The Road

When making my list of books to read for the year, I chose The Road by Cormac McCarthy as my October book because I thought that based on the creepy-looking trailer for the 2009 film version starring Viggo Mortensen it would be appropriate for Halloween.

I finished the book last night, and yes, it is creepy. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the there have been widespread fires throughout the United States, where all of the animals and birds are gone, plants don't seem to be growing, and everything is cold and dark. Much like in the film The Book of Eli, there are hordes of marauders looking for trouble. Most citizens died of starvation or tying to flee the fires, their abandoned corpses litter the highway like broken down cars. People have resorted to cannibalism, starting with the children. It's disturbing on a lot of levels.

What I didn't anticipate was how sad and heartbreaking this book would be. Essentially it is the story of a man and his son, traveling South in hopes of finding warmer weather and good people. They search abandoned homes for food and carry what little provisions they have in backpacks or in a shopping cart. All they have left in the desolate world is each other. The man does everything he can to keep his child  alive and often cries at night knowing that not only is there little hope for the boy, but that he is slowly dying. The boy tries to help, but is only about 8 years old and is frightened most of the time. Understandably - he is nearly kidnapped by a hungry passerby, has seen people chained up and kept for food, and passes melted corpses on the highways. His father has even taught him the best way to commit suicide should he be taken by "the bad guys". It's a lifestyle that would be horrific for anyone, let alone a child.

In the end, the story is sad and disturbing, but there is hope. When it comes to the sacrificial love of a parent, this book is a beautiful example. It's written simply, but with descriptions that only multiply the eerieness of the world it is set in. It leaves you with so many questions - what caused the end of modern society? What caused the fires? Are the animals gone because they fled, since there's no traces of them? What made the ocean smell of iodine? Are there "good guys" somewhere in the world?

It's okay that there are questions, though. I think one of the signs of a well-written book is that when it's over, you wonder what happened to the characters next. This book definitely left me wondering.