Seriously. If you have not read this book, you HAVE to. Now. Go to the nearest bookstore and buy it. Don't even bother reading the rest of this post. Go out there and get this book!
I posted this book earlier under the "book that made you cry" category. While it did not actually make me cry (no book has), I felt constant sadness and worry throughout.
*CAUTION: DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU PLAN TO READ THIS BOOK. THIS POST WILL CONTAIN MANY SPOILERS.*
This book is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Most of civilization as we know it has been completely obliterated in what appears to have been some kind of explosion. Almost all remaining land is a barren wasteland covered in ash and grime.
In the middle of all this darkness, a father and son struggle for survival, relying on their love for each other as their will to live another day.
If any of you have not read this book are still reading this post, I will warn you now: The Road is not for all tastes. It is one of the darkest books I have ever read, and there are some genuinely disturbing scenes. If you are a sensitive reader, I would not recommend this book to you.
The father and son, whose names are not given, are not the only survivors. In their quest for a safe place to live, they come across a few survivors who are also fighting for their lives. Only problem is that most of these survivors are people whom the father considers "the bad guys." These are people who would not hesitate to kill or steal others' food. In some cases, they eat the people they kill. (I do not believe any cannibalistic scenes are described in the book, but I am not completely sure.)
The true power of The Road comes from the relationship between the father and the son. The father's chief concern is his son's welfare, and he grows frustrated with himself if he feels that he cannot meet his son's needs. The father is also very slow to trust and quick to despair. That is when the son comes in. The son reminds his father all the time that they are the good guys, that they will never be the bad guys. The father's and son's different perspectives balance out very nicely, and you can tell that neither one thinks they would be able to survive without the other. The father would certainly lose all the will to live if his son were to die.
*CAUTION: THERE IS A MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD. DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING THIS BOOK OR INTEND TO READ IT.*
As I read The Road, I was sure that one of our two heroes was going to die, although I really did not want either one to die. It would break my heart if the father died, but it would break my heart even more if the son died.
The father seems to have some kind of illness, although it is unclear what his illness is. It could very well be that he is reacting to all the smoke and ash in the air around him. He has a terrible cough throughout the book; some nights towards the end he stays awake for hours, coughing up blood. In the book's final dozen or so pages, he tells his son that he will not be alive much longer. The son begs his father to stay alive, but the father just knows that he will die soon. The two go to sleep for the night, and when the son wakes up, his father is dead.
Nothing bad happens to the son, though. A few hours after his father dies, he runs into another family. If I remember, it is a mother, a father, and one or two children. The new father convinces the son that they are good guys, and the son joins them.
The Road is one of the best books I have ever read. Although I know a few adults who have read it, I am sure that most of my peers have never read The Road or even heard of it. I really think more people should read this book; it is extremely powerful: dark and hopeful at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment