The Road

This was only my second Cormac McCarthy novel — I’d read and loved All the Pretty Horses some years ago.

The Road is a splendid example of post-apocalyptic fiction (I almost said science fiction, but to many people that term is offputting) and could be described as "A Boy and His Dog" meets "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" meets The Odyssey.

An unnamed man and his son are heading south through a landscape devastated by a nuclear winter, in which nothing lives except for wary survivors, and in which there is nothing to eat but increasingly rare scavenged canned goods — and of course other wary survivors.

Some walk alone, others in small groups. Some have formed cannibalistic groups. All are heading south because there’s no other option.

The writing is terse and tight. The characterization is rich. The descriptive prose is breathtaking. The plot is tense.

It’s a quick read, which is just as well. I started reading The Road in bed, late at night, and couldn’t stop until I was finished, several hours later.

More: continued here

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