The Road

Earlier this year The Road was given the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was also picked by Oprah for her book club, which quite frankly was a strike against it for me. You kind of know going into an Oprah book that it is going to be about some kind of depressing struggle and hopefully a triumph of some kind at the end.

This book takes place in post-apocalyptic America (apparently in the Southeast after a nuclear holocaust, although the cataclysmic event is never specifically identified) as a father and son struggle to survive as some of the few remaining inhabitants left on earth. Just to give you a taste of some of the horrifying aspects of the book, they carry a gun with two bullets meant for suicide so they won't be captured by cannibals. Parts of the book were downright terrifying, but there was a sweetness in the relationship of the two characters who are willing to see life through no matter how repulsive the world is around them.

I need to make some notes about the stylistic nature of the novel. First, I havent read anything else by Cormac McCarthy so I dont know if it is just this book or if it is just him, but he doesnt use any apostrophes in contractions. I thought it was a little strange. Second, he also doesn't use quotation marks in dialogue which I was actually OK with. It kind of reminded me of blog writing. Finally, I will admit that there were some sentences that I had no idea what he was talking about. But he did use cool words like "crozzled" which I have to give him credit for, even though I think McCarthy's reputation for being one of "America's pretentious authors" probably holds true.

I don't know to tell you whether to read it or not. You can't walk three steps into Borders without tripping over the book, and I do think it is one people will be talking about for awhile. It will leave you feeling melancholy and reflective (probably one reason I decided to read it quickly) but I wouldn't blame anyone for feeling like they just couldn't/didn't want to stomach it.