Cormac McCarthy: The Road.
If you read one book this decade read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I read it in one day. It's short enough.
Idea: A man and his boy (maybe six or seven years old) wander the Hell that Earth has become after surviving an unspecified disaster. The disaster is so great that nothing is left alive, except for a few hundred people. Nothing is alive and the story takes place years after the catastrophe. The story is about their daily struggle. It is very realistic. This isn't a romantic post apocalypse. Some of you know what I mean by that. If you don't, watch Mad Max. That's apocalyptic romance compared to this.
If a good book is layered like an onion, this one is a shallot. Short. Small. Compact. Little waste. Bitter flavor. Sharp. Somehow alien but completely full of nuance. This is the 'where are we' book of the century.
The Road is an easy read. It's not strained. McCarthy has written in a completely accessible style without compromising his ideas.
Don't expect flowers and sunshine. Don't even dare to hope for a happy ending. BUT, be prepared to be uplifted. At times. Dissapointed. At times. You need to read this book if you want to live in the next century. The message is clear and eloquently put in the narrative. This book is essential.
Those of you with a spiritual bent will love it. Those of you waiting for the death of man will love it. Doomsday prophets will love it. We will all love it. Father will cry. Sons will call their fathers. Husbands will kiss their wives. Wives will be wives.
I have to tell you one more thing:
The Meaning of Life is explicitly stated in this book. If you read it, you will know what life is about.
One.Good.Book
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Posted by Christopher at 7:49 PM
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7 comments:
Does it tell me how to defeat hordes of zombies?
High Praise. I read McCarthy's Border Trilogy years ago (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain) and was mightily impressed. Guess I'll have to check out this one, as I've heard nothing but good things about it.
Of course, that means I have to put down my Anne Rice book.
Ha ha.
PS: Did you catch Lost this week? Locke gave Ben a copy of Valis to read while he was Locke's "guest."
He also put a hand grenade in a mutha fucka's mouth and pulled the mutha fucking pin!
So little b'day money or many books to buy....
For now it's either this (since i've had no other suggestion), Kite runner, a thousand splendid suns and one more
OR
V for vendetta and 300 graphic novels.
I Googled this book, and I was kind of surprised to see that they were making a movie out of it. So soon. I don't know how I feel about it.
That's a tough movie to make.
Okay I will try to "shake" it
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