Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Road.

By Simon

The Road was something I picked up in Borders last week for something to read over the weekend. I am reading Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet, which is an 1100 page epic about 'ye olden days'. I felt I needed something quick and good to read just to excite the senses. I picked right!

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses, No Country For Old Men) is a tale of the fight for survival in a post apocolyptic world by the Man and his son, the Boy. We don't find out what disaster brought the world to its knees because it isn't relevant to the story. By not discussing this, McCarthy cleverly ensures the reader fully engages in the Man and the Boy's struggles to survive, rather than getting bogged down in details about the end of the world, which are often clumsy and not believable. The setting is bleak and every page reiterates this. Reading this book I was so invested emotionally in the plight of the protagonists that I was distraught at the ongoing, relentless battle they had to survive.

The basic premise is that the Man and the Boy are trying to make their way south, to the coast, in hope to find some kind of better life, or even just survival. Marauding gangs trawl the road, seeking to rape, murder and steal to survive, and to quench some animalistic bloodlust. Every house, building and shop has been plundered for any food or items of use, the situation is hopeless. The Road tells a tale of the love between the Man and the Boy, as much as it does the survival aspect.

On the cover of this book was a sticker - "1 of 50 books you can't put down" and they aren't kidding. It's 300 very easy to read pages and you'll find you're turning them at break-neck speed. Short paragraphs, about 1/3 to 1/2 a page long are divided by a three line gap. You find yourself saying "just one more paragraph, just one more..." and before you know it you've read another 50 pages.

The Road has been made into a feature film which is expected to be released early 2010, so if you don't want to know who plays what part, avoid to much internet searchin if you are going to look for the book online.

I give The Road 4.5 stars.

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