Anyone else reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy?

by Madame Quixote 4 Replies latest social entertainment

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  Madame Quixote

  I bought two copies last night - one for myself and one as a birthday gift. Whoa! What a birthday gift!

  I just finished (almost) half of it last night, and I'm thinking, what was I thinking . . . some birthday gift!

  just that I read some of his work years ago and thought he was a very good writer . . . well, it's an excellent read - but maybe not the best of birthday gifts, LOL.

  It is written in a style that reminds me of reading Cold Mountain. After I read that, I cried, thinking, shit, boo hoo! I just read over 400 pages of a trudge through hell, and the trudger didn't even get what he was after . . . bwaahaa . . . but, anyway, I couldn't stop reading it until I crashed at 3 a.m.

  Anyone else reading it, or read it? No spoilers, please . . . just wondering what you thought . . . I really like it, despite its incredible darkness. It really makes you think about what it is that holds civilization together, and just what it is that makes people human and inhumane.
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  MeneMene

  I just read it a few weeks ago. Very touching story of a father & son. I am taking it to my son so he can read it.

  I did not understand why they didn't just stay in that cellar that had everything they could ever have needed - at least until the winter was over.

  Did you catch why the father needed so bad to get to the ocean? Did he think maybe he had family there?
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  changeling

  My son is reading it. I'll read it when he's done.

  changeling
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  willyloman

  I did not understand why they didn't just stay in that cellar that had everything they could ever have needed

  I think they feared being discovered. I felt the suspense while reading it; was certain they were going to be cornered there. Of course, that suspense is palpable throughout. Good book!
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  Madame Quixote

  I agree, Willyloman.

  Sorry it took so long to get back to you, MeneMene. Our computer got an infection and I couldn't sign-in here until today.

  Anyway, yeah, they had to stay on the move; they would have been vulnerable to the cannibals and slavers scouring the countryside who might have caught scent of them or happened upon them, just as they happened upon the place. But I did wish they could have stayed there longer.

  I felt such a sense of joy and relief for those two, poor souls when they found a "good place." Imagine the sheer joy in discovering canned food and dry, warmth after all that drudgery and trudging through ice, snow, feeling certain that death by starvation was imminent.