Spoilers! I don't reveal all, but I am chatty with the facts.I finally read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". It's difficult to compare this post-apocalyptic work to any other in this specific genre because of the immediacy of tone and unflinching realism. So I give Cormac an A+ for originality, which as we all know, is not an easy feat.
The book is immensely readable and compelling, seeing as I read the whole thing in one day. Yes, no, I could not put it down. I carried it with me to the bathroom, I kept it propped up while I made sauerkraut and sausage, with mashed potatoes and green beans, and I read it while I watched the Phillies beat the D-Rays, that's how vested I was in the story.
Yet and still, it is by far not a perfect novel. I particularly did not like the extremely brief appearance of the Man's dead wife. Who, or what woman, I should say, claims to have a 'whorish heart' to justify their suicide? Nobody, that's who. Perhaps that seems nitpicky, but since her death, or more importantly, her absence, seems like a pall that hangs over the Man and the Boy while they travel on the road, I feel that her character needed something more. Anything more than really the nonsense that she was given.
Also, I found myself wondering how in the world these people have survived this long - 7, 8, 11 years? - with no food. Scavenging for canned goods would only last so long, and I'm betting that it wouldn't be this long. Of course we've got the cannibals. Real cannibals, not zombie cannibals, but the Man and the Boy are not cannibals. All vegetation is dead, the animals are all dead, and the Earth is blanketed in a nuclear winter. Sounds cozy, no? I also wondered why they didn't dig up grubs and earthworms. They'd still be in the ground, eating roots and dirt. Speaking of roots, why weren't they digging up roots and eating those? Probably the survivalist in me couldn't resist picking up on these flaws.
In the end, I would still recommend the book. Especially with the movie coming out soon, or not so soon, as I read somehwheres that the release date got pushed back again.
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3 comments:
Spoilers?
I still don't understand what the hell this book is about...but I'll definitely check it out.
Sauerkraut and sausage? Oh I miss Germany...
I'm no scientist, but depending on the length of time since "the event" I think any roots would have turned to dust, along with any worms.
I just watched The Good Earth recently, and they were eating boiled mud. But I think it was meant to be symbolic.
I'm no scientist either, but since there's an abundance of dead organic matter and dirt, I think that there would still be earthworms, at least below the frost line (if there is a frost line).
That's just my opinion. Clearly CMcC tried to keep the landscape as stark as possible (I think that there would be still be crows too, they'd feed off all the dead people, if nothing else). But like I said, these all just nits on my part ;) I don't think that any of this detracts from the pwoer of the book.
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