A father and son are striving to survive a wilderness that used to be a country that used to be the most prosperous nation on earth. All that is left is ash, floating and falling when the wind chooses not to breathe. This is the setting of The Road, a journey of survival only Cormac McCarthy could envision.
McCarthy carves this world in a harsh, stark lyricism reserved for those who speak unflinching prophecy. Both the father and son are surrounded by a nightmare and are frightened by others when they sleep. They are always starving, always cautiously alert, only having a grocery cart with a few blankets and a gun with two bullets, either to protect against the cannibalistic humanity following their tracks or for the father to finish their lives before despair consumes them both.
As they journey to the coast in search of something, the father tells the boy it is better to have nightmares because when you start dreaming, you know the end is near. McCarthy allows the reader to dream for them, striving on with them until a conclusion that whispers, under the pain and futility, of a sovereignty that is older than the destruction ever looming in the world.
The Road is a brutally astonishing work.
The focus of the reviews for The Road will be based upon the overview questions that have been covered up to the point of the designated reading assignment.
