Book Reviews of The Road

This is a work of art. Many people say it is a dark, depressing book. In some ways, that is true, but the beauty of the relationship between the father and son creates a depth and richness contrasting the dire circumstances the characters are facing. Cormac McCarthy writes with ellegance. His text is filled with imagery and often reads like poetry. Quotations and tag lines aren't used and yet because the characters voices are so strong, you have no trouble determining who is speaking. You walk with them on their journey and become so immersed in the world the are in, you will cry when they suffer and wish you could somehow jump in and save them. I couldn't put it down and cried more than once while reading it. It is so powerful, you will feel like you've just lived through this tragic, poignant story yourself.

A plodding book, with no point as far as I can tell. No character development, no explanations for the situation, nothing. The prose is oddly structured and stilted, perhaps in an attempt to be more like prose poetry than story telling. I finished it, but I don't know why. I certainly didn't learn anything from it.

Update on 11/29/08: As I was scrolling through my previous posted reviews I came across this one and a new thought occurred to me. I suspect that if this book had been written by an unknown author it would never have been published, let alone selected by Oprah. The only thing that caused it to get noted at all - because it sure isn't the contents - is the fact that a major, published author wrote it. I suggest reading something else.

This is one of the most thought-provoking and well-written books I have read. Yes, it's dark. Yes, it's disturbing. But it's also a beautiful story of a father and son's relationship and determination to survive in a terrifying world. Some of the scenes in the book still haunt me, but this is one of those books that I know I'll read over and over again.

I couldn't put the book down even though it was one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I kept waiting for something good to happen. The end was not as uplifting as I had hoped for. I would not recomend this to a friend. That's why I'm posting it.

This book is dark and disturbing but, I just could not put it down. I read it in a day and am haunted by the images floating around in my head. The book is a testament to a father's love and the lengths a person will go to when faced with the most desperate situation. It will make you think of things you never want to think about.

I was really surprised by this one. It had a lot of hype and it was an Oprah Book Club pick, which usually means I will be bored or disappointed, but this one exceeded my expectations.

Great story! I couldn't stop reading this because I needed to know what happened next. It is written in short scene breaks that bothered me at first, but it made sense for the telling of this story and I think it added to the can't-put-down-yness.

It was bleak and sad, but hopeful. Some parts were scary and I actually got so into how creepy the bad guys were, that I was paranoid walking around my own house in the dark.

Good stuff. I highly recommend it even if you think it's not your kind of book.

I know that some people were bothered by the writing style, but I thought that it was perfect once I got into the rhythm of the prose. It felt authentic, like it was being told by someone who was there, someone who wouldn't waste words. As though the words to tell this story are as scarce as everything else is in the setting. I really thought that it was brilliantly written, in the very best way to tell this story.

This is the most depressing book I have read since I read Blindness by Jose Saramago. But like Blindness, I will never forget The Road. I could not stop reading it even though I wished that I could. Perhaps this is the mark of a great book: When it grips us, and tears at us, and we can't put it down, and we will never, ever, forget it.

This book is a wonderful, horrible story of a father and son going through the unthinkable. I loved it. I was thought provoking and intense. As a parent it made me think about things I wouldn't want to go through. I would definately suggest reading this.

Horrifing, morose, graphic. I did not finish this book, one of the few times I have ever chosen to not finish reading a best seller.
Far to intense for me.

Very disturbing but touching. Only one way to end you think and then pow another way for it to go. Very touching and moving

This book is dark and distrubing but so, so amazing. This was the most important book I've read in years, by far. A father and son search for hope and humanity in a future where the Earth is suspended in a nuclear winter and the end of the human race seems inevitable. A hauntingly beautiful book that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

I know it's wildly popular, but I hated this book. I found the premise completely unbelievable - anything that could concievably kill off plant life on Earth would have killed humans long before, and even if plants were killed, there would be generations' worth of mushrooms and other decay organisms to eat. The language was suppossed to be compelling in its simplicity, but I just found it stilted and bathetic. The father was suppossed to be a tough survivor, but what kind of idiot can't stay warm in a forest full of dead trees to burn?

And this may be a pet peeve, but it struck me as creepy that the author postulates killing all life on the entire planet, and then focuses on getting this one little boy to survive. He doesn't touch on anything other than *human* deaths, and the characters don't even seem to notice that every other living thing is gone too, or miss any aspect of the natural world (except for a briefly mentioned family dog). Don't get me wrong - I value human life way above anything else - but to completely ignore the fact that whatever happened (however implausible it may be) killed an entire world of richly diverse species that would also like very much to survive is a wierd ommission.

Talk about a POINTLESS book!!!! I don't get all the craze and rave reviews about this book!!! Absolutely nothing much happened in this book and the somewhat notable things that did happen have been done over and over again in many other books.

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Something awful has happened to the world and only a few scraggly survivors remain. The story is about a father and son who are left and really only have each other. They are traveling along 'the road' to get to the coast...for some unknown reason. The dad just thinks going to the coast is a good idea for some reason. They trudge along finding abandoned shelters and left behind supplies that they gather together and push around in a cart. The son seems pretty young, maybe about 10, so he gets tired and sick a lot. Sometimes along the way they run into other survivors, some good, some bad. They make it to the coast eventually and then towards the end the father dies and the boy is left on his own for like a day until another group of people comes along and takes him in. And..that's pretty much everything. Luckily this book has very little description so it was a quick read.

I guess the story was supposed to be about the father/son bond and relationship during hard times, but I didn't really care about them. This whole end of the world BS has been done over and over. Even Stephen King did a much better job in The Stand making the reader care about his characters. I'm glad I'm done with this book. It was lame!

I read this book because I started it and every one talked about it. I really disliked it. Very dark and disturbing.

So many books are described as "haunting" - this one truly lives up to the description. Will stay with you long after you read it.

This is a good example of a book that will pump you up for suicide. It's sad, then sadder, then bleak, then dismal. The relationship between the main character and his son seems stilted at the same time it's affectionate. Mourning, I would say, is the theme for this book; mourning for the way life used to be, mourning over those dead and gone, and mourning over the inevitable.

McCarthy's odd style of writing actually worked here - the short, episodic scenes served to mimic the quick desperation of a day-to-day existence. The sparse language mirrored the silence that had to happen in order to survive. Recommended for those who love sad books.

It was a very slow read for me. Up until I reached the middle, I considered putting it away and not finishing it. Not that it picked up in the middle, it's just that by that point I wanted to know how it ended. Although I don't recommend it because it was that boring, it WAS a subject that stayed with me after I finished reading it and gave me much thought. So, you be the judge!

This book was a really hard one to read, due to the content, but I couldn't stop reading it at the same time. It gives amazing insight as to what extent people will go to survive. It's dark, but very compelling.

Dark but so well written.
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year (by 11 papers).

Color me obtuse but I just couldn't see any point of this book. Here is a plot synopsis as I remember it:

apocalypse of some sort occurs
father and son are together
good people die
bad people live
scary times

All told in pretty much the same sparse wording, which is supposed to be meaningful (I guess?).

Far too simplistic for my liking. I read the whole thing but I'm not entirely sure why - I think I was hoping for this book to suddenly have a point. It didn't. Mercifully, it is a very quick read, so I didn't waste much time on it at all.

Not recommended...

This is one of my favorite books. It is definately my favorite McCarthy book. I'm a fan of end of the world literature and this is one of the best. I love that he doesn't slow the story down with lots of backstory information. His writing sometimes takes getting used to but this story moves along pretty clearly.

I'm 42 years old and I've been an avid reader since I was about 7 years old. There have been a lot of great books go through my hands and even a few bad ones, but there are a few that make a very short list books that have truly moved me. Tim O'Brien, Ernest Hemingway and Pat Conroy are the authors of some of those books.
Now Cormac McCarthy earns a place on that list. I read No Country for Old Men first because the movie was so fabulous. But then I picked up The Road. For anyone who reads this book...if it does not move you, I mean really move you, then either you are not human, or you don't have a beating heart.
This book is definitely on the top 20 books I've ever read.

Well, wasn't this a cheerful little book? People roasting newborn babies over campfires. Charred burned corpses littering the highways. Hopelessness and despair and impending death. Yup, a real hoot.
Lots of readers found this book uplifting and inspiring. To me it was just so depressing and gruesome. I couldn't take it and had to set it aside for several months. I don't need to be hit over the head with a brick, which is exactly what this book does to the reader. Not to my taste at all.

I read this in a day because the author is so skillful at weaving his tale, but because it was such a horribly depressing and bleak portrayal of the post-apocolyptic world, I would not recommend it. I saw absolutely no beauty in the relationship between father and son (though the love is evident) because as a parent nothing is more terrifying than being unable to protect and care for your children. The end is depressingly inevitable.

Yep...just gonna lay it out there. It was sooo depressing. I found nothing redeeming in this book whatsoever. I'm glad so many people liked it, I wasn't one of them and I'm sorry I wasted my money on it. Good luck to those of you who have it wishlisted, because someone is going to get lucky.

McCarthy's spare prose and vivid imagery create an all-too-real vision of a post-apocalyptic America, and one of the most touching and real father-son relationships I've ever read. By turns horrifying and heartbreaking, this book is absolutely amazing.

A post-cataclysmic world, dark and raw, reduces humans to simply forage eating. Father and son walk an old state highway through nature destroyed seeking what was lost. We see violence and urges for dominance/control reign due to scarcity of resources.

Important is the father's need to define and maintain for his son a sense of what is the transcending good. Especially now, evil and cruelty are pervasive in the surrounding world; a fallen society seems to say all things, including cannibalism, are relative and a matter of opinion or necessity.

In this respect, McCarthy's father/son dynamic works to show the anxiety any father might feel in preparing their son for all unknowns of a quickly changing world; guidance is especially needed in this dog eat dog(man eat man)McCarthy vision. Society is without fixed rituals for bringing young men in to adulthood; the father has only so much time to prepare his son; childhood innocence is fleeting, failure means ruin.

Early on son asks his fearful father why they did not help a stranger in need, aren't we the good guys? Implied message, if the good guys don't help others who will help us. Despite his desire for a higher good, father trusts fear and replies, in essence, that goodness is relative and survival paramount. Insidious how "being realistic" undermines hope for higher moral truth. Against all reason, will these lost souls still find some hope?

As others mention, story does not really have a plot to give away, it lacks closure, and we never learn what causes the disaster. But that does not mean THE ROAD is without merit, the story's experience is in the journey of McCarthy's prose and not the ending.

Once you read this book, you'll never forget it. It's dark and sad yet beautifully written. A very thought provoking book. The most touching part of the book for me was the love between the father and son and the lengths they went through to stay together.

Doesn't live ip to the hype

Great book. It's written differently and took me awhile to get used to but left me with a chill that I wanted more of.

Interesting, well written, but nothing new in the dystopia genre. It's the usual story of the depths to which man can sink when confronted with mortality and misery.

quick read -apocalyptic and disturbing

Very dark, but a quick, easy read. Thought provoking, but a little too abstract and weird for me.

Disturbing, hard to figure out sometimes. No real ending. Sort of left me hanging.

I will never read this book again and I will never recommend it to anyone, especially the easily depressed. This was very dark and disturbing. It was also beautiful. I'm glad I read it, but ...

My 16 yo son read this book and raved about it - we don't usually like the same genre, but I had heard good reviews about the book and decided to read it. I finished it in 5 days (I work full-time). I couldn't put it down. The book is dark, and I think brings to light what some fear may happen one day. The book would leave me feeling dually optimistic and scared at the same time. You are waiting for everything they fear in the shadows. I would absolutely recommend this book to a friend - it was a great, can't put down, book.

I've read a lot of books but this one is definitely Top 5 of all-time in my opinion. Such a haunting, sad story, one that I thought many times I couldn't bare to read more of. People have criticized it for its lack of punctuation and its near-absence of dialogue, but I found myself forgetting about all of that just a few pages into the story. It's a bleak story about the end of the world, where conversation and punctuation no longer matter; literally nothing matters except survival, yet the protagonists manage to hold onto a fundamental moral code. At first I couldn't wait to find out what happened to the world but then I realized, it doesn't matter what happened. Nor does it matter that almost nothing is mentioned of the world before its end. I'm the kind of person who wants to know everything but I literally stopped caring what happened.

McCarthy's depiction of the world is flawlessly consistent and horrifyingly believable. He pulls the reader right in. Through all this darkness and utter despair, there is this story of unyielding love between father and son. I've never read a story of such genuine love before. I finished this book months ago but I still think of it off-and-on every few days. I ask myself, "could I have survived? Could I have kept my sanity and morals? Could I have sacrificed so much for my own child?" It literally affected my outlook of the world; it made me greater appreciate life and what we have. It can all be gone in an instant with little explanation.

The best moment of the book is when father and son meet a fellow traveler on the road, an old man. The old man asks the father, "how would you know if you were the last man on earth?" Man, that's deep. READ THIS BOOK!

I've waited a few days after finishing to write something about this book, hoping to achieve a fair and balanced opinion of this Pulitzer-prize winning novel.
And trying to figure out WHY it won said prize.

I think it's a Harry Potter thing. I may have mentioned this before, but a friend told me a story about her non-fantasy-reading friend, who read a Harry Potter novel. Said person was like, "Wow! It was AMAZING! It's like the author created a Whole Different World!" The concept had never occurred to her, let alone that there's a whole genre of novels that "create whole new worlds."

Likewise, I think the people that are impressed by "The Road" have probably never read a post-apocalyptic novel.

Maybe it's just that I read the 1965 novel by John Christopher "The Ragged Edge" just a couple of months ago, and it's fresh in my mind... but, IMHO, "The Road" verges on plagiarism. It's the SAME EXACT STORY. OK, so "The Road" takes place a little bit further after the disaster, and the kid travelling with the man through the post-apocalyptic wasteland is his biological son, not an adopted orphan, and "The Ragged Edge" has a few more characters thrown in. But they've even got nearly the same scene on a ship! How likely is that?

Basically, I think Cormac McCarthy probably read the other novel at some point, said, "I can do this better," and threw in some religious allegory, made it clear that Man was responsible for the disaster (although that's hardly original, either), and wrote it in poetic language. But you know what? I LIKE full sentences and punctuation. OK, occasionally sentence fragments can be used effectively. But the whole book is sentence fragments! And leaving out apostrophes from contractions is just distracting, annoying, and serves no poetic purpose.

Ah well; I am sure many readers out there will disagree with me, but that's my honest opinion!

I found this book to be haunting. Well written, I couldn't put it down.

I casually flipped through this book last night before going to bed, and ended up staying up until 3AM to finish reading this! One of the few books to really scare me (I couldn't walk around my dark apartment afterwards) and also to move me to tears. Hard to really categorize this book; calling it an "apocalypse book" would capture the dark, disturbing atmosphere and brutal nature, but would not emphasize the beautiful father/son story. I cried at the contrast between the mother and the father in terms of being mentally strong enough to care for their baby. The book may not have much detail, background story, or even much conversation...but the terse, brief sentences only enhance the desperation of the situation. When one is starving to death, one probably doesn't have much time to compose long cohesive sentences!

I guess since this book got labeled an "Oprah" book, it unfortunately got typecast to be of a certain genre. This book is neither happy nor does it have that "Oprah attitude" (you know, cheer for the quirky/odd character who overcomes her difficulties in life!). This book is blunt, brutal, and real.

This story is fantastically told. There is a sense of dread which emanates from the pages. I read this book with a feeling similar to the sensation of watching a horror movie.... with hands covering eyes, but eyes peeking through my fingers to see what happens next. "Enjoy" is the wrong word to describe how I feel about this book; "appreciate" is a better choice. This book is a testament to the power of the written word.

Excellent fiction with timesless theme: the power of love & humanity. But the style & plot may not be for everyone. I can see why this won the pulitzer prize.

just finished this book and still digesting it - isn't that a sign of a good book. A dark look into a relationship surviving in the worst of times.

I hated this book so much that I stayed up for four hours one night finishing it. I couldn't put the stupid thing down. It left me asking questions and thinking about life. Read this book only if you have the self control to put it down every once in awhile to tend to your own life.

I could not put this book down! It was sooo beautifully written. A love story between father and son. A story of survival. A story of hope. A must read!

Really great book. Read in one sitting. Deep moving story about a man and his son on a terrible journey where there is no future that they can see.

This book was amazing ... but EXTREMELY dark. Be ready for some disturbing images if you read this.

Cormac McCarthy is one of you best writers in the 21st century. This book will lead you to his other writings which are just as gripping and diverse. I can't imagine a more wonderful father-son story written in a worse time than this. TRY to put it down.....

Very interesting book. I'm not sure if I liked it, but it was a quick read. Leaves lots of questions.

"A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind." I could not put this book down! Interesting style of writing. You never know the father or son's names. They are scrambling to survive and we get to take the journey with them.

This book is an easy and fast reader. It is kind of sad but shows a wonderful relationship between father and son. It is a book you could probably read in one sitting.

Although the book was deeply disturbing at times, it was hard to put down!

THis was a compelling book that I could NOT PUT DOWN. I read it in a day. Very dark, but artfully presented in a way that perfectly fit the subject matter. I highly recommend this book.

About 20 pages into The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I didn't think I was going to be able to finish the book. However, I had heard so many good things about the novel -- which features a theme that's right up my alley -- that I perservered. In the end, I'm glad I finished the book, but I know that I will never, ever read it again, and probably wouldn't recommend it to others.

My biggest problem with The Road was the author's use of language. I know that the lack of punctuation was for effect. I get that. But the inconsistencies drove me crazy -- I just couldn't turn off the inner editor in my mind. Why, Mr. McCarthy, do you only use commas in dialogue? (I mean, I have to guess that those sections were dialogue because you also don't seem to think quotation marks are important.) And why do you use apostrophes in some possessives and not others? Some contractions, but not others? In your post-apocalyptic world, is punctuation as scarce as food?

It's a shame that this device was so distracting, because in other ways, the writing is quite beautiful. McCarthy's word choice is surprising at times and very descriptive, helping draw the reader quickly into the despair felt by the story's nameless father and son, and painting a bleak image of the world they now live in.

The Road takes place years after a global disaster. Although it is never defined, I gathered that it was some kind of meteor event, based on the sooty air and the lack of concern over radiation. The story follows a father and young son -- each the other's whole world -- as they struggle to find food and resources by scavenging the scorched land. They are walking to the sea and to warmer climates, fighting a daily struggle to stay fed and to avoid contact with other survivors -- many of whom have resorted to cannibalism.

I know this was not supposed to be an uplifting story. But as a parent, I found it extremly difficult to read. The suffering is so palpable, and the love between the father and son is so compelling, even reading about their pain was almost unbearable. I considering closing the cover for good more than once.

Another problem I had with The Road was the naked and matter-of-fact horrors it contained. The gruesomeness of this new world was almost too much to stomach. For example, in one scene, the "good guys" encounter other survivors that are cooking a headless baby on a spit. I read horror, and expect to be shocked by authors when reading those books. But in this context, it was so grim and disturbing, I actually had nightmares about it.

Overall, I can't say The Road was a bad book. From a literary standpoint, I understand why it has received such acclaim -- McCarthy makes some very brave choices in his writing style and subject matter that really make the book notable.

But the bottom line is, I didn't like The Road, and I felt nothing other than a sense of relief when it was finished. I know Oprah recommended it, but I just can't do the same.

Very good book. This is the first book I've read by Cormac McCarthy and I was not disappointed. He's a good story teller and left me thinking that if the earth comes to an end I want to go with it.

LOVED it. One of my all-time favorites. I've had trouble reading some of McCarthy's other novels, but this one was superb. I highly recommend it.

This is one of the best books I've ever read, possibly the best. It was written in such an interesting way, with incomplete sentences and seemingly disconnected paragraphs, but that only added to the story's beauty. It just made it have a unique feel and added to the tension and calm when needed. The story was heartbreaking and creative. It was painful and scary at times, and had a heavy feeling to it. The father and son made for very understandable characters. I couldn't recommend this book highly enough! It is a modern classic and a nearly-perfect novel.

Wonderfully written and very heartbreaking novel. You can feel the desolation but the hope is still alive. Not a recommendation for light before-bed reading as it made me a little paranoid and depressed, but a good read.

Creepy, dark and scary yet at the same time a story about love.

This book was not at all what I expected, though I'm not even sure what my expectations were. McCarthy's writing style was really different, and at first it felt choppy. In the beginning, I felt as though I wanted more information or more detail. But, as I kept reading I got used to his language, and his vivid descriptions had me wrapped up in the story. I've never read a book with such an intense feeling of hopelessness. I was so caught up in the characters' desperate situation, that it didn't occur to me to wonder how they, and the rest of the world, ended up in such a state of desolation. The book was cold and depressing, and even though it seemed unlikely, I hoped for a happy ending throughout - especially for the little boy's sake.

I think it is through the darkness and desolation, however, that the relationship between the father and son is really emphasized. They are truly the only thing either of them have left in the world, and because of that, their love for each other is tangible throughout the story. Even though I sensed this burden of hopelessness throughout the novel, I was reassured by the strength and determination of the father and son.

Mixed review. Overall glad I read it. I enjoy thinking back on it. Makes me think.

PROS:
- Different kind of book
- Quick read
- Memorable characters (dad and son)
- And I'll always remember the ending.

CONS:
- Writing can be too much of the same thing.
- There is not much of a plot. Once you've read about 10 pages, just imagine that for the rest and skip to the last 20. You'll get the story and the feeling with the ending without having to read all the same stuff in between. (Although there is a scene that's worth reading in the middle where they are going to go in a house where other people are. Uh. Scary.)

I describe this book as a coming of age story mixed with the strength of a father's love. Having no clue what this book was about when I picked it up, I can say that I was not disappointed in the least. I am not usually a fan the 'touchy feely' stories out there and having not been too impressed with All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy did a knock-out job of making me enjoy this book. It's just a good read.

I never thought I would be interested in a post apocalyptic tale but this one grabs you from the beginning. I read it in one day. Really stays with you and makes you think.

Oh my god, I just finished this book about five minutes ago and I know it will stay with me for a long time! How vivid a description of world after devastation. The story of survival for a man and his young son was heart-rendering and touching as they traveled to the coast in search of God knows what on the other side. A story of the strength of love no matter what the cost. I would recommend this highly to anyone!!!!

Although this book is dark and disturbing, it explores the love between a father and son, and the need for the human spirit to keep going and live - even when all is hopeless.

This is a book you will not forget. I promise you that. The prose is sparse. The plot is not complex. We never really learn the names of the characters. The writing is simple. You'd wonder why this would be a memorable book. Taken as a whole the entire story is unlike anything else you've read. It's set in the future when a horrible calamity has befallen people. All animal life is gone. And most plant life is gone. There is no food. Think about it. When there is no food what do people eat? Then you'll understand some of the horror in the book. It's about the darkest impulses of human nature and what we're capable of doing when the thin veneer of civilization has vanished. There are some scenes in the book that although not described in great detail are truly gruesome. If you're sensitive then this is not the book for you. The ending is hopeful although some find it vague. I found the father's character to be irritating. (SPOILER) When he knew he was dying, I think the kindest thing he could have done to the boy was to kill him with the bullet in their gun. He had no way of knowing if the boy would find kind strangers (which it seemed like he did although it's vague) or whether the boy would end up as food or as a catamite.

This book is dark, emotionally difficult, and thought provoking. I would never want to survive a catastrophe like this. I could understand why the mother did what she did. It's such a bleak future. Why bother to survive?

One of the Blackest books I've ever read. There seems no way out.

Wonderful book! No doubt the best book I've read to date. McCarthy is a unique, but amazing writer, so good you almost feel as if you're standing there with the man and the boy the entire book.

I'm now off to order a couple more of McCarthy's books, and I hope they'll live up to this one!


Amanda

This book was brillant. I think the people who found it had no point and were annoyed because no real explanation was given of why the world had come to be that way just want light reading with a happy ending and should stick to watching dramas on television that are summed up and solved in between commercials.

I could not put this down. Written in a spare and achingly clear voice. But, oh so bleak. I didn't get the hope out of it that some readers do and it left me frightend and despairing. It is, however, a masterful telling of a difficult story. It stays with me despite myself.

This is one of the best books I have read in the last few years. Cormac McCarthy's writing style took me a little while to get the hang of, but after that, I couldn't put the book down. This was his first book I have read, and the only Oprah book I have ever read. No Country for Old Men is next on my list.

Took this book with me on a recent trip to Las Vegas. Honestly I would not have finished it if I could have found an alternative but it was all I had and bookstores are unheard of on the strip. That being said, I did enjoy it although there were times I dreaded picking it back up. Haunting and being transformed to a place I'd rather not consider sums it up but does not begin to describe the trip. The hopelessness is almost unbearable and yet they go on. The father and son provide surprising reminders of the complexity of relationships and how they are ever evolving. Who is the protector and who the protected? Do you view the world as hostile or forgiving? Surprising answers if you are wiling to take the trip.

I dont even want to use the word "depressing" because i have read novels of the sort and have loved them. This book was just plain depressingly BORING. I honestly don't know how it's a Pulitzer Prize winner. There was no explanation of how the world got this way...the ending was really the only way out yet parts of it didn't make any sense. To me, anyone could have written a bunch of fragmented thoughts and written this book. Punctuation, grammar and quotation were deviant also. How on earth (no pun)this will be a movie is beyond me!

The Road was a very exceptional book. It tells the story of a father and son after the earth has burned and most of its inhabitants are deceased and gone. They search along the road for life. Your heart bleeds and you feel completely engrossed in their journey. I had a hard time putting this down and understand why Oprah chose this book for her book club!

Very unusual book. A little difficult to get into but once I did, I couldn't put it down. If you like to read something different, this is for you.

I loved this book. Cormac McCarthy is a pecular writer. But his take on navigating post apocalyptic world is very different. He doesn't explain how the world got this way and that bugged me for awhile but I completely got over it by mid book. If you like this sort of thing, I think you'll really enjoy this book.

Beautiful book. Some may gripe about punctuation or fractured sentences but I found it unique and I was unable to put it down. Understand, this is not an uplifting story.

Depressing. Even with the wonderful story of the love a father has for his son, this was a depressing book. I'm not saying it was bad -- far from it. This was a fantastic read, and very quick. Based on other reviews, I fully expected it to be rather dark, but I did not anticipate how much it would affect me emotionally.

I am not an emotional guy. I have never cried at a movie ("The Fox and the Hound" doesn't count -- I was in grade school) and I certainly have never cried while reading a book. Until now. I suspect that it had the effect on me that it did because I, myself, have a young son. I have no doubt that this book has been an important read for many people, but for all that, it is even more profound for a father.

Or maybe it's just me and I should lay off the late-night coffee...

Really enjoyed this one. Very non-traditional writing style. It was like watching a painting, a bleak canvas with highlights of color, both good and bad throughout.

I loved this book - depressing and scary (those are good things, lol), while still hopeful. I would have liked to have known what caused the condition of the world that the book is set in though.

I've always been told that only a father can understand the love of a father. As a father I've always suspected that was true. In this book Cormac McCarthy reveals to all the rest of you how it works.

This book was simply written but completely wonderful!

This was one of the strangest books I have ever read. I was always trying to figure out what had happened to get the man and the boy into the situation they were in. This is a real thought provoker with great visual immaging.

This book was an intense read that scared the "you know what" out of me. I could not put it down. I've never read anything quite like it and it does stay with you after you put it down and the Possibility of such an occurance.

When it comes to The Road, I was dissapointed. I read all of the reviews people posted and all the hype it was givin, i thought it couldn't be bad. Well, I got to page 60, and just decided it wasn't for me.

The writing style was different, which is fine. Thats not why I stopped reading the book. I felt like there was no direction in the book and leaves a lot of questions, like what happened to the world? Maybe he deliberatly left it that way so the reader could use their imagination. I dunno. I felt like it was just going in a way with no real direction. Maybe if I read it all the way through , i would see what the hype is all about!

Good Luck With This One!

While this may be an unpopular review, I was disappointed. I found the book a hard read. It was confusing. Not the plot or story in itself, mind you - just the writing. I found this book to be full of fragmented sentences and run-on sentences that made me re-read the same paragraph several times. I "get" the idea of no quotation marks on the dialog, but at times it was difficult to tell if the characters were talking to eachother or if the main character was just thinking/remembering/dreaming (take your pick).

Now, I liked the actual theme of a wasted and savage future America - it was refreshing. The ending, however, left me needing some closure that just wasn't there. It is like the author decided that he was rambling with thoughts and needed to wrap it up fast. That was the only part of the book that read quickly.

All in all, this was not my favorite book and I probably won't recommend it to anyone.

Total devastation and no hope was the theme of this book. I found it well written, but extremely depressing. If you wonder what it would be like after holocaust, then read this book.

Absolutely spellbinding. Heartbreaking and hopeful in the same turn. I highly recommend it.

WOW, what I book. It's about a nameless man and his young son, wandering through a world gone crazy; bleak, cold, dark, where the snow falls down gray; moving south toward the coast, looking somewhere, anywhere, for life and warmth. Nothing grows in this blasted world; people turn into cannibals to survive. We don't know if we're looking at the aftermath of a nuclear war, or maybe an extinction level event -- an asteroid or a comet; McCarthy deliberately doesn't tell us, and we come to realize it doesn't matter anyway.

Scary picture of what are world could come to if we could on of path of self destruction.

This was one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. It was also one of the best books I have ever read. It has a unique style the way none of the main characters have proper names. They are referred to by their roles. Also, I liked the fact that the author never said what happened to cause the devastation nor any real cities or parts of the country. Some parts of the book were horrific but it made the book even more intense.

Awesome book. I read it in a day. It grabs your emotions and does not let go. It is a bummer of a book and will depress you...that's for sure. It made me think a lot of my little boy and what hell it must be to be in that situation. The tale of a man and his son on a walk to the sea after an apocalyptic event. I read this in a day. I couldn't stop. It was disturbing as I found myself wondering "what if....."

Horrifying, engrossing, provocative.....these are just a few descriptions that come to my mind. I could not put this book down! A very haunting tale that you will carry with you for a long time. A story of a father and his young son in the final apocalyptic days of the earth. THE ROAD is the path they struggle along daily searching for basic necessities in a dying world. Written in short paragraphs, the novel is a journal of flashbacks, dreams and conversations between the man and the little boy. They struggle daily towards an unknown goal, facing inevitable death. Their frank discussions of death are gut wrenching. This book will have you considering your own reactions if faced with similar situations. This is shocking concept and you will want to discuss this book with others after you have read it. I highly recommend this novel.

Really, really good book!!!! Love Cormac McCarthy! Beautiful writing and beautiful relationship between father and son!

I agree with a lot of the other reviews about this book on PBS, there are a lot of unanswered questions that left me a little frustrated, too. I also don't REALLY understand what all the hype around this book was about but, I still enjoyed it. It's a unique and fascinating story, even if you have to just kind of accept it without questioning how it came to be. I cried at the end nonetheless.

I still can't figure out what all of the fuss is about.

As a story, this is a failure because it tells you nothing. You ask questions -- what was the great big apocalypse, who did it, where is everyone, how did these people manage to survive -- but you don't get any answers.

As a testament of how strong parental love can be ... well, I had difficulty "getting" this from the story because the language was so sparse that any great acts of love came off as sounding hollow. More details may have gone against the book's style, but it would have rung truer and had more of an emotional impact.

Mercifully, it was a fast and simple, yet unsatisfying, read.

I am an avid reader of all types of genres. With that said, this book is very unimpressive. I have read so many reviews that are so negative and that say that I shouldn't finish the book because it is a waste of time. I really have to agree. The writing style, lack of plot, and lack of grammar are all good reasons why I chose to stop reading this book. There are lots of wonderful books out there- but this one isn't it. I can't find a reason to continue with this one.

This book is just "ok". It is a very interesting and thought-provoking story, but not one to read if you like a book that answers all it's questions and ties up all loose ends at the end of the story. The story has no real clear beginning or end.

What I did like about the book is that I felt I was really there in the story. The descriptions of the environment are so detailed I felt like I was in the story. It made me a little nervous in the dark at my house!

This is definitely not a long read. It has < 300 pages and there are huge paragraph breaks, and the font is probably size 14. :) Don't expect to get much reading time out of this. I finished it in a day and a half.

Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite authors. His prose in this book is so eloquent and weaves an incredibly wonderful, horrible tale. I found this book one I turned to with a morbid fascination, and could not have put down even if I wanted to. Definitely worth a read, but due to its chilling nature, not one I would pick up a second time.

Interesting story about a boy and his father, set in a post apocalyptic world.

Depressing, fascinating and awesome. Could not put it down.

I'm sorry I wasted my time with this book. I was expecting more from a well-known author & Oprah's book club. No character or story development. I'm glad I got this one through PBS & didn't waste my money.

This book was really good. I was unsure about it at first because it is not what I normally read, but I am so glad I gave it a try. I could envision the surrounding as the man and boy traveled down the road. It was a sad story, but so well written. I had never read anything by this author before and now I want to try one of his other books.

One of the reviewers of this book commented about the only apparent life in the book being human. My sense was that McCarthy is describing post-nuclear war, i.e., nuclear winter because of the cold and ash.

If any numbers of humans survived, then it is logical to conclude that humans would eat all animals until extinction for are we not doing it now even without a nuclear war?

Everyone should read this book along with the book "Overshoot." This book may well be our already written future history. We have not been kind to each other or to mother nature and McCarthy may well be describing for us the results of our life choices in our overuse of all of earth's bountifulness, including petroleum and other energy sources. Is not the world gearing up for war over the last petroleum and whose to say, in the fighting over the last barrel of oil, someone won't use the nuclear weapons so prevalent. McCarthy's character of the young boy keeps running through my brain--"Aren't we the good guys?" As I drive about using the last of the petroleum for somewhat questionable needs with me thinking I am one of the good gals on planet earth.

A memorable, but not necessarily enjoyable read. The writing style is unusual - terse and often incomplete sentences; the main characters are referred to as "The Man" and "The Boy". The book is set in a post-apocalypse world where few remain alive and meeting the bare necessities is almost impossible. From that perspective, the book is a fascinating look at what it takes to survive in such an environment.

3 out of 5 stars

While many Cormac McCarthy fans love this book, I found it very depressing. The last paragraph is not enough to redeem his grim vision of post-apocalytic America. I also am personally offended by McCarthy's refusal to use apostrophes and commas correctly and find this just distracting. However, Orpah and many others found this book wonderful.

Searingly brilliant tale of a father and son in post-Apocalyptic America. Hard to read, you almost dread what you know is coming, but almost impossible to put down.

A really good apacolyptic tale. Father and son struggle to survive barren american wastelands.

This is one of the most disturbing yet starkly beautiful books that I have ever read. The relationship between father and son in this novel is at the core, and it is a story of devotion and sacrifice. Wonderful.

Excellent book. Spare yet vivid. Will make you feel as if you are there.

something completely different

great book

What a great writer. I could not put it down!

hated it!!

This was truly a page-turner. I've always rather enjoyed end-of-the-world survival stories...I Am Legend, Children of Men...

I only wish they had explained exactly what had happened...

I tried to read this book because it was an Ophra pick. I dont think I would have read it if it were just an ordinary book.I just couldnt get into the book and I just didnt like it.

Dark, depressing, yet a gripping testament to the bond between father and son.

Disturbing, dark, depressing, and doesn't deliver. I've read about 2/3 of it so far and seriously doubt that I'll be able to drag myself through to the end. I still have no idea at all about why the charactors find themselves in the position they are in. What happened? What caused them to be where they are, doing what they do? The book leaves me with questions, but no answers, and I don't care enough about the questions to search for the answers, to hunt down the meanings, to learn about the incentives. I know it got excellent reviews, but I also know that I am by far not the only person who feels as I do about the book. I have tried to force myself to finish it, but there are too many other books I'd like to give my time to. I may instead give the book away in hopes that it will find a more understanding reader. As a writer myself, I know how important and valuable readers are. I'd like to feel I've given the book a chance to hit THE ROAD and find some happy readers. I'm just not one of them.

You will read this in one night. You just can't put this book down and it stays with you for months after.....I still get chills just seeing the cover!

Brilliant. Concise, evocative & profound.

Very dark but an easy, quick read.

very good

A very dark but moving book. I couldn't get the feelings and images out of my mind.

OK. A quick read. Could be a decent film.

Excellent book, read it in one sitting

This was a very dark book! However I found myself not being able to put it down nonetheless.

a haunting, dark novel.

Excellent book! It just keeps you totally engrossed from beginning to end.

Beautifully written but depressing.If it weren't a selection of my book club I would never have read this book.It took some time to get into but once I did I couldn't put it down.

A dark but, good book!

Interesting but dark book.

A very interesting read.

This book is called The Road

Icould not put this book down.

Amazing heartbreaking book

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