a novel by Cormac McCarthy, was the 2007 winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

I've actually come to a stop and I can't finish the final scene just yet. I'm still trying to come to terms with I've read, trying to digest where it's taken me.

Basically, my psyche is shot. My mind is blown. This book is just devastating.... I feel destroyed. I've been walking around in a daze all day. I've never read a book more profound, or personally intense.





Background: McCarthy has been compared to William Faulkner. The Road has been hailed as masterpiece, as the "most important book of the past 25 years". The movie is scheduled for a 2009 theatrical release. It will give McCarthy's other notable book-turned-movie, "No Country for Old Men" a serious run for the money.

11/24/2008 5:20:39 PM

i dunno about comparing him to faulkner

but it's good shit

11/24/2008 5:24:44 PM

Might have to pick this up.

Should I still try and read "No Country for Old Men" even though I've already seen the movie?

11/24/2008 5:26:32 PM

yea I want to read this

11/24/2008 5:36:26 PM

^^^ well, he uses many of the same literary devices as Faulkner, had the same editor as Faulkner for 25 years, and every third reviewer of his books makes some comparison -- whether good or bad -- to Faulkner.

I think that's pretty much covers the state of "being compared to" .... of course, you could maybe quit posting on the interwebs and start writing for the New York Times Review of Books and set everyone straight.



^^ eh, i dont know. i havent read it yet. maybe i will someday. But I think you should read this one right now.




at the risk of trivializing the magnitude of the book, here are 6 movie stills to give you an idea of the setting.

--http://www.usatoday.com/life/gallery/2008/l080807_theroad/flash.htm?






[Edited on November 24, 2008 at 5:53 PM. Reason : ]

11/24/2008 5:46:24 PM

I read it earlier this year.

Stark. Gripping. Harrowing.

But somewhat implausible. There is one part in particular that I thought was just too ridiculolous.

11/24/2008 5:53:07 PM

i think i know what part you mean. the one instance where he's a really good shot with an improbable weapon? I dont think it distracts at all from the reality or the metaphysical truth of the story.

PM sent to not engage in spoilers.

11/24/2008 5:56:43 PM

Quote :

"Should I still try and read "No Country for Old Men" even though I've already seen the movie?"

Absolutely. While the film was good, the book is so much better--they cut out a whole lot of philosophical stuff that added so much to the setting.

And, yeah, The Road is pretty great.

11/24/2008 6:12:10 PM

yeah, I can believe that.

I just hope they're able to capture the full philosophical/moral imperative of "The Road" in the movie. They have to, otherwise it's just another post-apocalyptic horror flick.

11/24/2008 6:15:16 PM

^^ Wasn't that movie based on an anti-capitalism rant called Oil!

Shit, I was thinking of "There Will Be Blood"

[Edited on November 24, 2008 at 6:16 PM. Reason : 2]

11/24/2008 6:16:09 PM

Quote :

"well, he uses many of the same literary devices as Faulkner, had the same editor as Faulkner for 25 years, and every third reviewer of his books makes some comparison -- whether good or bad -- to Faulkner. I think that's pretty much covers the state of "being compared to" .... of course, you could maybe quit posting on the interwebs and start writing for the New York Times Review of Books and set everyone straight."

UNLESS YOU ARE PAID TO DO SOMETHING, YOUR OPINION MEANS NOTHING.

McCarthy is great, but he's not Faulkner great. That's all I'm sayin'.

11/24/2008 6:29:54 PM

i said he "has been compared to". you can't say that his isn't, because obviously he is "compared to".

Now for the sake of discussion, I'll agree with you that he's not "as great as" Faulkner.

Let's carry on, shall we?

11/24/2008 6:37:07 PM

Quote :

"Wasn't that movie based on an anti-capitalism rant called Oil! EDIT: Shit, I was thinking of "There Will Be Blood""

I don't think Oil! (aka There Will Be Blood) was an "anti capitalism rant" ... must all your literature toe an economic party line position? Does being critical of the then-nascent oil industry somehow negate the importance of Upton Sinclair's book? does it invalidate the significance of Anderson's movie? does it trivialize Daniel Day-Lewis' performance?

come on, guy. you're better than that.





[Edited on November 24, 2008 at 6:45 PM. Reason : ]

11/24/2008 6:42:23 PM

No.

I refuse.

11/24/2008 6:43:38 PM

Quote :

"I don't think Oil! (aka There Will Be Blood) was an "anti capitalism rant" ... must all your literature toe an economic party line position? Does being critical of the then-nascent oil industry somehow negate the importance of Upton Sinclair's book? does it invalidate the significance of Anderson's movie? does it trivialize Daniel Day-Lewis' performance? "

I don't know; I didn't read it. I just remember an editorial in the LA Times describing Oil! as either socialistic or anti-capitalistic, and that the movie didn't do it justice by curtailing the political leanings of the book.

11/24/2008 7:02:55 PM

okay. my bad. i need to leave TSB out of Entertainment.

back to the book.

I learned a lot of new words. the one that sticks with me most is "claggy"

Quote :

" "This was the first human being other than the boy he'd spoken to in more than a year. My brother at last. The reptilian calculations in those cold and shifting eyes. The gray and rotting teeth. Claggy with human flesh. Who has made of the world a lie every word." -- Cormac McCarthy, The Road "

11/24/2008 7:11:29 PM

Quote :

"What's the bravest thing you ever did? He spat into the road a bloody phlegm. Getting up this morning, he said."

Best part of the book, in my estimation.

I hated the ending, though. It definitely doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the novel, and it's a horrible cliche. All in all, I liked Blood Meridian more (especially because it has one of the best endings I've ever read).

11/24/2008 7:52:26 PM

im hesitating to read the ending, still. i've about 10 pages left. i want to dwell (wallow?) in the heaviness of the climax.

11/24/2008 8:43:47 PM

i started reading this book this summer but couldn't really get very far into it. i think maybe it's because i started reading it right after blindness and they have the same feel to them. maybe i just couldnt handle two depressing books back to back.

11/24/2008 11:47:33 PM

actually i only had 2 pages left to read. so, i finished it. it was a good book.

FTR, i'm recovered now. but, man, i really was depressed for the whole damn day.

11/25/2008 10:30:15 AM

this movie would be boring as shit

11/25/2008 12:44:31 PM

how so?

11/25/2008 1:51:09 PM

So my interest has been piqued. Would someone mind writing a brief synopsis of the story?

11/25/2008 2:36:55 PM

i'm wondering what part omar (from the wire) is going to play in the movie

11/25/2008 2:40:47 PM

Quote :

"The Road follows a man and a boy, father and son, journeying together for many months across a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm. The story takes place in the lower Appalachian mountains. Civilization has been destroyed, and most species have become extinct. There is no sun, only deep, dark clouds, and the climate has been altered radically. Plants do not grow. Humanity consists largely of bands of cannibals, their food-source captives, and refugee-travelers who scavenge for [canned] food. Ash covers everything; it is in the atmosphere, it obscures the sun and moon, and the two travelers breathe through improvised masks. Most plants and animals are apparently all dead, and the rivers and oceans are seemingly empty of life. The father is literate, skilled with firearms, well-traveled, and knowledgeable about machinery, woodcraft, and human biology. He is alert, attentive and aware, and applies all he knows to anticipating and overcoming the challenges he knows are ever-present. He realizes that he and his young son cannot survive another winter in their present location, so the two set out across what was once the Southeastern United States, largely following the highways. They aim to reach warmer southern climates and the sea in particular. Along the way, threats to the duo's survival create an atmosphere of sustained terror and tension."

i would discourage searching the internets too heavily; you may inadvertently read some key spoilers.

this plot summary doesnt reveal the most important (IMO) message of the book. About halfway through, I discovered a profound moral message / metaphysical reality in the subtext.




[Edited on November 25, 2008 at 3:06 PM. Reason : ]

11/25/2008 2:46:28 PM

Sounds pretty interesting. I think I may pick it up when I'm done reading my current book.

11/25/2008 2:57:20 PM

the plot would make a boring movie, true

and as far as the moral message goes... I don't think there was a clear one

I mean, what would it be? "Life really sucks, but I'm going to keep going regardless of the fact that it will end in death eventually*"?

[Edited on November 25, 2008 at 6:22 PM. Reason : *not talking plot points, but just in the post-apocalyptic landscape in general]

11/25/2008 6:21:43 PM

no, you're not even close. its abstract, not concrete. you can't beat a metaphysical message out of it.

anyhow... how are post-apocalyptic movies "boring"? some of the most ridiculously-popular box office smashes have been in the post-apocalyptic genre.

obviously, popular opinion and financial success doesn't necessarily mean they're good movies, and certainly the genre may not appeal to you, personally ... but "boring" ? that's hardly a word to describe a horror/action flick, whether it has a philosophical message or not.

11/25/2008 7:47:14 PM

Quote :

"anyhow... how are post-apocalyptic movies "boring"? some of the most ridiculously-popular box office smashes have been in the post-apocalyptic genre."

I didn't say the genre is boring, I said the plot of this one book would make for a really boring movie. And it would, since they just wander around 90% of the time. There's so little action in the novel that it'd be hard to make a film longer than thirty minutes that would sustain anyone's interest.

I just don't see it transferring to the big screen very well, since a lot of the novel is more meditative than action-packed. There are some meditative movies that I do enjoy (Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?, for one), but they still carry multiple plots or action streams rather than the singular movement that The Road has.

[Edited on November 25, 2008 at 9:20 PM. Reason : .]

11/25/2008 9:03:01 PM

God damn you're an insufferable film-and-literature snob.

11/25/2008 9:33:14 PM

^ true

but I agree with her that it would be boring, this should be left a book

11/25/2008 9:36:27 PM

Hollywood would spice that shit up with some sex, zombies and maybe even a dragon or 2.

11/25/2008 9:41:21 PM

^^^ How? It's a great book, I just don't see it being a good movie. It's snobby of me to say so?

[Edited on November 25, 2008 at 9:52 PM. Reason : omg, aimorris must be a snob too!]

11/25/2008 9:47:12 PM

I tried to read it, still sitting on my shelf. Couldn't get into it and never made it past the 50 page mark.

11/25/2008 10:13:05 PM

I liked it, but it wasnt super earth shattering like the OP

11/25/2008 10:29:30 PM

i'm sorry some of you folks didnt find the book very exciting.

here's some others who did

Quote :

" Chicago Tribune -- Alan Cheuse A postatomic apocalypse novel as we've never seen one before, a black book of wondrous paragraphs that reads as though Samuel Beckett had dared himself to outdo Harlan Ellison. Los Angeles Times -- Steve Erickson The book wrenches our nightmares into a gray light where they don't vanish but become more vivid. The Globe And Mail [Toronto] -- Michael Helm It's the darkest novel you are likely ever to read...The redeeming note here is in the writing. As in all the best fiction, in McCarthy's work, language is not a tool; it's an element. The novel can't escape a saving irony: that the end of this unsigned world has the maker's mark on every page. Entertainment Weekly -- Jennifer Reese The extraordinarily lovely and sad final pages of this masterpiece embrace both terrible possibilities. Booklist -- Keir Graff Hypnotic and haunting, relentlessly dark, this is a novel to read in late-night solitude. Library Journal -- Stephen Morrow He uses metaphors the way some writers use punctuation, sprinkling them about with an artist's eye, showing us that literature from the heart still exists. Slate -- Jennifer Egan With only the corpse of a natural world to grapple with, McCarthy's father and son exist in a realm rarely seen in the ur-masculine literary tradition: the domestic. And from this unlikely vantage McCarthy makes a big, shockingly successful grab at the universal. Chicago Sun-Times -- Jon Barron Primal, violent, achingly poetic and flush with a sense of landscape...The setup may be simple, but the writing throughout is magnificent. The New York Times -- Janet Maslin The Road would be pure misery if not for its stunning, savage beauty....[It] offers nothing in the way of escape or comfort. But its fearless wisdom is more indelible than reassurance could ever be. San Francisco Chronicle -- David Hellman Stunning and heart-wrenching...A remarkable and unforgettable novel. The Independent -- Ed Caesar For all its grim imaginings, The Road's divine language carries its two entwined souls above the darkness. McCarthy continues to carry the fire. The Guardian -- Alan Warner It makes the novels of the contemporary Savants seem infantile and horribly over-rated. Beauty and goodness are here aplenty and we should think about them. Daily Telegraph -- Niall Griffiths One of the saddest, most desolate, most horrifying books I've read in years...It's so good that it will devour you, in parts. It is incandescent. The Independent -- Clive Sinclair Some connective tissue, some deep sympathy, makes them human and knowable to us, causes us to care almost beyond bearing about their fates, and so makes us read on compulsively for fear of what might happen to them. And us. USA Today -- Dierdre Donahue Many authors have imagined a post-nuclear world. McCarthy is particularly well-suited to the task because he writes so beautifully and convincingly about violence, despair and men in desperate situations. Village Voice -- Mark Holcomb Sci-fi divination is new for him, though, and the freshness he brings to this end-of-the-world narrative is quite stunning: It may be the saddest, most haunting book he's ever written, or that you'll ever read. Washington Post -- Ron Charles But even with its flaws, there's just no getting around it: The Road is a frightening, profound tale that drags us into places we don't want to go, forces us to think about questions we don't want to ask...Ultimately, my cynicism was overwhelmed by the visceral power of McCarthy's prose and the simple beauty of this hero's love for his son. Sydney Morning Herald -- Mark Mordue McCarthy maintains the pace by keeping each scene barely more than a paragraph long. This accentuates The Road's impressionistic power, adding to its rhythm, as if the book were not composed of sections but stanzas in a poem, the metaphysical footsteps of his characters, beat by beat in a terrible dream. "

11/25/2008 11:52:18 PM

I read the thing in its entirity in the last 24 hours. I thought it was pretty much as joe_schmoe advertised.

***I don't think anything I'm about to say qualifies as a spoiler, but if you're paranoid or picky about such things, move along.***

I'm ambivalent about the prospects for the film. I think that taking an appropriate mix of flashbacks, action, and travel, they could probably keep a good pace and still cover everything. I think they're on the right track from what I've read about the flashbacks being expanded in the movie.

At the same time, it'd have to be a careful balance, because let's face it -- most of the book is about these guys walking around. And while it's exciting for us in the book when they find something of necessity, I don't see many audiences being enthralled that their heroes have found a can of pears.

11/26/2008 4:21:00 PM

^^ CRITICS AGREE WITH ME, THEREFORE I'M RIGHT!

Seriously, what you're doing is the worst kind of snobbery.

Additionally, many of those reviews mention nothing of excitement, and I don't think anyone here has said that the book is bad.

11/26/2008 4:24:42 PM

i guess i can see why you think it might be snobbery -- except that the critical praise is overwhelming, of the highest level, and across the entire spectrum of reviewers.

personally, i found the book by accident at the grocery store. i recognized the author's name and saw that it won the Pulitzer Prize, but otherwise knew nothing about it. it was only after the book had left me absolutely reeling with shock and awe, that i looked up the reviews.

anyhow, I'm sorry you weren't impressed. I guess it isn't for everyone.

11/26/2008 4:47:43 PM

Why are Soap Box regulars so bad at posting in the Entertainment section?

Next thing you know hooksaw's gonna bust up in here with some sales numbers trying prove or disprove the book's worth.

11/26/2008 5:51:30 PM

^^ the critical praise for his other works is also ubiquitous

but I liked some of his other works better than this one

not that big of a deal, really

11/26/2008 5:55:28 PM

Quote :

"i guess i can see why you think it might be snobbery -- except that the critical praise is overwhelming, of the highest level, and across the entire spectrum of reviewers. "

Critics are never wrong about anything. Ever. When Roger Ebert said that Van Helsing was great, he was right, because he's a critic.

(Note: I am not suggesting that critics are wrong about The Road. I am suggesting that critical praise for something does not make it good.)

Quote :

"anyhow, I'm sorry you weren't impressed. I guess it isn't for everyone."

Once again, no one has said that the book isn't impressive. It's just not As I Lay Dying impressive.

11/26/2008 5:58:09 PM

come on, man, dont be a retard. when Ebert said Van Helsing was great, he was off all by his lonesome looking like a fool. Obviously, extracting one singular review and holding it up as the be-all-end-all Word of God would be ignorant. Holding up a consensus of 40-some nationally respected reviewers, however, is quite another matter.

Simple fact is, the book is awesome. It's being regarded as one of the most important books in the past 25 years. And I don't care that you've a raging hardon for Faulkner, but the fact is McCarthy is in the same league. Cry all you want, but he IS being compared to him. Often favorably, sometimes critically. But compared, he is.

another fact is, the movie is in post-production right now, and it's going to be compared to the Coen Brothers' adaptation of No Country for Old Men. Now this movie may wind up being a mediocre flop, or it may be a contender for a number of Academy Awards. And the odds are on the latter, no matter how much a couple of you literary/film snobs want to sniff about "boring" and whatnot.





[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 6:47 PM. Reason : ]

11/26/2008 6:44:02 PM

Quote :

"It's being held as one of the most important books in the past 25 years. And I don't care that you've a raging hardon for Faulkner, but the fact is McCarthy is in the same league. "

They ALL said that it's one of the most important books in the last 25 years? Now who's reading into things? And we have no idea if McCarthy is in the same league. We won't know for many years to come: if his books maintain a lasting impression on the populace as a whole, then he may indeed be in the same league. He's a great writer but he's very different from Faulkner (which is why I'm having issues seeing the comparison: how many Faulkner novels have you read? Maybe you could help me out with that), and we haven't yet seen his long-term impact.

And for the last time, nobody is arguing that the book isn't awesome. Nobody in here said it BLEW THEIR EVERLOVING MIND the way it did for you, but that doesn't mean we're shitting on it.

Quote :

"It's going to be compared to the Coen Brothers' adaptation of No Country for Old Men."

Nobody's seen it, so how can you assume that? It will be compared in the sense that it's another adaptation of a McCarthy novel, but you can't deny the Coen brothers credit for their work with McCarthy's text. Hillcoat is a relatively new director with a completely different style, no doubt that will affect how good the movie is. McCarthy's writing doesn't guarantee an Oscar: All The Pretty Horses (despite also being a really great novel) wasn't nearly as well-received as No Country for Old Men was on the big screen.

[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 7:03 PM. Reason : .]

11/26/2008 7:02:30 PM

i feel like i'm being tag-teamed here.

11/26/2008 7:15:47 PM

That's what happens when you argue the point that you're trying to argue.

11/26/2008 7:37:28 PM

yeah, calm down dude, its good little book, but its no Tommyknockers or The Sum of All Fears

11/26/2008 7:53:07 PM

aw hell, Stephen King and Tom Clancy

no wonder you weren't that impressed.

carry on.





[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 8:19 PM. Reason : ]

11/26/2008 8:12:29 PM

I did read this year's Pulitzer winner (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) the way through though. It was very easy to get into and the best book I've read all year.

[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 10:47 PM. Reason : .]

11/26/2008 10:46:46 PM

set 'em up

11/26/2008 11:30:06 PM