I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and I can honestly say that my next read will not compare. In spite of its brevity, McCarthy manages to infuse the work with such humanity that it invariably leaves the reader reeling from both the beauty and obscenity that is our race. It is an honest depiction of what is left when all of society's excesses are stripped away revealing only raw emotion and a fool's hope.
The Road follows the journey of an unidentified Man and Boy/Father and Son as they make their way south through a post-apocalyptic continental US hoping to perhaps find something that reminds them of what they once knew as Good. The environment has become completely inhospitable due to some unknown catastrophe. As a result, all plant & animal life is dead, and what people remain have abandoned all ethics/morals in favor of a more savage form of survival. Conventions once considered the foundation of acceptable human behavior have been cast aside in the unblinking face of impending annihilation.
While the hopelessness of the world does indeed set a harsh tone for this narrative, the true strength of the work lies within the dialogue between the Father & Son. McCarthy's use of short, punctuation-free pseudo-sentences seem more realistic for the characters given the dismal circumstances they are made to endure. An example of this rich moderation is as follows:
There are other good guys. You said so.
Yes.
So where are they?
They’re hiding.
Who are they hiding from?
From each other.
Are there lots of them?
We don’t know.
But some.
Yes. Some.
Is that true?
Yes. That’s true.
But it might not be true.
I think it’s true.
Okay.
You dont believe me.
I believe you.
Okay.
I always believe you.
I dont think so.
Yes I do. I have to.
It is the credit of the author that so few words can so successfully convey the relational nature of two characters.
For me, this book's greatest impact is the way it forced me to examine the supposition that Good is something real & concrete, and it's continuation is a worthy enough cause to face unmentionable horrors. I have often found myself wondering if I agree that there are ideals that override the value of humanity (corpus). It seems The Road led me towards that question once more. Unfortunately, this path always seems to lead to a dead-end.
