The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I realize some or all of you guys may have already read The Road. In keeping with the spirit of the Robert Goulet’s Gentlemen Society, however, I have nonetheless decided to compose a review, the entirety of which undoubtedly amounts in quality to less than any single word chosen at random from Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant novel.

In The Road, some catastrophe has rendered the world lifeless, save those few who somehow survived. The survivors can essentially be divided into two groups: the good and the bad. Among the good, there is the man and the boy. They have few possessions, all of which the man wheels around in a shopping cart, and they are in a constant state of danger as they must try to avoid “the bad”: men and women who have resorted to the most depraved means of sustenance. I won’t say here what their method is but I will say that I’ve never read something so frightening as the passage where the man and the boy come face to face with it.

The man’s plan is to head for the coast. As you read on, however, (and you will read on, and on, and on, and wish that you had a bedpan because you won’t want to put the book down until you’ve finished reading the book straight through) you begin to realize how little hope there is for him and his son. This leads to a question I came to while reading: when all is for naught, does one go on struggling to survive? I cannot help but find myself in agreement with the sentiments of the man. I see my instincts leaning towards struggle rather than capitulation and would be curious to hear others’ views on the subject. Putting this discussion aside, though, I’m sure most would agree there is no good reason to believe the man and the boy will come out okay by the conclusion of the novel. Still, just as the man recognizes the innate preferability of life be it life in a world of hardship and pain, the reader too can find solace in the beauty of McCarthy’s words despite the theme of desolation that pervades throughout The Road.

On a side note, there’s going to be a film-adaptation of the book coming out sometime soon, I think. Viggo Mortensen is the man. I’d also slow dance with him.