The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
by: Cormac McCarthy
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Amazon.com Review:
Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as "an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century," Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we've read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching Mystic River, blew fans all away with the mind-bending Shutter Island, and switches gears with Coronado, his new collection of gritty short stories (and one play).
Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little placefor love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in The Crossing. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In The Road, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --Dennis Lehane
Product Description:
National Bestseller
National Book Critic's Circle Award Finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the YearThe Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York, People, Rocky Mountain News, Time, The Village Voice, The Washington Post
The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as "an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century," Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we've read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching Mystic River, blew fans all away with the mind-bending Shutter Island, and switches gears with Coronado, his new collection of gritty short stories (and one play). Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little placefor love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in The Crossing. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In The Road, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --Dennis Lehane
Product Description:
National Bestseller
National Book Critic's Circle Award Finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the YearThe Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York, People, Rocky Mountain News, Time, The Village Voice, The Washington Post
The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A very well written book
This is a fun and entertaining book that is extremely well written. It is the story of a father and his son in a post-apocalyptic world. It is a very touching story. However, don't expect any twists to the story line. This is not a thriller to keep you at the edge of your seat. This is a very human story told in a very human way in beautifully written prose. It is a story of relationships, trust, and survival.
The main comment I have is that we do not learn much about the characters ... Read More
Rating: 
- Hands-Down Brilliance
My first Cormac McCarthy novel, and I drank it up continually thirsty for more. McCarthy has a way of creating an enchanting magic that captures the reader, and left me breathless in awe of the brilliant simplicity that is The Road.Haunting. Heartbreaking. Hallowing. A must read.
Rating: 
- Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
I give the author the benefit of the doubt, and don't think that he even attempted to picture a realistic post-apocalyptic world. As his is nothing of the kind.
There is no disaster imaginable that would kill the seeds in the ground, nearly all the plants, plants that can stay alive in such severe conditions and require only little sunlight, the fishes in the sea and in the lakes, all the birds in the sky, all the mammalians that can ... Read More
Rating: - In a world not far from our own
The Road is a chilling look at our close future. As humans, we devour everything and contribute nothing. We destroy everything beautiful. The Road shows us what we have coming. Sooner then you think.
Rating: - Simply the best book I've ever read.
I read this book about 7 months ago and still it's on my mind. This has been reviewed numerous times but felt compelled to add my two cents. After reading the book I passed it off to 4 different friends who have since read the book and all have the same feeling.... WOW! Other than the few negative reviews of this book I have yet to come across anyone who says this book in no good.
I was able to relate with the main characters in the book, a dad and his son on a relentless journey. I ... Read More
- A very well written bookThis is a fun and entertaining book that is extremely well written. It is the story of a father and his son in a post-apocalyptic world. It is a very touching story. However, don't expect any twists to the story line. This is not a thriller to keep you at the edge of your seat. This is a very human story told in a very human way in beautifully written prose. It is a story of relationships, trust, and survival.
The main comment I have is that we do not learn much about the characters ... Read More
- Hands-Down BrillianceMy first Cormac McCarthy novel, and I drank it up continually thirsty for more. McCarthy has a way of creating an enchanting magic that captures the reader, and left me breathless in awe of the brilliant simplicity that is The Road.Haunting. Heartbreaking. Hallowing. A must read.
- Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
I give the author the benefit of the doubt, and don't think that he even attempted to picture a realistic post-apocalyptic world. As his is nothing of the kind.
There is no disaster imaginable that would kill the seeds in the ground, nearly all the plants, plants that can stay alive in such severe conditions and require only little sunlight, the fishes in the sea and in the lakes, all the birds in the sky, all the mammalians that can ... Read More
- In a world not far from our ownThe Road is a chilling look at our close future. As humans, we devour everything and contribute nothing. We destroy everything beautiful. The Road shows us what we have coming. Sooner then you think.
- Simply the best book I've ever read.I read this book about 7 months ago and still it's on my mind. This has been reviewed numerous times but felt compelled to add my two cents. After reading the book I passed it off to 4 different friends who have since read the book and all have the same feeling.... WOW! Other than the few negative reviews of this book I have yet to come across anyone who says this book in no good.
I was able to relate with the main characters in the book, a dad and his son on a relentless journey. I ... Read More
