The Road

by: Cormac McCarthy

Published by: Alfred A. Knopf

Reviewed by Michele Heather Pollock

(This is item 57 in The Oprah's Book Club Series)

Cormac McCarthy's newest novel, The Road, is another in the long tradition of post-apocalyptic fiction. But, much like his "westerns" such as All the Pretty Horses, this book resides both inside the tradition and rises above it. His language is lyrical and beautiful, even when describing dark things, and the effect is similar to watching battle scenes in movies with beautiful soaring classical music overlaid. It is both surreal and grounding. Convincing and manageable.

In The Road an unnamed man and his unnamed son travel the near-empty roads of post-nuclear war America, searching for water and food, clothing and shelter, constantly on the move in order to avoid the gangs of bullies and "bad guys" that have inevitably sprung up in the few years since the bombs were dropped. Only rarely does McCarthy refer to the nuclear war that must have rendered the bleak and harsh world through which his two characters wander, and never does he describe it in any detail, relying on veiled references to the man's dreams and the memories of his dead wife.

The main force of the story derives from the very different decisions made by this man and his wife in the wake of the nuclear war. She decides to take her own life rather than face the bleak existence. "We're survivors," he tells her. She answers him: "What in God's name are you talking about? We're not survivors. We're the walking dead in a horror film." She does slip away to die, leaving the man to care for their young son. He carries a gun, loaded with two bullets, saving them just in case they cannot face what must be faced on the road. But the man, even while dying of some unnamed and unknown illness, cannot overcome his desire to live, his desire for his son to live, to find a place where the "good guys" must be gathering, to press on. This struggle is the basic struggle at the bottom of all our lives.

At the author's web site you can find biographical information, reviews, readers' guides and even "The Cormac McCarthy Journal Online," with academic-leaning essays exploring themes in McCarthy's work.

Armchair Interviews says: McCarthy lays the "struggle" bare through his skillful use of the post-apocalyptic scenario in The Road.

Author's Web site: http://www.CormacMcCarthy.com