The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak (yet at times beautiful) story of a father and son, travelling across the burned out husk of a nightmarish, post-acpocalyptic America. Much like A Long Way Gone, this is a "road" book in which the main characters journey thru a hostile environment where death is always just behind them—or waiting just ahead—while at the same time, lurking within their own hearts, waiting for them to stumble or miss a step along their equally mortal inner journies. That may make no sense, but what I'm trying to say is that the two books make quite a powerful pairing and share many similar themes. They both illustrate the depths to which man may sink and the atrocities which he may visit upon his brothers and himself. And yet, they both illustrate the strength of man's humanity and his ability to overcome violence, despair, fear, loss, and death. They illustrate the ability to overcome one's own shortcomings as well as those shortcomings which have seemingly plagued man as a whole, since the beginning of recorded history. The Road may herald the end of human history as we know it. But, in that end, it creates something worth recording and remembering.
As you may be able to tell, I've already read the book, as well as one more by the same author, Blood Meridian. If you don't read if for the book club, I highly recommend reading it for yourself and would love to hear your comments on it. Follow it up by watching Children of Men for a contemporary cross-over of intense, visceral storytelling involving more of the same themes.
BTW, The Road was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year. You can read an article about the author from the New Yorker here.
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