THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

THE ROAD

By Cormac McCarthy

Alfred A. Knopf

$24.00, hardcover, 241 pages; ISBN 0-307-26543-9 (2006).

           

            This book will haunt you for days after you read it.  It is a dark and depressing picture of a post-apocalyptic world that you never imagined.  Forget the somewhat desperate community pictured in the television series Jericho striving for a "normal" life; in The Road the world has reverted to the Dark Side.  Cities are ruined, the dark sky bleeds ash instead of rain, plants and animals are all dead and few people survive.  It's winter and a father and his young son trek south in search of food and warmth.  With no plant and animal life, lack of food is a constant companion.  The few human survivors they encounter are often to be feared: emaciated cannibals ready to sacrifice their humanity to ease the pain in their empty bellies.

Despite the gloom and utter destruction of nearly everything, this unnamed father and his son never waver in their love and dedication to each other.  And if the food runs out, or the prowling starving remains of human life capture them, the man has a gun with two bullets left.  But until that time comes, he remembers the world that was and passes on those memories to a son who knows only this decaying landscape.   

McCarthy writes in simple direct language that speaks far more than the most detailed description, as in this memory of the last conversation he had with the boy's mother:

 

"They say that women dream of danger to those in their care and men of danger to themselves.  But I dont dream at all.  You say you cant?  Then dont do it.  That's all.  Because I am done with my own whorish heart and I have been for a long time.  You talk about taking a stand but there is no stand to take.  My heart was ripped out of me the night he was born so dont ask for sorrow now.  There is none.  Maybe you'll be good at this.  I doubt it, but who knows.  The one thing I can tell you is that you wont survive for yourself.  I know because I would never have come this far.  A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost.  Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love.  Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body.  As for me my only hope is for eternal nothingness and I hope it with all my heart."

 

Once you get past the ugliness and terror that permeate every phase of life in this bleak new world, you come to understand that this book isn't the horror novel of your nightmares.  Instead, it's an enduring paternal love story between a father and his only son.  Against nearly impossible odds, this gaunt boy and his ill father find a way to endure, a way to keep surviving.  How long can they go on?  What will happen if they're caught, get hurt or one of them dies?  Will the darkness overcome them or are there others out there who have retained the capacity for human compassion? 

From start to finish, this book will have you in its spell.

Buy it here.