Comments on: Book Review: The Road

By: Monthly Reading: December 2008 « Books Worth Reading

Monthly Reading: December 2008 « Books Worth Reading — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:15:59 +0000

[...] The Road (A Novel Menagerie) [...]

By: Marianne Hoffman

Marianne Hoffman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:01:03 +0000

I read this book about a year ago and have been awaiting the release of this movie for some months now. Viggo Mortensen has been cast as the father and I believe it will be out in March of 09. I’ve been entranced with Cormac McCarthy for some time. I think he is one of the best authors of the 20th century. No Country for Old Men and the Border Trilogy are phenomenal reads. And I thought this was too. I was drawn in by the several hundred ways McCarthy paints an otherwise total barren landscape, into lands of fear and uncertainty. The dialog I thought, was a fair representation of the unspoken relationship between this man and his son. You have to imagine the position of the father….What do I say about the death of his mother? What do I tell him about what happened?? You FELT the love the man had for his boy. And understood that he had little time left to instill strength and an ability to survive in this new landscape to his son. I also believe that the dialog was sparse because one who is in utter survival mode does not waste precious energy on long pontifications about ones predicament. Food, shelter, safety. Those were the only commodities left in this new world and they always came with a price. The end was heart wrenching but realistic. Happy is not realistic, so a “happy” ending would have been contrived and forced and I’m glad to say Cormac McCarthy’s writing is anything but contrived…….

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:39:40 +0000

Sher – I’ve had this book on my bookcase for almost a year now, and haven’t had the energy to open it up. I think my husband must have bought it; it sounds so dreary! My neighborhood book group has chosen it for January, so I’ll have to dive in. My expectations aren’t high (Pulitzer Prize and all!)

By: Anna

Anna — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:38:09 +0000

I too wanted to know what happened and not knowing left me a bit unsatisfied. I didn’t hate the book, though. It gave me a lot to think about.

By: Menagerie

Menagerie — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:06:40 +0000

Lisa is too funny! OMG! Mean hungry people are how you describe cannibals? LOL!

By: Lisamm

Lisamm — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:42:58 +0000

I know this isn’t my blog but I wanted to respond to Alyce. The book was not difficult to read- at all. It was actually quite simplistic. The man and boy (no names) are walking on an ashy road after an event has happened to cause complete distruction of the earth (never told what event) saying Ok to each other for 300 pages and encountering a handful of mean hungry people. Yep that’s about it. It was not deep. Truly, it wasn’t. I think it wanted to be but it wasn’t.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:59:20 +0000

Thanks for the review – I’m one of the 3 people who hasn’t read this one.