The Road

A special bonus read!  While it isn’t yet one of the RA favorites, it was recommended by a former RA who I recently saw, so I decided it might be good to pick it up on a Sunday afternoon.  The Road by Cormac McCarthy is another post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son who happen to make it through the near world-ending catastrophe.  I love the name of the characters, “boy” and “father.”  The father takes the son on a journey south as winter approaches towards the sea.  The backdrop of their travels is a dark earth with no vegetation.  The mom committed suicide early in the story as she sees no hope on earth without food and safe refuge for the family.  Most of the small contingents of people who are alive have turned to cannibalism.  The father is realistic yet wants to keep his son alive, while the son serves as the symbol of faith believing in the good in people that they meet along the way.  In the closing passage the father dies, leaving the son to fend for himself, but the son finds a man (who has his own family) who tells him he has been following them and invites the son to join his family.  An interesting note is that the son is greeted by the man on the third day, clearly some reference to the Christian belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day.  The epilogue attempts to give some thoughts on nature and the future.  Certainly a departure from the Pretty Horses which I read last month.  What a depressing journey: mom commits suicide, dad is dying, people eating kids, and a family thinking hope is in a father and son journeying to the beach (which is the end of the road!).   These post-apocalyptic tales aren’t always very hopeful are they?  I guess that’s why you do need to have some faith….  Something to think about folks.  Not my favorite read for sure.