6. 'The Road' - Cormac McCarthy

This is another one of those books that I felt like I should have enjoyed because it seems to be so astronomically popular. I just couldn't really bring myself to, though. The problem that I ran into with this book is that while it is incredibly descriptive, the plot just doesn't catch my attention. It just seems so drawn out when, truthfully, very little really happened. They wanted to get to the coast. So, they started walking down a very well depicted ashy road. They ran out of food. They found food. They ran out of food. They found a bunker full of food. They ran out of food. They found a boat with food. They started to run out of food... and the dad died. So, what happened to the boy? Oh, well, it turns out that they were being followed... by a friendly band of wanderers (for a change) and so he's going to go off with them and be just ducky... or so it's presumed. The ending was just as anticlimactic as the rest of the novel. It just seemed too bland for a book that was plagued with that problem throughout its entirety.

I think that part of my problem with this might be that I can't truly understand the bond of unconditional love that is found between a parent and their child. Having no children of my own, it's hard to imagine feeling so strongly about someone that you would give your life for them readily. That's a huge part of this novel which didn't really come as a surprise since I expected it when I read the description of the book.

So, yeah. His writing is beautiful, in a way. I can't stand the fact that he uses punctuation very sparingly, but I guess it fits the tone of the book somehow. It's just too difficult for me, as someone that adores proper grammar and spelling, to read without having to pause and take stock of what I just attempted to absorb on a pretty regular basis. It took too much effort for a book that really has nothing in terms of length about it. At least... it definitely doesn't compared to the other book I'm working on right now... Under the Dome... which is huge.

All in all, I guess I'm kind of glad that I read the book only so that I can check it off my list of post-apocalyptic fiction that I needed to read. Typically, that's my favorite genre. I can't help that I didn't like this one, though. I've just read things that are far better written and actually told a story rather than just threw a whole bunch of adjectives together to form some sentences. And I use the term 'sentences' loosely, since some consisted of two works... that didn't even form a complete idea... yet the period was there. Oh well.

Rating: 1/5