A Book Review of the novel The Road by Cormac Mccarthy:
The road is a poetic tale of a journey by a father and son trying to survive in a “post apocalyptic world”. The haunting tale through Cormac McCarthy’s eyes projects to the readers the world that we all fear that will dawn upon us. Despite its bestiality we venture into “the Road” to see what is left of the world we will be leaving behind.
McCarthy envisions a future to which humans have returned to their basic instinct in order to survive, an instinct the father is helping his son understand. The settings of the eerie roads, the abundance of garbage and newspapers added a more haunting feeling to the story setting. Our curiosity concerning the state of devastation is only later satisfied along with understanding the reason of the absence of the mother and the “other humans” that are still alive.
McCarthy bares neither names nor characteristics to his characters, in which the story was pre dominantly narrated from a third person perspective, it felt as the story was a tale of a long conversation between a father and son who helped readers connect with the story.
Despite the ferocity of the book, the bond between the father and son in spite of it being cold was what truly capture the heart of the reader. Like a lion to its cub, the father tries to pass all the information to help his son adapt to the new world that McCarthy depicts as our future. Although the father felt his body weaken and loosing faith in the world he lived in, it was his mission to help raise his son to keep hope for a better future, keep his humanity and keep him alive disregard of any other people he may have to hurt on the way.
This critically acclaimed novel is one of the most important books of our time. Despite the horrific depiction, the morality behind the “the Road” is what makes this a crucial read. McCarthy provides us with a new innovative style of writing and story telling that has lacked in the high literary society for quite a long time. This page-turner will manage to capture the attention of the reader from the very first few pages asking only for more.
