The Road

I've just finished reading 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. It is undoubtedly one of the finest novels I have read in a very long time. It is gripping, emotional, bleak, beautiful, sad, inspiring and many other things too. It is really a tale about every one of us.

It is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (no, hang on, come back!) but from that well-used starting point McCarthy constructs a novel of horror and intensity that you will want to finish it in one sitting. The tale is about a nameless father and son slowly making their way through a devastated America to the coast, trying to avoid the thugs on the road. There are many horrific images conjured up but the overwhelming and lasting impression is the love between the father and son and the dilemma the father feels in trying to 'unteach' his son many of the basic morals we take for granted. If you are a parent this book will particularly resonate, and at times I read it with a heavy heart.

The lack of names used throughout the narrative is both depersonalising and extremely personal as the reader can identify even more with the father and son without the burden of seeking meaning or boundaries of names.

It is a constant struggle for the father to retain dignity and keep a grip on nobility but the reader is drawn into this battle and is willing the parent to keep going.

There is not a lot of light in the book - it is almost relentlessly bleak, although one or two moments do shine with optimism and hope. This is such an intense read but the result is an astonishing achievement. This is the first of McCarthy's novels I have read but I shall certainly be seeking out others following my enjoyment of this one.

I cannot recommend it highly enough.