Please, please . . . read The Road by Cormac McCarthy . . .

[patrice]

What can I say about this book? Nothing. It speaks for itself:

They were days fording that cauterized terrain. The boy had found some crayons and painted his facemask with fangs and he trudged on uncomplaining. One of the front wheels of the cart had gone wonkey. What to do about it? Nothing. Where all was burnt to ash before them no fires were to be had and the nights were long and dark and cold beyond anything they'd yet encountered. Cold to crack the stones. To take your life. He held the boy shivering against him and counted each frail breath in the blackness.

In that long ago somewhere very near this place he'd watched a falcon fall down the long blue wall of the mountain and break with the keel of its breastbone the midmost from a flight of cranes and take it to the river below all gangly and wrecked and trailing its loose and blowsy plumage in the still autumn air.

And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Like certain ancient frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day.

McCarthy makes everything else I've read seem trivial. He strikes me as a latter day Joseph Conrad. Perhaps you recognize McCarthy's name as the author of No Country for Old Men.

[Wetzelbill]

1. I bought it, I just haven't gotten around to it yet

Read "Blood Meridian" that's another great work of his.

[patrice]

2. I certainly will. I loved All the Pretty Horses, but lost track of him since.

I am absolutely stunned. This is a Major talent.

[Orrex]

3. My wife introduced me to his work back in 97, with Blood Meridian

A truly excellent author. I also heartily recommend Suttree.

[patrice]

6. He writes prose as though it were poetry, stripped down to its

phenomenological (sorry! about this word, but I know of no other that isn't freighted with lots of cultural baggage) bones.

[babylonsister]

4. Bookmarked. As are comments. Thanks. nt

[CoffeeCat]

5. I'm scared to read that book...

...it sounds terrifying and very sad.

[The Gunslinger]

7. It's a very good book

I finished it a couple of months ago an I still think about it. Definitely in the re-read pile.

[Mojorabbit]

8. It is a book

that will haunt you for sure.

[Bigmack]

9. Feeling good?... Feeling hopeful?....

The Road will end that shit in a helluva hurry.

I just wish it wasn't so possible.

[Morning Dew]

10. It's a poweful book. Well worth reading.

And rereading.

[Hanse]

11. I read it. Didn't care for it.

And I really don't see what the big deal about it is. Regardless of Oprah's book club.

[mike_c]

12. I loved it.

eom

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Noted for later return.

[Vickers]

14. I've read it twice now. Almost hard to finish both times.

It was pretty stark.

Then I heard they were going to make a MOVIE about it (with Viggo Mortensen I think?) and I just can't imagine (a) anyone wanting to see it, and (b) anyone being able to capture the sheer hopelessness of it.

It's like Grave of the Fireflies, without the humor.

[MUAD_DIB]

16. It should be ready for release soon. The Movie.

I guess that the are taking their time: trying to get everything "just right" and as close to the novel as possible.

[Vickers]

18. In that case, I can't wait to see the people down in the cellar...

Yikes.

[MUAD_DIB]

19. You can see photos of them on the internets.

[MUAD_DIB]

15. I read it and found it captivating.

I read a page in a bookstore, and I had to go back and get it.

It was a great Dantean stroll through the hells that man had created; made better by leaving out the cause of the holocaust that they were subject to.

[rrneck]

17. Kicked me right square in the guts. It's going to be a movie. nt

[Th1onein]

20. I AM reading it.

It's sad as fuck. Heartbreaking and frightening. Not sure I can finish it.

[Orrex]

23. Stick with it until they find the time travel equipment

It really picks up after that.

[Occam Bandage]

21. I'm not a particular fan of Cormac McCarthy.

I find his writing a bit overwrought, his characters a bit unbelievable, and his messages a bit uninteresting. Still, The Road does seem like an interesting book. A post-apocalyptic America through McCarthy's eyes? Worth checking out, at any rate.

[Orrex]

22. Have you read Suttree?

A cast of remarkable (and remarkably real) characters IMO.


YMMV, of course.

[bevoette]

24. read it a year ago. bawled...and wasn't even sure why.

then read A Thousand Splendid Suns

could have just stabbed myself. woulda been quicker :cry: