The Road Review

The Road Review

Title: The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Paperback: 287 pages
Publisher: Vintage Books (March 28, 2007)
Language: English
Series Status: Stand Alone


Pulitzer Prize winning, best-selling author Cormac McCarthy presents The Road, a 2007 post-apocalyptic novel. The Road is set in a post-apocalyptic world of the United States, where everything seems burnt and dead. It’s cold. It’s dark. It’s dangerous to even wander alone. Snow and ash sweeps across the country in a burnt, desolate wasteland.

The Road focuses on a father and his son; their plan is to head south where they hope to have a better chance of survival, unaware what’s there and what awaits them. Having nothing with them except for a single pistol to defend themselves, the clothes they are wearing, and a cart of scavenged food, they move slowly. Most importantly they have each other.

Out of all of the books that I have read, this book is my favorite. While the writing style may take getting used to, it’s a moving story of a strained and difficult journey. Throughout the novel, in this dead, dangerous, apocalyptic world, the tenderness and love between the father and his son is shown. McCarthy’s writing style is nothing that I have ever seen before, and while it’s sometimes frustrating because it’s hard to know who is speaking, it is also a fresh take on writing literature.
There are many questions that needed to be answered when reading this book. Everything is such a mystery and suspenseful that you’ll just be turning the page furiously, trying to figure out what’s happening or what’s going to happen. A couple of times, I had to re-read certain passages because I had a brief “What?” as in “What-just-happened…?” moments, and that can occur for some readers.
Overall, The Road is a wonderful story. While it has dark, sad, and depressing moments, don’t lose hope. It’s a very good book.
Also, there is a movie that was made off of McCarthy’s novel The Road. It’s a great movie as well.