Search - The Road

This is the saddest book ever written. The father figure is in the most hopeless situation of all time. There has been some kind of nuclear catastrophe. The air is largely unbreathable. His wife has comitted suicide. There are no more animals or plant life. And the remaining humans are either banded into cannibalistic hoardes or pitiful wanderers. The father and the son survive day to day on whatever canned food they can gather from hidden stores in vacant households. All the while moving toward the unknown seashore. The father carries a gun to kill himself and his son should they be captured by cannibals. Did I mention that the situation was hopeless? The brilliance in this book is in describing the relationship between the father and son. I have never read anything like it. As the father of an 8 year old boy, this book affected me.

Although the context of this book may be viewed as depressing and dark, there has been no greater book that I have read to make me feel more alive and thankful for the abundance my life offers. Any man who would call himself a father would do no less for their son than the man in this book. Ending provides a hopeful outcome that the reader must determine.

Admired craftmanship, but hated the book. It was bleak, depressing, dark, lacking in hope.

I found this book to be very readable.. It was a dark story but the love between father and son was touching. Usually when I see an Oprah book I run the other way but this was an exception.

Intensely readable, but at the same time frustrating. You want to keep reading to try to piece together what's happened, but it's futile, which is probably one of McCarthy's points.

I like futuristic comments on society, but this novel lacked plot. It did make me think and question the current world, but I was bored with the story 50 pages into the book.