|
The Road (Oprah's Book Club) | 
 enlarge | Author: Cormac Mccarthy
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: CDN$ 21.00
Buy Used: CDN$ 4.44
You Save: CDN$ 16.56 (79%)
New (26) Used (12) from CDN$ 4.44
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 113
Media: Paperback
Pages: 287
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307387895
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307387899
ASIN: 0307387895
Publication Date: March 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Save a tree, buy from Green Earth Books. Ships from USA; Allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery. All books guaranteed. Read - Recycle - Reuse
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Best known for his iBorder Trilogy/i, hailed in the iSan Francisco Chronicle/i as "an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century," Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including last year's bestselling iNo Country for Old Men/i, and this year's iThe Road/i. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, iThe Road/i is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we've read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. --iDaphne Durham/ibr/p hr size="1"span class="h1"strongGuest Reviewer: Dennis Lehane/strong/spanbrbr img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/15/books/promos/lehane_cornado_tilt._V12312312_.jpg" border="0" align="left"span class="small"bDennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching iMystic River/i, blew fans away with the mind-bending iShutter Island/i, and switches gears with iCoronado/i, his new collection of gritty short stories (and one play)./bbrbr Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, iThe Road/i, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little place for love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in iThe Crossing/i. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In iThe Road/i, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --iDennis Lehane/i hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /div class="bucket"br
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
A Dark Hope August 7, 2008
Coach C (Canada)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is my first Cormac McCarthy novel and it probably won't be my last. "The Road" is a stark narrative about a man and his son navigating their way south on an unnamed interstate enroute to the coast after some unknown catastrophic event which has grayed the skies, scorched the earth and left very little life. The only people alive are scavengers who pillage, steal and eat children. br / br /Now, the uplifting part. McCarthy builds up the relationship between the man and his son providing a glimmer of hope in humanity amidst the destruction around them. The dialogue between the two is absolutely remarkable. The humanism is striking. br / br /McCarthy's writing is raw and uncompromising. He likes to contrast extremes: "Human bodies. Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotten clothes. The small wad of burning paper drew down into a wisp of flame ... in the incandescence like the shape of a flower, a molten rose. Then all was dark again" (p 47). Though the prose is short and choppy at times, it is effective in showing the simplicity between father and son: "I want to be with you. You cant. Please. You cant. You have to carry the fire. I dont know how to. Yes you do. Is it real? The fire? Yes it is" (p278). br / br /Two symbolic themes that appear throughout include "fire" and "the good people". The fire represents determination and sheer will. To have the fire is to survive at all costs. The good people represents the humanity. All humans are capable of good and evil deeds, especially when survival is at stake, but there is a sense of morality in humans, the desire to do good (but doesn't always win out). br / br /What I got out of the book was that if you are a pessimistic person by nature, you'll only see darkness. If you are optimist, you'll see light. I'd like to think of myself as "seeing the light". Overall, I think McCarthy has written a terrific book, worthy of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
 bleak.... and anything else? June 2, 2008
Tommy Tom Tom (toronto canada)
Before I begin, let me say that McCarthy's "The Crossing" is one of my all-time favourite books - so I'm a McCarthy fan and was pre-disposed to like "The Road." br / br /a lot of other reviews heap praise on the love the father has for the son in this book - and cite this love, with a mixture of faith and hope, as the reason that this book is so powerful. br / br /I honestly don't see it (the power - the father's love is evident enough). br / br /This book is kind of McCarthy for young adults. His other books tear your soul apart with the triumph of evil over good (Billy has to kill that wolf, and die beneath a highway overpass). Despite the starvation and destruction etc of this novel, it's actually a much lighter book than his other ones, and written in a much more readable style. In fact, in a way it is a two person play told in prose. The father and son walk through a post-nuclear world, surviving the best they can. Is there much more to it than that? If so - I don't see it. br / br /Read the Border Trilogy first, then Blood Meridian, and then The Road. It is not going to be the book he's remembered for. br / br /
 UGH! May 30, 2008
Amelia (Ontario, Canada)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I thought that since this book was raved about that it would be a great read. This has got to be the most boring book I have ever tried to read....I keep trying to finish it, but, wow...it just drags on and on. What a disappointment!
 Disappointing May 17, 2008
Lisa Reader (Montreal, Quebec Canada)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I picked up this book almost by accident. At the time, I knew little about the acclaim it has received. After having read it without bias, I really cannot understand what all the fuss is about. Everything is burnt, black and death surrounds them as they walk and walk and walk. The story between a father and son is sort of touching, but I found the book somewhat pointless. The ending was strange too! br /I've read worse, but not something I recommend those who are choosy!
Horrible April 30, 2008
S. Fowler (Newfoundland, Canada)
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I expected a lot more from Mr. McCarthy. I throughly enjoyed "No country for old men" but this novel, i came in expecting alot and was quite disappointed - it was a task to turn the page most times due to the fact that it was just walking, and walking, and walking and the actions seemed so lathargic. I know the point of the novel is to demonstrate the end-of-the-world perspective but it just made it deathly boring and as a avid reader I was just simply unimpressed.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
