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A review by ultimatekate
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3.0
Ok, I have to be honest, I'm not sure how much I liked this book.
First, I had a problem with the style, mainly the lack of punctuation. Maybe it's my 17 years of Catholic schooling but lack of punctuation really gets me. I think it's laziness. A friend assures me it's part of the style, because if the world just ended, do you need punctuation? I say we do!
Now, as for the novel itself, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it's rather pessimistic (end of the world and all), but on the other hand, the ending is a little hopeful. So it's not a complete downer but it did make me think about things like, "Why do we keep going?" "Is there any hope?" "How do you know the good guys from the bad guys?" and so on. And truth be told, I don't know the answers to these questions. And I'm talking about in the novel and in real life.
I did like the religious allusions and references to both the boy as Jesus and as Prometheus (carrying the fire). They show the ambiguity of the situation. Christians believe that Jesus is the savior, so being compared to him would be a good thing, right? And Prometheus brought fire to man, which would also be good, right? Except that Jesus is tortured and killed and Prometheus gets chained to a rock and tortured for eternity. So maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be...
I had a problem with the lack of names. One of the things that sets us apart from animals (aside from our desire to help others) is the fact that we have names and/or that we name things we care about. I think not naming the characters shows how animal like they've become and if the novel is supposed to be hopeful, wouldn't that be important?
Well, the novel left me sort of confused and questioning things and sort of unsettled. Maybe that's a good thing?
First, I had a problem with the style, mainly the lack of punctuation. Maybe it's my 17 years of Catholic schooling but lack of punctuation really gets me. I think it's laziness. A friend assures me it's part of the style, because if the world just ended, do you need punctuation? I say we do!
Now, as for the novel itself, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it's rather pessimistic (end of the world and all), but on the other hand, the ending is a little hopeful. So it's not a complete downer but it did make me think about things like, "Why do we keep going?" "Is there any hope?" "How do you know the good guys from the bad guys?" and so on. And truth be told, I don't know the answers to these questions. And I'm talking about in the novel and in real life.
I did like the religious allusions and references to both the boy as Jesus and as Prometheus (carrying the fire). They show the ambiguity of the situation. Christians believe that Jesus is the savior, so being compared to him would be a good thing, right? And Prometheus brought fire to man, which would also be good, right? Except that Jesus is tortured and killed and Prometheus gets chained to a rock and tortured for eternity. So maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be...
I had a problem with the lack of names. One of the things that sets us apart from animals (aside from our desire to help others) is the fact that we have names and/or that we name things we care about. I think not naming the characters shows how animal like they've become and if the novel is supposed to be hopeful, wouldn't that be important?
Well, the novel left me sort of confused and questioning things and sort of unsettled. Maybe that's a good thing?