Cormac McCarthy

The Road is the astonishing post-apocalyptic and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy. A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food – and each other. 'So good that it will devour you. It is incandescent.' – Daily Telegraph

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Road

In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity. 250,000 first printing.

Sadie Hoffman

There is no prophet in the earth’s long chronicle who’s not honored here today. Whatever form you spoke of you were right.

He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.

Karmen 

The boy sat by the fire wrapped in a blanket watching him. Drop of water, a fading light. Old dreams encroached upon the waking world.

Chey

I will do what I promised, he whispered. No matter what. I will not send you into the darkness alone. 

She was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift. 

Kyler Phillips

You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget

Jeremy Fiest

He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.

Sophia Bowers

Jemima Scott

With an introduction by novelist John Banville. In a burned-out America, a father and his young son walk under a darkened sky, heading slowly for the coast. They have no idea what, if anything, awaits them there. The landscape is destroyed, nothing moves save the ash on the wind and cruel, lawless men stalk the roadside, lying in wait. Attempting to survive in this brave new world, the young boy and his protector have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves. They must keep walking. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Road is an incandescent novel, the story of a remarkable and profoundly moving journey. In this unflinching study of the best and worst of humankind, Cormac McCarthy boldly divines a future without hope, but one in which, miraculously, this young family finds tenderness. An exemplar of post-apocalyptic writing, The Road is a true modern classic, a masterful, moving and increasingly prescient novel.

Derek Barlas

Wow, talk about dark! This book is dark with a capital D . I read No Country for Old Men and loved it - I loved this one just as much, but it is a bit depressing.

Katelyn Payne 

This book is good but I don’t think I would put it as one of the best books I’ve read. I read this book for my English class this tri and my teacher claims it is one of his top 5 favorite books because it’s so great. I just feel like the story arc is a little predictable. They’d walk a little bit, get lucky, that would last for a couple pages then they would be on the move and almost die again. I also didn’t like the fact there was no connection created between me and the book. It simply felt like I was reading words and not an actual story. I do think the story had potential but not the way it’s written here.

fiona

dnf at a little over 50%.

atmospheric and i do love myself a good depressed father who has to take care of their child. but i got so bored and the dialogue was so drab and repetitive that I stopped really caring after a little while.

This book is everything I didn’t know I needed in my life. It’s one of the most touching and beautifully written books I’ve ever read. It’s deep and heartbreaking. It has changed my entire perspective on the way I view humanity, the earth and my parents. It is simply life changing. 🔥

Gripping, haunting and beautiful, sunk into my bones like a chill. 

Gripping, haunting and beautiful, sunk into my bones like a chill. 

I carry the fire within me. 

In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.

Heart-wrenhing, tragic, and full of the kind of open-ended mystery that keeps me up at night.

Sawyer Stever

I don't think the dad is a good parent. I understand that when we are in trauma, we are not our best selves, but I think the dad still has a responsibility to treat a boy with basic respect. There are so many stories of parents like this, I'm ready for a story we are in the trauma of the apocalypse we still see a parent that treats a child the way they deserve to be treated. Couldn't finish

nidia t

When humanity is on the brink of extinction, to what extent do the constraints of morality uphold? What does it truly mean to be human, and how does humanity uphold amidst even the direst, most challenging of situations? Are humans ultimately the real monsters - ones that seek to ravage what is left of one another in a mere attempt to grasp onto the final remaining sliver of salvation? 

Apocalyptic literature strips humanity 
of its superficial yet characteristic elements; disregarding the complexities and constraints of modernity — equipping individuals with the sole motive of survival. What’s left is a raw, undisguised, unrestrained display of human emotion and struggles at its very core. What does it mean to be human, when the idea of “being human” is all that remains? Conflicts are exposed to us in their entirety in a society where everyone is left to fend for themselves; highlighting humanity’s struggle with egocentrism, the uncertainty of the existence of morality, and the absence of compassion.

Yet it does not stray away from humankind’s core purpose; despite its dystopian setting, apocalyptic literature ultimately serves the purpose of isolating and illuminating human values whilst transcending the boundaries of the world as we know it. This begs the question: in the midst of desolation, is there an ever-so-slight glimpse of humanity left that is truly worth saving?

Probably much more impressive when it was first released but there's been a lot of apocalypse fiction more recently.

I think the author's style just doesn't appeal to me very much.

Kyle Sawatsky

Probably much more impressive when it was first released but there's been a lot of apocalypse fiction more recently.

I think the author's style just doesn't appeal to me very much.

Jonathan Tysick

Although touching in some parts (especially since I have a baby boy), I found this book to be a bit slow, repetitive and sometimes too fancy for my tastes (complex sentences, little used elaborate words). Maybe a 2.5 is more accurate.

Although it hurt emotionally, I truly enjoyed the way this book discussed Post-apocalyptic trauma and grief. It was refreshing to know more about the characters feelings than the actual disaster that got them there.

Bonus points for the imagery staying vivid without long, boring descriptions. 

Although it hurt emotionally, I truly enjoyed the way this book discussed Post-apocalyptic trauma and grief. It was refreshing to know more about the characters feelings than the actual disaster that got them there.

Bonus points for the imagery staying vivid without long, boring descriptions. 

how can one book be so boring and yet fast paced at the same time.

Megan Christensen

charisa

ok, who in the world shelved this as YA in the chinatown library?? if i read this as a preteen i would not have been able to sleep for a week straight. 

in a word: BLEAK. so very bleak. there’s something hemingway-esque about mccarthy’s prose that elevates the feeling of threadbare hope. it’s choppy and sparse, like the very breath of the father and his son. i wouldn’t care for it in most other contexts, but it lays appropriate ground for a brutal apocalypse. 

i’m still trying to decide if this was an ultimately hopeful story, or one slanting towards despair. at the heart of it, i think, is the quiet yet unshakable belief that love is still valid despite the loss of everything else, and that love can provide purpose until the very end. so yes, bleak, but also illuminated by a small, inextinguishable flame!

thinking about morality in survival as well: is there a certain point at which survival becomes inherently selfish? how do you weigh your own suffering and survival against that of others?

Wynter

The Road is a peculiar book. I was simultaneously intrigued and bored by it. The particular writing style, where McCarthy omits all punctuation, but the period, works out well for me. I thought it helped me get deeper into the story without any visual markers to distract me. The action, even though slowly unfolding, is cinematic and vivid. You can see every gruesome and grimy detail with ease. At the same time I couldn't get on board with the main characters. Both the man and the boy annoyed me at times, especially through their stilted dialogue. I thought of giving it a three stars rating, but the end really did touch me, so I'm bumping it up a star. I'm curious to see who the contenders for that year's Pulitzer were competing against The Road.

Julian

An invasive heart wrenching story about a father and son alone in a dystopian wasteland. A book that will keep you on the edge of your seat with anticipation, and leave you crying, yet satisfied.

Michael Springer

Well, it's not often you can call a Cormac McCarthy book "sweet." It's also not often you're tempted to call a post-apocalyptic novel filled with rapist cannibals "sweet." Yet, The Road is surprisingly hopeful (on a Cormac McCarthy scale), presenting a world filled with the same unfathomable darkness and mystery that characterizes most of McCarthy's work, yet showing two people who struggle on regardless of that darkness: a father and his son, who "carry the flame." 

We never learn why nearly everything is dead. As is often the case with McCarthy's work, he leaves out the details that aren't essential. What we do know is that a man survived a huge event that killed nearly everything, and he has a young son. The son was born after the event happened, and only knows what he's heard from his father about the world before. With a map that is so old that it's a bunch of numbered pieces, they trace their path to the coast. They travel toward the coast for the sake of having some destination, although they don't know what they'll find there.

As always, McCarthy's writing is evocative, sparse and with the customary lack of punctuation. He could write books with no plot and just description and they'd still be worth reading. But the relationship between the father and his son is what makes The Road such a terrific book. The dialogue between them is just so fraggin good. McCarthy doesn't need to tell you anything about their relationship, about their feelings, about their struggles: it all comes through naturally in their conversation. It's all so believable, so natural, and often so hilarious. 

The father is struggling to survive, but he's more concerned about keeping his son alive. The son is often angered by the fact that they can't save everyone they come across. The father often makes small concessions to the son, but when they come across a starving old man, he refuses to do more than give him a meal and let him stay with them for one night. He remains a realist about their very limited resources and their ability to truly trust others. 

The biggest threats are starvation and dehydration, but they also have to watch out for the organized groups of cannibals who roam the road. It seems that more humans survived the apocalypse than any other kind of animal, or else the humans were able to survive the aftermath better. Either way, many people have turned to cannibalism, since it is the most readily available type of food. This makes some of the meetings with other people out on the road quite scary, since our main characters don't know what to expect from any chance encounters.

So, why is it five stars? I don't often give books a full five, but I feel The Road deserves it because of a combination of factors. 1: The characters are full and rich and believable and I loved them. 2: This is the strongest depiction of a post-apocalyptic world that I've encountered in fiction or in film. You never need to suspend your disbelief; everything feels too real for the fantasy to be even slightly fractured. 3: The book is concise, taking less than 300 pages to tell its complete story (which has a surprisingly strong ending considering the bleakness of the world). And, 4: looking back, I can't find anything at all to fault. I recommend this one to any and everyone.

Matt Stein

My review: https://mattstein.com/books/the-road

John Banville

Road

I've read and played my share of post-apocalyptic books and games, but I've never experienced a story as bleak and desolate as that of the boy and the man on the road. A haunting, almost uncomfortable experience.

Frederik De Bosschere

Jake Yard

This was the first of McCarthy’s work I’ve read. A majority of this book is quite repetitive and focuses on the relationship between the characters. It does do a great job of placing you in this dystopian land and although there are some great parts to this book but in-between I thought it felt a little slow.

Will I read another McCarthy book? Probably not anytime soon…

Great book to read but definitely not for the weak hearted. The ending was not my favourite. 

Ksenija 

Great book to read but definitely not for the weak hearted. The ending was not my favourite. 



The choice to not use quotations to denote speaking is a stylistic choice that some people may not like or may take some getting used to. I personally didn't like it because there would be dialogue exchanges going back and forth between 2 characters and I sometimes forgot which person was speaking. The lack of quotations and how the writing almost feels more like poetry than a novel is very much part of Cormac McCarthy's writing style and from what I've read from reviews, you either like it or you don't. A few people have pointed out the writing style as a reason they didn't finish or weren't overly fond of the book which I think is fair. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I managed to read it in about 3 days. I already saw the movie and therefore knew a lot of what was going to happen beforehand. There were a few times that I gasped or audibly went 'no way'. It was atmospheric and compelling. We only have two characters to pay attention to so if you like a small cast of characters this is a good read. 

It's a bleak and raw story but it isn't to the point you feel like it's such a downer that you can't go on. 

The choice to not use quotations to denote speaking is a stylistic choice that some people may not like or may take some getting used to. I personally didn't like it because there would be dialogue exchanges going back and forth between 2 characters and I sometimes forgot which person was speaking. The lack of quotations and how the writing almost feels more like poetry than a novel is very much part of Cormac McCarthy's writing style and from what I've read from reviews, you either like it or you don't. A few people have pointed out the writing style as a reason they didn't finish or weren't overly fond of the book which I think is fair. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I managed to read it in about 3 days. I already saw the movie and therefore knew a lot of what was going to happen beforehand. There were a few times that I gasped or audibly went 'no way'. It was atmospheric and compelling. We only have two characters to pay attention to so if you like a small cast of characters this is a good read. 

It's a bleak and raw story but it isn't to the point you feel like it's such a downer that you can't go on. 

This book changed my relationship with reading. Incredible story and the most profound writing I’ve ever experienced. I can express how inspired I was after reading this book.

David Pascuzzo

Prashanth Srivatsa

Heart wrenching. Terribly beautiful, and although the dialogues get repetitive over a period of time, the conversation between the old man and the survivors will remain as one of the most brilliant ones I've ever read.
 
One of those books that will look back after many decades and tell us all, "I told you so."

The Road Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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