Book Reveiw -- Cormac McCarthy : The Road

The Road is a 94-paged post apocalyptic book which follows an unnamed man and a boy through an emotionally and physically exhausting journey. I actually have been putting this book off for months after it was immensely recommended by Redditors who said the writing would simply "humble you".... Big talk for a book which, prior to that moment, I had not heard about and indeed, it was not a lie.

Cormac McCarthy, in the pages of this book wielded and manipulated the English language as a brush to paint beautiful pictures of an ugly and ashened world whilst using our open minds as a canvas. Every detail was etched out with an expertise that is rarely seen in other works of literature and sometimes, he can be caught swinging between poetry and storytelling. You easily can say the book is just one beautiful poem and you won't be lying.

I found myself flipping through the pages of a dictionary, electrifying my active mind, trying to picture every paragraph down to the detail, every line was a blessing to my imagination. The book is written in such a way that it betrays the conventional use of the quotation marks in speech so as not to break the flow of conversation. Although, getting used to that if you are not flexible or open to it might take a while. The book definitely had style which was more hit than miss as the story progressed.

McCarthy throws us into a world of plain survival without an explanation. Where death is hoped for, but actively seeking it is seen as cowardice. The dynamic or better yet, the bond between the father and the child is the core of the story here.

You can easily feel its strength as you read through their conversation and travails, silently rooting and praying for them each time they run out of food or encounter adversary. They are the illusion of the good guys in a world where nothing existed; the only thing that mattered was how desperate you are to live.

Sadly, little is known about this world that we are privileged to experience, but as a man. I would love to care for my child the way the man did for the boy. And by God, I hope I don't live in that world.

Lovely read.