indeed.

[Sequoia]

13. Hey, now!

I will certainly check it out. I read the excellent reviews about it and I had read another of his books that just distrubed me. Can't think of the title, but it was about a guy who was out hunting and saw a suitcase full of money, took it and ran and the really, really, and I mean really, bad guys came after him.

[Orrex]

15. That was "No Country for Old Men," released earlier this year

As I recommended above, Blood Meridian is a must-read, if only because it's considered his signature work. Suttree is also exceptionally good.

[abluelady]

16. I Finally Read It

Started it yesterday morning (in traffic court) and found it soooo disturbing. Thought about it the rest of the day: do I want to read this book or not???? Well, at 10:00 last night decided to read some more. Read straight through until I finished it. I felt like a gawker at a car accident. I didn't want to see because it was so horrible, but my eyes were pulled to the sight. I do have to say my stomach was in turmoil the entire time I was reading. But as usual, his writing is magnificent. I think this book will stay with me for a long time. I know the relationship between the dad and the boy is the focus but with times being as they are today I couldn't stop thinking of the Apocalypse and even wanting to survive.

[China_cat]

17. I just finished it.

As good as it is the ending feels like he just didn't know where to take it and put in a cheat. The ending was too 'good' for the rest of the book. It should have fit better.

[abluelady]

18. But Was It a Cheat?

I felt through the entire book that his goal was what happened. Isn't that why he kept going? And of course we don't know that the next page wouldn't have "fit." I guess I'm a pessimist and didn't see the ending as "good" just as a continuation but with a few extra people. What do you think could have been a better ending, if better is the right word. LOL

[China_cat]

19. I think the more fitting ending

and the more logical one, would have been for the boy to end as the father did.

[abluelady]

20. I Can't Imagine That Ending

I could see there not being any "good" guys, but I've never read a book where everyone dies.

[China_cat]

21. Try John le Carre's The Constant Gardener

The book, not the movie.

But for 'the Road', finding another protector just as the previous one dies...when there's been no indication of any other 'good' guys anywhere...is more fantastic and in the realm of 'yeah, right' fiction than the rest of the book put together. It just doesn't fit.

[abluelady]

22. I Am Heading to the Library this Morning

Will get "The Constant Gardner." I do think though that the only purpose of the book was to show the quest for survival so the kid had to survive. As I was reading, all I could think about was why didn't they do as the mom did? And of course the answer would be to survive. That's why I decided the book had to end that way.

[Orrex]

23. How about some SPOILER ALERTS next time?

:mad::banghead::mad:
Rosebud was the sled, by the way.

And the woman in The Crying Game is a dude.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. Well, for a book where "everyone dies," there's

On the Beach by Nevil Shute.

[JitterbugPerfume]

24. I just started "The Road"

So far it is a real attention getter
I read "Blood Meridian " a while back. I love Cormac McCarthys writing , and I plan to read more of his writings

[Orrex]

25. When you finish The Road...

I'd recommend Suttree. It's one of my all-time favorite books, with numerous unforgettable characters. A trifle lengthy, considering McCarthy's sometimes weighty prose, but worth the effort. The book contains perhaps the best description of drunkenness (from the drunk's POV) that I've ever read, and a barfight in one sequence is written with astonishing vividness and poignancy.

[JitterbugPerfume]

26. Thanks Orrex

I will call my bookstore and order it tomorrow:hi:

[WCGreen]

27. I just picked it up...

I'll get to it as soon as I finish 10 days in the hills....

[Bullwinkle925]

29. I just purchased it and it's sitting in my pile of 'next-to-be-read' books.

Thanks for the heads' up!

[villager]

30. should we compare it to Neal Barrett's lesser-known "Through Darkest America"

and "Dawn's Uncertain Light?"

they're pulp sci-fi -- at least, categorized as such. So Oprah won't touch 'em.

McCarthy does apocalypse, and it's high lit.

that said, his book had me riveted. And as a father with sons, I couldn't turn my eyes away from the page.

[MedleyMisty]

31. I just finished it

I wasn't disturbed. I wasn't disappointed by the ending.

I rather liked it, although I did have a problem with using wont and cant instead of won't and can't. Hah - just realized that wont and cant are actually words. But yeah - that reminded me of some illiterate posting from a 12 year old, but I understand that there probably were reasons for it.

[Orrex]

32. That's been his style for decades

It's one of those take-it-or-leave-it deals, like his omission of quotation marks.

Not sure exactly why he does it, but he's consistent about it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. Drove me nuts.

All I wanted was a complete sentence. And then I felt guilty for thinking like a grammar nazi.