The Road: Pulitzer Prize Winner (Vintage International)

Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ is a dystopian classic that depicts the almost complete absence of hope in an ash-covered post-apocalyptic world. I had first listened to the audio version of the book before buying the paperback. The writing is terse, almost unemotional, and Cormac McCarthy did not give names to the father and his son. The future he depicts is frightening, and a real possibility as we humans continue to destroy the world we live in. The tale is simple, yet it works on many levels. The father and son walk along the road seeking the warmth of the south. They push a cart filled with scavenged supplies, trying to avoid starvation, and to avoid being attacked – and possibly eaten – by violent bands of survivors. I won’t reveal the book’s ending. The father and son represent two sides of a spectrum of human values and ethics. Both are fiercely protective of each other, but while the father is willing to let other people die so that they can live, his son clings to the ideal of being one of ‘the good guys.’ We can, even when stretched, avoid breaking our moral fiber. We can, it seems, maintain our ideals of genuine human decency even when the circumstances seem hopeless, and death surrounds us. The father and son’s love for each other remains strong, a burning flame that refuses to die even in the most difficult circumstances. I read the book through in one sitting, mesmerized by the slow unfolding action, the desperate desire to live, and the even more desperate desire that the pair have to cling to their values, and their love and loyalty for each other. This book is a modern masterpiece, a true classic that serves as a stark warning to humans.

The package was not great it was just a normal amazon paper bag so the corners of the book got slightly damaged nothing major and other than that good book, great quality paper, print is consistent and the text is very legible.

I first read the novel and then saw the movie. But the novel is a lot lot better. Words express feelings and thoughts better than visuals. The wife's parting from the man and walking into eternity in the middle of the novel, the man's death in the end of the novel after a dogged attempt to find survival and the hope awaiting the boy finally after the apocalypse are very touching. One of the very good reads.

A great book with deep intersting cover.

A lyrical post-apocalyptic tale, McCarthy’s Road is a suffocating journey into desolation and despair. The cause of the apocalypse is irrelevant to the stifling need to survive. With charred bodies, black ash and a leftover humanity turning cannibals, McCarthy grieves a burnt world where everything is reduced to hunger. From abundant defilement to an overabundant desperation, the wretchedness of having born into a miserable world of suffering, overwhelmed by anguish, affliction and agony, takes hold of the heart that stares awake in an awful disbelief, into burnt skylines and cold horizons – into haze and hopelessness. In the midst of it, is seen a father and a son, like lost Ulysseses, seeking the shore of Marina, in the hope of some salvation which doesn’t exist. Instead, they come upon wrecks and graves and the faint whisperings of death. For me, McCarthy’s novel is a pilgrimage – two pilgrims, young and old, in search of a redeemed world. But it is a mirage hovering in the fog that recedes more as you approach – a faint lure fading into a hush. Such is the whisperings of a life gone by in pursuit of unburnt homes. But all that we live on are burnt ruins of a gradually disappearing existence upon which we sit at night to light our fires that keep us from the cold, yet suspends us within the exhausted smog of breathlessness, suffocatingly emitting after the flames of havoc has been extinguished. Cormac McCarthy’s Road is a romance with pessimism that drives into the relentless abrasion of pointless survival – the foolishness of instinct crawling its way towards the inevitable.

Must read. An amazing glimpse presented by the author.

Don't get me wrong I think it's a well written book. I just personally felt kinda underwhelmed not by the story but manily by characters. The books have it's movenment but I just didn't felt any emotional attachment to either of the leads. However I still feel like it's a great read and really portrayal the horror aspect of story pretty well.

Very intuitive

In een vernietigende zwarte kou doolt een vader naar het zuiden met als enige motivatie zijn zoon. We volgen dit tweetal in een post-apocalyptische wereld van as en onmenselijkheid door zo helder beschreven vernietiging dat de adem stokt. Er is geen hoop, maar de lezer denkt het te kunnen vinden.

جميل

Amazing book. People say it's incredibly depressing and a window into what desperation turns people into, but to me, despite having to stop a couple of times as realizations hit me like trucks, it felt a lot more like a amazing story of what a father will do for his child, how his innocence and sweetness keep him going. I would recommend it in spite of how depressing it can get. Thanks to it I was also able to get into McCarthy's literary style, which is also very much appreciated.

Brilliant read, loved it. Fast, free delivery from Amazon

Scritto in ma ieri quasi asettica, in alcune parti ripetitivo, quasi a suggerire il nuovo corso delle vicende umane dopo una misteriosa catastrofe che resta percepibile solo attraverso le tracce che lascia. Ci sono due visioni quasi contrastanti. Un padre che lotta per la sopravvivenza e un figlio che prima accetta qualsiasi nefandezza come qualcosa di indiscusso, e poi, crescendo, inizia a sviluppare una sua personale coscienza. E' un grido forte all'umanità, alla riconquista di valori perduti. Storia che lascia tantissime emozioni e che merita di essere letta tutta di un fiato.