Reviews

La carretera by Cormac McCarthy

Only show reviews with written explanations

blockyy_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

1.0

So boring 😭 painful to read

ryanonthestorm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

cassiakarin's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

As dystopian or post-apocalyptic literature goes... I had no context or prefix for this story when I read it, so I just went along with it as it went! I enjoyed discovering hints and secrets about the character's past, though the journey was long and hard. The suspense felt somewhat repetitive, but certainly true-to-life...in an end-of-existence-sort-of-life, that is. I'm probably not a good critic of suspense novels or thrillers, because I rarely and hardly read them. I opened this one up due to Karen Swallow Prior's guidance through her book On Reading Well, and am excited to hear what she has to say about it in the context of the virtue-gained thereby: hope.
The writing was very easy to listen to, mostly conversational, albeit small, short, father-to-child talk. The descriptive language by the narrator was rich, but not beautiful and not meant to be beautiful. Some of the scenes of forgotten hope or of bright imagination were moving, but the rest was-- as intended, no doubt-- bleak.