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Robyn's Reviews > The Road
The Road
by
by
I gave this three stars only because I was unable to give it two and a half, which would have better expressed my utter ambiguity.
The text is dry, long and drawn out. Even when there's action, it feels like you're reading a text book. We know next to nothing about the characters, nor what made the world the way it is.
The monotony of everything, the same events, the same conversations over and over and over, with slightly different background are both realistic and utterly devastating.
This is a book without even a single happy thought in it. There aren't any smiles, any terse jokes, not the slightest whiff of gallows humor; just unending grayness that completely stifles every one of your senses. The book might play at the idea of hope, occasionally, but it makes sure that you are totally aware of the larger picture of the protagonists' situation: hope is an impossibility. These people are only surviving because they can't think of what else to do.
This is a very hard book to get through, and if you are at all prone to depression, I strongly reccomend you go slowly, and keep something to cheer you up on hand, though I can't think of a single person who would blame you if you decided to skip it altogether.
That being said, the mood the author creates is astonishingly engulfing. Even in places where he breaks from the bare and sparse text, to take a shot at finding some beauty in the situation feels like a drowning man grasping for something, anything to keep himself afloat. I noticed the unevenness of the writing, and it really spoke to something in me, and rather than being a distraction, it somehow emphasized the feeling of emptiness. I truly feel that this was intentional, put there for no other reason than contrast.
I didn't like the way this book made me feel, but I really respect that the author was able to paint the world in such a way as to convey unending desolation so perfectly. I'm not sure what he was trying to say, but he certainly conveyed a mood more strongly and more heartrendingly than just about any other book I have read so far.
I don't know if I would recommend this to anyone else, but I'm glad I read it.
The text is dry, long and drawn out. Even when there's action, it feels like you're reading a text book. We know next to nothing about the characters, nor what made the world the way it is.
The monotony of everything, the same events, the same conversations over and over and over, with slightly different background are both realistic and utterly devastating.
This is a book without even a single happy thought in it. There aren't any smiles, any terse jokes, not the slightest whiff of gallows humor; just unending grayness that completely stifles every one of your senses. The book might play at the idea of hope, occasionally, but it makes sure that you are totally aware of the larger picture of the protagonists' situation: hope is an impossibility. These people are only surviving because they can't think of what else to do.
This is a very hard book to get through, and if you are at all prone to depression, I strongly reccomend you go slowly, and keep something to cheer you up on hand, though I can't think of a single person who would blame you if you decided to skip it altogether.
That being said, the mood the author creates is astonishingly engulfing. Even in places where he breaks from the bare and sparse text, to take a shot at finding some beauty in the situation feels like a drowning man grasping for something, anything to keep himself afloat. I noticed the unevenness of the writing, and it really spoke to something in me, and rather than being a distraction, it somehow emphasized the feeling of emptiness. I truly feel that this was intentional, put there for no other reason than contrast.
I didn't like the way this book made me feel, but I really respect that the author was able to paint the world in such a way as to convey unending desolation so perfectly. I'm not sure what he was trying to say, but he certainly conveyed a mood more strongly and more heartrendingly than just about any other book I have read so far.
I don't know if I would recommend this to anyone else, but I'm glad I read it.
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The Road.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 2010
–
Finished Reading
March 27, 2011
– Shelved
March 27, 2011
– Shelved as:
reviewed
