The Road

A friend strongly recommended I read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Hmmm, ok.

It won the Pulitzer.
It was an Oprah Book Club Selection.
It's a post-apocalyptic, dreary tale of fiction that looks like it could bore me to tears.

I wasn't keen on reading it. Me? I was ready for a new Stephanie Plum novel - something light, page-turning, and funny. I was fighting digging into something deep.

But then something peculiar happened. I got a Barnes & Noble gift card, and I didn't have it already spent by the time I walked in the door. Now, if you know me, you know I could literally spend my entire paycheck (oh yeah, i don't have a paycheck right now...haha) in the Bookstore, and I usually have a laundry list of things I want to get....this time was different. I needed a calendar. Big whoop. So I started doing something I haven't done in years: I just went to the Fiction/Literature section and started browsing.

Um, yeah....I remembered there's a reason I don't just pick up books on a whim - I'm a sucker for packaging. Cool font? Breezy colors? Some surreal design on the cover? Catchy or Wordplay kind of title? Ok, I'll check you out. But they ALL do that now. Sighhhh....what to pick?

Then I saw "The Road" and remembered the friend who swore by it. I picked it up and sighed, 'Ok, I'll get it this time' (after several previous trips to the bookstore which caused me to pick it up, only to put it down in favor of The Watchmen (yay! fab storytelling!) or The Sandman (boo! ick! yuck! terrible!)...

Let me just say that I'm still digesting this book, so this review may be a little tainted in that "first impressions" kinda way. But I like first impressions, so there.

Wow.

Yeah, that's my review in one word.

This book is NOT a style I would normally read. It's not a topic I would normally read. And I had to get past the whole 'What's the STORY about? - What's the PLOT of this book?' - I'm usually very plot-centric. I like the Character tales every once in a while, but usually the story has to have action, integrity, logic, and some kind of beginning, middle, and end. This one didn't have so much of a beginning, middle, or end...it took a while to get used to. But it had such a powerful tale of love and connection between a parent and a child. Horrific, morose, depressingly terrible conditions. Simple, powerful, no-nonsense link between this man and his child as they travel the road....you don't need to know how the world got like this. You don't need to know why things are the way they are. They just are, and this is how you would deal with it. A tale of survival for all time.

I cried a few times, of course, but not necessarily because of the horror (although there is that) but because the sweetness of it all rang through the horrible ordeals they came through. And so much to learn and teach for a child.... I do NOT recommend reading this is if you are in any kind of emotional PMS state. LOL. I was not, and by the last 5 pages, I was clearly in the running for Niagra Falls Crying Award. I mean, BUCKETS of tears, not just "my eyes welled up" kinda thing. More like, "I need about 6 more tissues, please, and no, don't look at me as I sob over and over again"

Anyway - I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a deep, meaningful read. And my advice? Don't put it down until at least 100 pages in. It's not the easiest read, but you'll want to finish it, trust me...