E's Review - The Road

-Erin

Rarely does a book move my soul taking me to places I have yet to go and leaving me wanting for more. In fact, I can count on one hand those books that have affected me like that. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is now one of those. It has found itself in my own hall of fame alongside Anne of Green Gables, A Tale of Two Cities, Harry Potter and Mere Christianity.

It is beautiful. And it is brilliant.

Something devastating has happened to the earth and we meet the man and the boy on their journey from somewhere down north to the coast. We have no idea whether the disaster was manmade or natural. And yet we don’t really care because the story of The Road is intimate, focused on a father and son who are “each the other’s world entire”.

Life on earth is dark and gray and full of experiences we can’t even begin to imagine and yet the boy has known nothing else. He has never seen a bird except for in books and has no concepts of boundaries and lines, what were formerly known as states.

And just as the earth is stripped of the ordinary things we are used to, so is the author’s writing style. He draws you in with the simplicity, yet powerful descriptions and conversations between the man and the boy. I experienced physical heartache and senses of relief along the road. And in a world so brilliantly described where no hope remains – “there is no later”, love and sacrifice and being a good guy are not lost. And that is what makes this story so beautiful.