The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
In the (near) post apocalyptic future, a nameless father and his young son travel westward. The world - the Earth - is dead; the skies are dark and cloudy, poison fills the air, the soil, and waters. Human survivors are few and many have succumbed to cannibalism; there is no food except for the stray canned goods that have escaped the clutches of earlier scavengers. Survival hardly seems like a prize yet the father pushes forward through cold, rain and misery; staying off the roads, scavenging through abandoned homes and buildings for food, fuel, and other useful items, all while keeping a loaded pistol by his side. The threat of capture provides constant tension and requires that the father plan for the unthinkable; he won't let them take his son alive. The horror of killing his own child is easier to process than the thought of his child being captured, tortured, raped, or eaten alive.
In the (near) post apocalyptic future, a nameless father and his young son travel westward. The world - the Earth - is dead; the skies are dark and cloudy, poison fills the air, the soil, and waters. Human survivors are few and many have succumbed to cannibalism; there is no food except for the stray canned goods that have escaped the clutches of earlier scavengers. Survival hardly seems like a prize yet the father pushes forward through cold, rain and misery; staying off the roads, scavenging through abandoned homes and buildings for food, fuel, and other useful items, all while keeping a loaded pistol by his side. The threat of capture provides constant tension and requires that the father plan for the unthinkable; he won't let them take his son alive. The horror of killing his own child is easier to process than the thought of his child being captured, tortured, raped, or eaten alive.
The young son is no mere bystander in this tale. Never having known the world as it existed, of the nature of man before man destroyed the world, his innocence and yearning for kindness, friendship, trust, and safety reveals, literally through the mouths of babes, what all humans are born seeking.
It is in this nightmare of a world that a very touching story emerges about a father and son, about pushing forward, about love and about hope. In a hopeless world, love provides the reason to survive. The Road lacks the haunting abstract prose I have to come expect (and love) from McCarthy, in fact I didn't find the writing to be particularly "special," yet the story is truly moving and hard to put down (and haunting). I finished it in 4 days. Though sad and tragic, the story provides ground for hope as well. I think parents, especially fathers, will be deeply affected. I'm only an uncle and I was.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment