Cormac McCarthy
The Road (2006)
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Genre: Science Fiction (Philosophical focus)
Plot Summary:
In a futuristic, post-apocalyptic America, a boy and a father travel together searching to get south in midst of an ash-covered, barren landscape trying to maintain their sense of humanity and to survive. SPOILER: Readers never find out what has caused the apocalypse. The boy is born into the devastated landscape with his mother committing suicide soon after his birth. Near the end of the novel, the father, who has been sick dies. The boy is left choosing to join a family whom it is never confirmed, if the family is one of the "good guys" or the cannibals.
Geographical Setting: A charred, American landscape, most likely moving from eastern Tennessee to the southeast, to the coast.
Time Period: Futuristic America
Appeal Characteristics:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Road, is Cormac McCarthy's eloquent but bleak depiction of a future without civilization. Land has been burned beyond recognition, most plants and animals dead. The remaining lives on earth struggle for survival, against starvation, many reverting to cannibalism, others attempting to maintain a sense of humanity. The father and the son characters are both complex, well-developed, and hold the story together, as the central emotional element advancing the plot at a measured pace in the face of the harsh landscape. Even in dreams, there is little condolence. McCarthy writes, "He mistrusted all of that. He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death." (15) The love shared by father and son is endearing, tender with elegant prose of blunt detail of devastated life. The father holds onto a gun with two bullets for himself and his child but never gives up on his love for the boy. In minimalist style, the prose moves calmly, revealing unfathomable destruction, horror, and mystery, suitable to the American Gothic. However, McCarthy is rich with detail and heavy-handed dialogue. The father and son's relationship raises questions of unsolvable issues about humanity in post-apocalyptic survival. McCarthy's writing lacks grammar, commas, but always raises questions. McCarthy captures the voice of despair in The Road, provoking reader's conception, of humanity. McCarthy's beauty of what is unarticulated is as haunting as the destruction the father and son face.
Read-alikes:
For more of McCarthy's eloquent writing style and discernable American voice, try All the Pretty Horses, which is a coming of age novel about a boy who leaves Texas for Mexico and finds his journey to be both idyllic and fatalistic; and like The Road, the strong characters and landscape resonate the tone of the novel and come at odds with one another. Readers should also try McCarthy's No Country for Old Men for its similarity in sparse tone, lack of punctuation, flowing narration, rich detail, and poignant portrayal of man's relationship with violence. This novel tells the story of a man, whom after he finds a botched drug deal, steals drug money and travels to seek a better life but finds his death. This journey to death is similar to the man's and the boy's journey to the coast. For readers wanting elements of post-apocalyptic future, try The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. Here we have an injured and sick couple struggling to survive in bleak, futuristic America. Similar to The Road, this novel has elements of the indeterminate cause of catrastrophe, the uncertain conclusion, and the philosophical focus and testament to love in unbearable conditions. For a suggestion including insightful prose, complex familial relationships, rich characterization, and journey's both psychological and physical, try Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Also an Oprah Book Club novel, this is the story of a hermaphrodite whose identity and friendships come into question when the character is revealed to be different. For post-apocalyptic science fiction as conveyed by two family members try reading Mara and Dann by Doris May Lessing. In this novel, brother and sister are fleeing an impending drought after being captured by a group when the world suffers an apocalyptic ice age. For a novel that resonates as McCarthy's likened to be a classic, try Ernest Hemingway's short story Big Two Hearted River for depiction of man against the environment, literary classic feel, strong characterization, calculated pacing, and the essence of searching amongst remnants, and looking for truth in mankind's existence. Hemingway's short story raises questions of the importance of being in this story about a shell-shocked WWI vet returning home. For other classics similar to Cormac McCarthy's readers should try Margaret Atwood, Kurt Vonnegut, Faulkner, and Beckett. The poignant way in which The Road silently reveals the human condition can also be felt in the tone of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This is the story of war-torn Kabul as perceived by two women and their families during the course of 30 years. The complex issues, disappointments in life, and strong characterization are similar to The Road. Readers that seek the theme of searching/scavenger lifestyle as an element to the post-apocalyptic future will enjoy Summer of the Apocalypse by James
Van Pelt. In this novel, a virus has killed most of the world's population but a son searches for his father in midst of devastation.
Red Flags: Violence, cannibalism, death, destruction, the struggle to maintain humanity.
|top|
|
