The Road

The Road is a story of a father and son’s journey for survival through the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the American southeast. It’s set in an endless winter, in burned lifeless forests and on abandoned roads. The man and the boy travel only with a small stash of belongings and the food they have scavenged from the dead, ash-covered earth and abandoned homes. Many years before an unexplained catastrophe destroyed the earth. There is no sunshine, the air is thick with soot, rivers and the ocean are black, and most life has become extinct. Those left are refugees like the boy and the man, or marauders and cannibals.

Their journey is nothing short of terrifying. The desolation, the utter bleakness of their prospects is haunting. However, The Road is also a miraculous story of love and hope. Despite their misery, father and son continually remind themselves that they “carry the fire;” that they possess an inherent goodness, and a faith that civility and decency persist somewhere in the world. And the man and the boy’s devotion to one another remind us of the basic, undeniable authority of love. (And although my review may suggest otherwise, the novel isn't unnecessarily weighed down with generic themes or by apocalyptic dread. The Road is also an adventure novel.)

McCarthy's writing is epic and beautiful: "The soft black talc blew through the streets like squid ink uncoiling along a sea floor and the cold crept down and the dark came early and the scavengers passing down the steep canyons with their torches trod silky holes in the drifted ash that closed behind them silently as eyes."

And simple, bare and gripping: "He held him all night, dozing off and waking in terror, feeling for the boy's heart. In the morning he was no better. He tried to get him to drink some juice but he would not. He pressed his hand to his forehead, conjuring up a coolness that would not come. He wiped his white mouth while he slept. I will do what I promised, he whispered. No matter what. I will not send you into the darkness alone."

The Road is a brilliantly conceived allegory. And despite its darkness, it's also an extremely rewarding novel.