The road concluded and the thoughts that followed

So recently I finished the road...

And I was extremely satisfied with everything in it.

As I mentioned in the previous post I have read it before but this time it was almost like my first. Before I don't think I really grasped the book and appreciated it for what it is. I remembered only the most memorable scenes and forgot the wonderful details. But this time i got all those and it created an experience.

The road is interestingly broken up in to sections, small paragraphs, each of which show a day in the life or maybe a thought of the main character. Each seems to have a message about life, or i should say what was life, as the main character is constantly thinking about what he left. It gives the book a certain value that i can't find in many other books. As opposed to other books having one or maybe a handful of messages this has many, and each we must look upon with care. Because they are honest. This world the man lives is gone. life as we know it is gone, and he can reflect because he know what he is missing. And it is that honesty that makes this book valuable in culture. I'm sad to say I did not absorb every message because i was caught up in atmosphere of the book. 

Now i know i have praised this book a lot but it really does deserve it. Its characters are strong its message deep and it really sticks with you. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes cormac mccarthy or just really anyone in general   all will walk away with something.  

 

The Road Revisited

So, as a start of a new quarter I will be going from the tales of the worlds most famous super spy ( whose new movie comes out friday) and be moving on to a different tale. The story I decided to read was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Now I've read this book before about two years ago, but at the time I felt lost in McCarthy's writing style, till the point where I would sometimes skip paragraphs because they confused me. I still got the overall message of the book but I can't help but feel as if I missed something. Since then I have read two more McCarthy novels and have studied his style more closely. And after two years I decided to , re-walk  The Road.

In the novel we follow the story of two people , a son and his father. They go unnamed through the whole book but yet, even in the first few pages, we get a distinct image of their personalities. The father and son's story is set is post apocalyptic America, and it is unclear where they are or how the world became this way. That also is never told to us, all we know is what the father and son see. The cities are emptied , bodies are dried husks, roads are destroyed, ash rains from the completely gray sky. I personally assume that there was a nuclear attack mainly because of the ash raining from the sky and all the dead life. Anyway the father and son seem to be the only two left in the entire world, but we know that is not so, for the father often checks over his shoulder for others who he seems to be afraid of. The two are heading south to the coast where we can only assume life will be better. All they have is a shopping cart full of the essentials, two back packs, and a pistol. They are following a state road and its is always eerily empty and quiet. The father takes care of the son, because as he sees it, the son is the only reason he has to live. Once when asked by his kid what he would do if the kid died he responds " I would want to die to.... So I could be with you ". This kind of emotion inhabits the whole book and gives a very dark book some much needed heart. I really enjoyed it the first time and I imagine I will even more the second time around.