Cormac McCarthy's The Road

[Punisher84]

I started reading this today after a friend recommended it some months back. Cormac is the same fellow who wrote No Country for Old Men.

In brief it's about a father and son traveling after an unnamed cataclysm destroyed most of the planet.

It's been a really great book so far and the movie will be out some time this year starring Viggo Mortenson. The writing is excellent and there is alot of detail that goes into how they survive and what they do to get by.

With all the "What would you do" type threads that have been going on I thought some of you might be interested in reading this or checking out the movie when it is released.

On the other hand, if you have read it what'd you think?

[Guest bkelm18]

I really enjoyed No Country for Old Men (the movie) and was wanting to read The Road. I've got a gift card, maybe I'll pick it up and read it. Cormac was from TN wasn't he?

[Punisher84]

I really enjoyed No Country for Old Men (the movie) and was wanting to read The Road. I've got a gift card, maybe I'll pick it up and read it. Cormac was from TN wasn't he?

He was born in Rhode Island, not sure if he ever lived here or not. I picked it up this afternoon for 6 bucks at WalMart. It had the new cover from one of the movie stills on it. Viggo looks rough in it.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1609012224/tt0898367

[Guest bkelm18]

Ok, I just looked it up, he moved to Knoxville in 1937 and his dad worked for TVA. Went to high school in Knoxville and went to UT.

[Punisher84]

Ok, I just looked it up, he moved to Knoxville in 1937 and his dad worked for TVA.

Sweet. That explains why he knows a good bit about guns then. Fine Southern raising!

[Guest Schwarzgebrannt]

I suggest that book to anyone who seems to fantasize about SHTF type activities.

[Punisher84]

I suggest that book to anyone who seems to fantasize about SHTF type activities.

Kinda why I brought it up. Even though there are multiple scenarios where you could see a total collapse, but still find plenty of things to live on and survive a full life with, The Road seems to offer the bleakest of scenarios.

It's not just civilization that ceases to exist, but pretty much everything. You can't grow food, you can't hunt, you can barely survive.

What I do love about the book is the intimate detail he uses to describe everything and the resourcefulness the main character shows.

[Guest sharpshooter01]

He use to live about 10 minutes from my house. Here's a little story about his childhood house that burnt last month.

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=76052

[Punisher84]

That sucks. At least it wasn't his current home.

[Guest Fuel]

I read "The Road" last year. Once I got acclimated to McCarthy's writing style I really enjoyed it. It's a very bleak, stark story. But well done IMHO. Quick read too. Looking forward to the movie.

[Punisher84]

Once I got acclimated to McCarthy's writing style I really enjoyed it.

That was my biggest thing. I read alot, but his writing style is very different.

[Guest superdrew4000]

Definately not a sunshine and rainbows kinda story, but what I took away from it was a book about a father's love for his son. A little on the heavy side, but I really enjoyed it.

[creeky]

Definately not a sunshine and rainbows kinda story, but what I took away from it was a book about a father's love for his son. A little on the heavy side, but I really enjoyed it.

After reading "No Country for Old Men" I picked it up and thumbed through it at a bookstore. Seemed real heavy from what I skimmed through. I may pick it up later... for now though I think I'll wait.

[Guest SUNTZU]

I know I won't use a shopping cart buggy to run away from cannibals, thats for sure. And the importance of having ammunition, instead of handcarved bullets to maybe not die if you can scare the hungry cannibal away. I've read the book a couple of times. I like it, but more as a what not to do. Are you going to see the movie?

[Magiccarpetrides]

I think its a great book and probably more realistic then most peoples fantasy's. That being said, I never thought about the importance of a tactical shopping cart til I read the book lol. I think its a great read once you get used to how he writes. They say its a whole lot more cheery then some of his other works if that tells you anything.

[Oh Shoot]

I'd say there's a good chance he might win the Nobel at some point.

Try Blood Meridian if you want to see the starkest brutality of the Old West.

He's a poet as much as a novelist.

- OS

[Guest SUNTZU]

I know that there are many uses of a tactical wheelbarrow, but I can think of only one for a tactical shopping cart.

Next best thing to kevlar.

[DRM]

Good book - I recommend it often.

[Punisher84]

I do plan on seeing the movie. I wondered about the gun thing with so little ammo and it only being a revolver, but I think what he was striving for is the direst of circumstances.

In the book you are looking at a decade of living that lifestyle. What isn't decimated has already been scavenged or destroyed. I think he was looking at showing only the minimal amount of survival.

I actually almost cried when he describes seeing the flames shooting across the sky, then he goes to the bathtub and starts the faucets. His wife asks him why he's taking a bath and he says "I'm not." I just got this image in my head of standing at the window and knowing the end of civilization is coming and having the cold calculating thought to prepare for a long journey towards death by filling up the tub with life's essence. Water.

[Guest superdrew4000]

I actually almost cried when he describes seeing the flames shooting across the sky, then he goes to the bathtub and starts the faucets. His wife asks him why he's taking a bath and he says "I'm not." I just got this image in my head of standing at the window and knowing the end of civilization is coming and having the cold calculating thought to prepare for a long journey towards death by filling up the tub with life's essence. Water.

I loved that scene. So much is said there without being explicitly laid out for the reader. Mark of a really great writer.

[Punisher84]

I loved that scene. So much is said there without being explicitly laid out for the reader. Mark of a really great writer.

Agreed.

I was actually happy last night because there was a little hope in the passage where I left off and stopped reading there.

It's funny how it has gotten to me though. It's not gotten to me in a way that has overtaken me or anything, but it has made me think. I always thought "Well I can hunt and fish and grow vegetables, we'll just go to the country and live like the western days or something." This book is like no hope for a big change, just surviving.

How much the man loves his son though is beautiful, but heartbreaking. Because of what he ultimately knows.

[Hooker771]

I read the book on the heels of no country, then I tried to read blood Meridian. I got through about 5 pages and figured out that CM is MUCH smarter than I was and I had no business in that book.

[Punisher84]

I read the book on the heels of no country, then I tried to read blood Meridian. I got through about 5 pages and figured out that CM is MUCH smarter than I was and I had no business in that book.

LOL I know what you mean. I have had to look up a word or 17 reading just this book. I never knew, and wish I still didn't, what a catamite was.

[bteague2]

I've read most of it, had to set it down in the Fall when school started before I could finish it. I'll definitely be finishing it this summer before I see the movie.

[Punisher84]

I've read most of it, had to set it down in the Fall when school started before I could finish it. I'll definitely be finishing it this summer before I see the movie.

I know you're in Knoxville, but maybe we should get a TGO group and go to a matinee one Sunday or something in our locals?