Sign in with Facebook
Eddie Watkins's Reviews > The Road
The Road
by
by
A masterpiece of spare literary horror, as if a Beckett/Faulkner monstrosity had written a novelization of Night of the Living Dead, minus the humor and with less of the social commentary.
(Regarding the absence of humor - I saw some humor in one passage regarding a "mae west floating in the seepage", which I initially saw in my mind's eye as an inflatable sex doll in dirty water, which would be humor of the black sort, but then I found out that a "mae west" is an inflatable life jacket.)
I spent the majority of this book totally unmoved by what was calculated to move me, that is the father son relationship did not flutter my heart, in fact I viewed it as little more than a pre-calculated sensitive heart stringy prop like you see in many horror flicks. I also took issue with the good people/bad people dichotomy as being too pat and easy, ditto the absence/idealization of women. But then I was very moved by the ending. Somehow it seemed more authentic. And the final paragraph left me in awe.
I don't entirely trust McCarthy. I have a suspicion that his last two books were actually written with movies in mind, a kind of aging novelist's 401-K. And I'm yet to consider him an indisputable Modern Master; though my personal verdict is not yet in, I have a feeling Suttree will put my socks on my hands and my underwear over my head and send me jibbering through the river dregs seeking a splayed mae west.
(Regarding the absence of humor - I saw some humor in one passage regarding a "mae west floating in the seepage", which I initially saw in my mind's eye as an inflatable sex doll in dirty water, which would be humor of the black sort, but then I found out that a "mae west" is an inflatable life jacket.)
I spent the majority of this book totally unmoved by what was calculated to move me, that is the father son relationship did not flutter my heart, in fact I viewed it as little more than a pre-calculated sensitive heart stringy prop like you see in many horror flicks. I also took issue with the good people/bad people dichotomy as being too pat and easy, ditto the absence/idealization of women. But then I was very moved by the ending. Somehow it seemed more authentic. And the final paragraph left me in awe.
I don't entirely trust McCarthy. I have a suspicion that his last two books were actually written with movies in mind, a kind of aging novelist's 401-K. And I'm yet to consider him an indisputable Modern Master; though my personal verdict is not yet in, I have a feeling Suttree will put my socks on my hands and my underwear over my head and send me jibbering through the river dregs seeking a splayed mae west.
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
The Road.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Finished Reading
October 27, 2008
– Shelved
October 29, 2008
–
78.42%
"extremely well written horror novel, but not impressing me as much more than that"
page
189
October 16, 2014
– Shelved as:
american-fiction
Comments Showing 1-15 of 15 (15 new)
date
newest »
newest »
Really? It read almost like a screenplay to me, or at least the narration of a movie. No Country For Old Men was the same. I actually think Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is more significant and has more meaning(s) than The Road, it's just not written as well and its imagery doesn't etch itself into your brain like McCarthy's prose does. Same goes for Romero's zombie flicks - way more social commentary than The Road.I've read a few of his books and I'm still unsure what I think of him. But I can say that the writing itself acted as a brain clarifier and intensifier as I read it. Which is saying something.
True, the imagery was very vivid, but the scenario was so extremely desolate. I didn't really think of those beings as zombies- (I never really watched those movies) but rather an example of the bleakness of the situation. I mean, what can be worse than when humans resort to eating each other? Where is the humanity in that? Pretty interesting book to get so much attention though.
No they're not zombies, more like a Mad Max baddies. Maybe it's just my fault for reading and watching too much horror, but I have to put this book in that genre. The setting and the imagery was just too reminiscent. But given that I still thought it was a fantastic read, and it is interesting to wonder what's going through the heads of so many Oprah people when they read this. I have some conflicted feelings about McCarthy.
Great review Eddie! I actually felt pretty much the same as you about this book however the ending just didn't work for me. Everything just felt calculated and yes, like a Hollywood movie.
Thanks Kimley. I'm yet to figure out why Cormac doesn't totally work for me, though I know there's something about the tone of the prose - artificial yet spoken from a biblical high horse - that jars with what I suspect are authentic emotional intentions; and I think he's also too much of a moralist for me, which can be ok, but then he also wants to be a great stylist, so maybe I don't like the simplistic moral messages conveyed by a late high modernist diction. I really don't know what it is, but I have similar problems with Delillo; both just think too highly of themselves as spokespersons for the human condition, like they're speaking for me without asking my permission!
That said, my quibbles with both McCarthy and DeLillo are at the higher levels of my appreciation, as I've loved reading their books, DeLillo more than Cormac, but there's something that keeps them from achieving Classic status in my mind.
OF COURSE Kimley and Eddie weren't wowed by this book... because I loved it, thought it was viscerally engaging from start to finish, and consider it a favorite.
David wrote: "OF COURSE Kimley and Eddie weren't wowed by this book... because I loved it, thought it was viscerally engaging from start to finish, and consider it a favorite."You really like it, huh? This is one of those books I'm ashamed not to have read, but I've never gotten beyond the first few pages...
Excellent review, Eddie.
I would like to get to the bottom of this basic difference in our tastes, David. Or maybe just close to the bottom; it's not that urgent or important an issue. The more I think of The Road the more I think I like No Country more.
Thanks, Ellen.
Cool review.Definitely agree, re: the absence/etc of women. I mentioned that in my review, too.
...both just think too highly of themselves as spokespersons for the human condition, like they're speaking for me without asking my permission!Well said, Mr Watkins.
I'm not sure if this'll mean anything to you, but to me The Road was kind of like The Old Man and the Sea without the fish. Flat. No real interaction. Nothing at stake. Besides which, man, we've heard this story so many times before - how can this have received so much attention?
Oh, and I love the bit about the jibbering search for the splayed Mae West.
It's odd, but the near absence of women didn't bother me; the book was primarily about man and boy, and women would have been a distraction. (In contrast, Tolkien's sidelining of women is far more distracting and unnecessary, imo.)
This book didn't need any humor.
Maybe not, but Cormac can be very funny.
I was quite surprised when it was announced that a movie was going to be made of The Road, I could not see how it would translate. I felt the book was an elegiac and a sort of angry manifesto of how things were headed and the possibilities of what was to come. But I never read McCarthy before, so I have no other frame of reference on his intentions.