The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Wow! If this book was a work of art it would capture the visual meaning of hopelessness on a single canvas. The writing in this book is amazing. It is not only poetic but the style captures the utter bleakness of the story. This book has no chapters and minimal punctuation which adds to the bereft feeling of the book; where even the smallest normalcies like punctuation have been lost.

This book was so disturbing that I had to mull it over for a full week before I could put into words what I thought of it. The story is about a father and son who are travelling south on an American road after an unnamed apocalyptic disaster. The vegetation and animal life are all dead, as are most of the humans. The landscape is a burnt wasteland of blowing ash. The boy is young, I figure somewhere between 4 and 10 or so because at one point the father asks him if he wants to ride in the shopping cart he is pushing down the road. The only food available is the canned goods left after the disaster. And, of course, they have to contend with the lawless bands that stalk the road to gather fresh human meat.

The book has been touted as a testament to the tenacity of the human race but in this scenario all hope is lost, what happens when the last can of food has been eaten? Tenacity? I would call it blind denial, maybe even stupidity. I could not imagine fighting to stay alive in this situation. Thankfully, my world view does not allow for this hopelessness. I do not live in a godless world.

You know how some images can never be erased from your mind no matter how much you might wish it to be so? There are scenes in this book that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. If the author's intention was to paint a word picture of the worst hopelessness imaginable, then he did a fabulous job. I can only recommend this book with serious reservations.