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maryanneross's review against another edition
4.0
Slow going and very strange at first. In the end, McCarthy tugged at the heart and evoked a lot of emotions. Stick with it. It gets better.
atablewithbrokenlegs's review against another edition
5.0
Read it in case you need to curb your happiness.
jo_doth_read's review against another edition
4.0
Could not stop listening! This is definitely quite heavy in theme and content. But, it's so well done! I think the moral of the story is that you are not a good person simply because you are not a bad one.
Side Note: Take a drink every time he puts something into his pocket. LOL!
Side Note: Take a drink every time he puts something into his pocket. LOL!
martoconnell's review against another edition
5.0
"If he is not the word of God God never spoke."
This was my fifth Cormac McCarthy book in the last eight months, and while all have been devastating in their own ways, this was especially so. You know how the story ends and you know there's no way to change it as it creeps closer and closer. When I reached the last page and saw the final passage about the brook trout, I had to close the book and step away for a minute.
This was my fifth Cormac McCarthy book in the last eight months, and while all have been devastating in their own ways, this was especially so. You know how the story ends and you know there's no way to change it as it creeps closer and closer. When I reached the last page and saw the final passage about the brook trout, I had to close the book and step away for a minute.
robinvanille's review against another edition
2.0
I’m sure this is groundbreaking if you’ve never read a dystopian novel.
sapphicreads64's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Extraordinarily well written, if a little slow at times. There was still plenty of action, more than I initially anticipated, and I enjoyed the book.
marleyrollins's review against another edition
5.0
Still my favourite book of all time, no matter how many times I read it.
Bleak, spare, harrowing, but somehow still hopeful, despite the circumstances. A wonderful story about family, unconditional love, and surviving in the face of terrible odds.
Everybody should read this, especially people with children.
Bleak, spare, harrowing, but somehow still hopeful, despite the circumstances. A wonderful story about family, unconditional love, and surviving in the face of terrible odds.
Everybody should read this, especially people with children.
gwcoffey's review against another edition
5.0
I talked to my Aunt about The Road once several years ago. She said she loves McCarthy, but she didn’t like this book. I remember her saying she couldn’t enjoy a book that is “so hopeless”. I understand where she’s coming from. The world portrayed here is unimaginably bleak, peopled with unimaginable cruelty. But to me this book is the opposite of hopeless. Into that bleak and cruel world, he gives us a man and a boy against all odds.
We’re going to be okay, arent we Papa?
Yes. We are.
And nothing bad is going to happen to us.
That’s right.
Because we’re carrying the fire.
Yes. Because we’re carrying the fire.
But— there is no maudlin here. As in everything McCarthy writes, he seems to be grappling with the incomprehensible. In this case, his inability to square the beauty of humanity with the ugliness of humans. This duality is apparent throughout the book.
He strips man of God—“There is no God and we are his prophets”—and then he strips man of himself:
He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.
But finally, in place of God and man, he gives us a boy. A wonderful pure kind boy (my emphasis):
He watched him come through the grass and kneel with the cup of water he’d fetched. There was light all about him. … He lay watching the boy at the fire. He wanted to be able to see. Look around you, he said. There is no prophet in the earth’s long chronicle who’s not honored here today. Whatever form you spoke of you were right.
And in that boy, and in his father, I see hope bright and clear.