# The Road by Cormac McCarthy



## Sweet FA (Jul 12, 2007)

Bloody hell  

A deceptively simple story nominally about a father and son walking across an America in the grip of (I assume) a nuclear winter or a new ice age or something.  

I've read the Border Trilogy by McCarthy and they were incredibly bleak in parts, but they were nothing compared to this book. The descriptions of the dead, burnt and blasted landscapes are some of the best writing I've read in a long time. It's so deceptive too; short paragraphs, brief sentences, simple language, but combined to create incredibly vivid feelings of loss, desolation, death and despair. In all of this though, McCarthy somehow manages to keep you aware of the fierce love and tenderness between the father and son. Even when society is in it's final throes, when it's pretty much as fucked as it can get, when mothers are eating their babies; McCarthy still keeps the idea going that there's threads of hope and humanity.

Not exactly a summer beach book then  

A harrowing, hypnotic read though; destined to be a classic I reckon. 

'The man watched him. How would you know if you were the last man on earth? he said.
I don't guess you would know it. You'd just be it.
Nobody would know it.
It wouldn't make a difference. When you die it's the same as if everybody else did too.
I guess god would know it. Is that it?
There is no God.
No?
There is no God and we are his prophets.'


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## Dubversion (Jul 12, 2007)

yeh, there's been a couple of threads - it's fucking harrowing. I read a proof copy last year in one sitting in the middle of the night and then just... sat there.



Movie next year.,


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## Sweet FA (Jul 12, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> yeh, there's been a couple of threads


Oops; tried to search but kept getting that 'database error' malarkey




			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> Movie next year


Arse. Really? I finished it and thought 'well at least they won't be able to make a film of it'. Perhaps they could try _really_ hard and fuck it up as much as they fucked up All The Pretty Horses...Not sure how they can translate McCarthy's prose into films really - too much internal dialogue and descriptions of scenery. I fear something like The Road: Cannibal Apocalypse II...


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## Dubversion (Jul 12, 2007)

Well it's being made by John Hillcoat (The Proposition / Ghosts of the Civil Dead) who will i suspect do as decent a job as possible - he's the king of 'unremittingly bleak'.

The flipside of this is that the Coen's have made a movie of No Country For Old Men - which i thought was very poor as a  novel but could make a great film!

And yes, All The Pretty Horses was appalling


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## rubbershoes (Jul 12, 2007)

i've been holding off reading it as none of his work has matched the Border Trilogy IMO and i didn't want to be disappointed

from what you say i think i should get it. 

maybe i won't read it as the children's bedtime story, though


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## Dubversion (Jul 12, 2007)

it's the best he's done apart from Border Trilogy IMO


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## twistedAM (Jul 13, 2007)

Sweet FA said:
			
		

> Oops; tried to search but kept getting that 'database error' malarkey
> 
> 
> Arse. Really? I finished it and thought 'well at least they won't be able to make a film of it'. Perhaps they could try _really_ hard and fuck it up as much as they fucked up All The Pretty Horses...Not sure how they can translate McCarthy's prose into films really - too much internal dialogue and descriptions of scenery. I fear something like The Road: Cannibal Apocalypse II...



Coen Brothers have done No Country For Old Men...was at Cannes this year. There's a thread specifically on that somewhere.


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## billy_bob (Jul 13, 2007)

I'm saving this one for reading on me summer hols. Perfect antidote to all that sun and happiness


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## Orang Utan (Aug 13, 2007)

I picked this up last month and read a few pages, but real life got in the way and I left it alone while I dealy with it - I picked it up again yesterday and read it in one sitting - I didn't sleep last night but I'm glad I read it - it is so devastating, yet there's something sweet about it too - can't get into why without spoilers so will leave it there


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## Orang Utan (Aug 18, 2007)

I lent this to a friend as a holiday read - I think I ruined her holiday - she's already had one sleepless night!


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## twistedAM (Aug 18, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I lent this to a friend as a holiday read - I think I ruined her holiday - she's already had one sleepless night!



That was smart; someone recommended me Kafka for some beach reading once. the bastard.

Fucking great book though, is The Road.


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## marty21 (Aug 29, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I picked this up last month and read a few pages, but real life got in the way and I left it alone while I dealy with it - I picked it up again yesterday and read it in one sitting - I didn't sleep last night but I'm glad I read it - it is so devastating, yet there's something sweet about it too - can't get into why without spoilers so will leave it there



i finished this last night, had about 150 pages to go and read that in one sitting, i was up til nearly 2 couldn't put it down, there is something really sweet about the relationship, but i won't put any spoilers either


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## Dubversion (Aug 29, 2007)

he just won an award - James Tait award or somesuch?


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## Pie 1 (Aug 29, 2007)

IMO it's his best book to date & It's fucking treat to have it done by someone who's previous work is already so brilliant.
I think it's probably one best novels I've read in a long, long time - I mean, I've read some great stuff over the past few years, but The Road... I still find my self thinking about it 2 months after having read it.


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## Dubversion (Aug 29, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> IMO it's his best book to date & It's fucking treat to have it done by someone who's previous work is already so brilliant.
> I think it's probably one best novels I've read in a long, long time - I mean, I've read some great stuff over the past few years, but The Road... I still find my self thinking about it 2 months after having read it.




me too. Just floored me, like nothing's done in a long time. There are books where I was more aware somehow of how great the writing was - Jonathan Letham springs to mind - but I guess in The Road he writes in a really unflashy way, it gets under your skin and at the end. wow..


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## marty21 (Aug 29, 2007)

i really want some tinned peaches now


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## Pie 1 (Aug 29, 2007)

marty21 said:
			
		

> i really want some tinned peaches now



 


It's just the fucking relentless hopelessness that gets you.


"We have to go now"


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## marty21 (Aug 29, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> It's just the fucking relentless hopelessness that gets you.
> 
> 
> "We have to go now"



i dunno, i kept feeling hopeful for them, the man was so resourceful, and the son adored him, my dad wouldn't have done all that


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## King Biscuit Time (Aug 29, 2007)

I felt like I'd been kicked in the guts after reading it.

Reckon it would have been even worse if I had kids, you can't help but transpose your own experiences with your father/children into it. 

This thread has reminded me to get some more of his novels when I get paid on Friday - are they all pretty bleak reads then?


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## Dubversion (Aug 29, 2007)

King Biscuit Time said:
			
		

> This thread has reminded me to get some more of his novels when I get paid on Friday - are they all pretty bleak reads then?



go for the Border Trilogy next. Not bleak as such, but absolutely brilliant.


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## King Biscuit Time (Aug 29, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> go for the Border Trilogy next. Not bleak as such, but absolutely brilliant.



Will do then.  

(Bleakness not essential btw, just wondered!)


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## Dubversion (Aug 29, 2007)

I've read the first one and adored it, stalled on the 2nd because it was summer and i was in airhead mode. Pie Face absolutely rates them, and so do most people i know who've read them...


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## Pie 1 (Aug 29, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> go for the Border Trilogy next. Not bleak as such




Oh, I dunno. You can see how he ended up writing The Road in hindsight.

ATPH was when I was first blown away by the uniqueness of his prose.



(never had even the smallest incline to see the film, mind)


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## marty21 (Aug 29, 2007)

the border trilogy is brilliant, but the road is far and way his best imo


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## sojourner (Aug 30, 2007)

marty21 said:
			
		

> the border trilogy is brilliant, but the road is far and way his best imo


I dunno - I really REALLY loved All the Pretty Horses...it moved me in a huge way.  The middle one of the trilogy I kept stalling on, as there were too many rambling sections, and I'm on the last stretch of Cities of the Plain now, which is much more similar in style to ATPH.


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## Dubversion (Aug 30, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> (never had even the smallest incline to see the film, mind)



never, EVER, change your mind about this


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## Pieface (Aug 30, 2007)

*(probably some Border Trilogy Spoilers)*




			
				sojourner said:
			
		

> I dunno - I really REALLY loved All the Pretty Horses...it moved me in a huge way.  The middle one of the trilogy I kept stalling on, as there were too many rambling sections, and I'm on the last stretch of Cities of the Plain now, which is much more similar in style to ATPH.



he has these episodes that threw me a bit - one that comes to mind is the guy that the brother meets in the desert in I _think _ATPH - it descends into this story about some church that he lived in when he was young.....I _waded _through that section.   He seems to do that to you at least once in each book - have a really abstract section removed from the story at hand and then you're back in it.

I think it happens again when his brother's bedridden after being shot.

But I can definitely see how he came out with the Road after reading his other stuff - the ending of the Crossing anyone???   Fucking hell I was a mess.  Just sits down in the road doesn't he?


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## twistedAM (Aug 30, 2007)

The one that I keep meaning to re-read is Suttree. 
A good novel needs a well-fucked melon.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

Pie Eye - you spoilsport


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## Pieface (Aug 30, 2007)

wtf - I put that there were spoilers - what else do you want?


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## sojourner (Aug 30, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> he has these episodes that threw me a bit - one that comes to mind is the guy that the brother meets in the desert in I _think _ATPH - it descends into this story about some church that he lived in when he was young.....I _waded _through that section.   He seems to do that to you at least once in each book - have a really abstract section removed from the story at hand and then you're back in it.
> 
> I think it happens again when his brother's bedridden after being shot.
> 
> But I can definitely see how he came out with the Road after reading his other stuff - the ending of the Crossing anyone???   Fucking hell I was a mess.  Just sits down in the road doesn't he?


They were in the middle book, and more than threw me I have to say.  I got quite pissed off with yet ANOTHER seemingly pointless ramble (and I did spend quite some time thinking through all the aspects of the asides and wondering what was the point).  I didn't notice it in ATPH tbh - I just utterly loved the whole horsey/cowboy thing going on.  Really made me want to run away and be a cowboy (again!) 

Yeh, the end of the Crossing really fucked me up too - it could have been an awesome book, but the rambley bits stopped it from being so


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## Pieface (Aug 30, 2007)

It was the one I had most trouble with too.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> wtf - I put that there were spoilers - what else do you want?


There wasn't a warning at first IIRC.
I'd rather people put spoilers in other threads though for what it's worth


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## Pieface (Aug 30, 2007)

you can't go back into a post and add a header - it was there.


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## sojourner (Aug 30, 2007)

So stop bloody moanin


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## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

Well leave it out in the future please! Maybe it's because I often read posts backwards - this thread's about The Road and now I know the ending to one of the other McCarthy books which I was planning on reading - spoilers should be put in threads not posts!


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## Pieface (Aug 30, 2007)

You read POSTS backwards? How am I suppose to know you read posts backwards!???   What the fuck kind of behaviour is that??

To be fair like - it's not really a major spoiler - you have no idea what I'm talking about.  It won't ruin the book in any way.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

Not literally backwards! But sometimes I skim threads from bottom up til I find the last one I read.
I'll probably forget about it anyways, but I do prefer people to ghettoise their spoilers in seperate threads with huge flashing warnings


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## Pieface (Aug 30, 2007)

oh.  well you sound like a mental.

but I'll make it much more clear in the future. wanker.

That sounds unfriendly   I should have put a nice smiley ----->  Like him.


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## sojourner (Aug 30, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> To be fair like - it's not really a major spoiler - you have no idea what I'm talking about.  It won't ruin the book in any way.


That's what I thought actually

And OU - who the friggety FUCK reads posts backwards??


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## chooch (Aug 30, 2007)

Just finished this. Read it mostly out walking on my own on lonely roads, which I don't recommend.


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## sojourner (Aug 30, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just finished this. Read it mostly out walking on my own on lonely roads, which I don't recommend.


You can read and walk?  At the same time??


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## chooch (Aug 30, 2007)

yes, on a travelator, but not on roads 300ft above the Atlantic


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## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

I read and walk too


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## Pie 1 (Aug 31, 2007)

Just been following some links about the film adaptation of The Road.

This rather silly synopsis from Variety made me giggle - you can almost hear that macho hollywood trailer voiceover saying it:

"A story about a father who transports his son to safety following a nuclear explosion and battles starving stragglers and marauding packs of cannibals in his way."


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## twistedAM (Aug 31, 2007)

Whose directing The Road?

I am looking forward to the Coen Brothers take on No Country For Old Men (a book I enjoyed but probably his weakest; funny how it was followed very quickly by his best!)

Anyone here read Suttree?? I keep banging on about it but no one seems to have read it. I loved it.


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## Pie 1 (Aug 31, 2007)

twisted said:
			
		

> Whose directing The Road?



John Hillcoat apparently - did The Proposition a couple of years ago, so some pretty good 'bleak' credentials.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 31, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Just been following some links about the film adaptation of The Road.
> 
> This rather silly synopsis from Variety made me giggle - you can almost hear that macho hollywood trailer voiceover saying it:
> 
> "A story about a father who transports his son to safety following a nuclear explosion and battles starving stragglers and marauding packs of cannibals in his way."


"In a world...."


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## twistedAM (Aug 31, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> John Hillcoat apparently - did The Proposition a couple of years ago, so some pretty good 'bleak' credentials.



good. hope they film it in monochrome


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## camouflage (Sep 5, 2007)

Just read this, a deeply powerful and disturbing book, and starkly poetic. Didn't really hit me till the end though, I suppose I've become desensitised in a way. Somewhow I found Octavia Butlers Clays Ark more disturbing even though The Road is so much darker and harder hitting, I think life is way more scary then death, the world of The Road is a dead world, whereas Clays Ark is the world being invaded by ravenous life. Primary emotions of The Road were isolation, fear, and the sad perfetic and meek struggle against the dying of the light. Reminded me of the film The Pianist too.

Speculation as to what the fuck happened to the world in The Road... no radiation hazards, cancers or leukemia was mentioned, and there was so much ash everywhere that continued to blot out the sun for years suggests to me either a Super Volcano (such as Yellowstone or Toba) or an asteroid strike that put so much material into the air that it would blot out the sun for months, and so much rocky material into low decaying orbits that the sky rained fire for days. More likely Yellowstone or Toba in my opinion. In which case the burning cities could be accounted for either by rains of volcanic rock re-entering the atmosphere from a North American eruption like Yellowstone, or by human misanarchy and looting following the total collapse of states, more likely rains of fire.

I can't imagine Hollywood will do it justice as a film (those people screw all books up, why can they never even deliver the same plot ffs!) But I've heard Tommy Lee Jones suggested as the man, I think that would fit.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 5, 2007)

or maybe Pauly Shore


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## camouflage (Sep 5, 2007)

er... why?


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## Orang Utan (Sep 5, 2007)

OK then. Adam Sandler? Bobcat Goldthwaite?


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

twisted said:
			
		

> good. hope they film it in monochrome



that would be good.....even if they didn't, the ashen landscape would mute all the colours in any case.

I'm still not sure about the film - they _cannot _sensationalise any of it - the whole book had such a quiet feeling to it.  I'd die if it was all charged up.


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## twistedAM (Sep 5, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> that would be good.....even if they didn't, the ashen landscape would mute all the colours in any case.
> 
> I'm still not sure about the film - they _cannot _sensationalise any of it - the whole book had such a quiet feeling to it.  I'd die if it was all charged up.



aye McCarthy's prose is very relaxed but there are a few things in there (without giving spoilers away) that could make very ugly viewing indeed...i'm thinking of the vigilante army and what was in their "food cupboard"

MCarthy just puts that in there to let the reader chew over the magnitude in their own way and time; dunno how a director would cope with that. If he was loayl to the book then it would be a two second clip but...


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## King Biscuit Time (Sep 5, 2007)

I've just had to join Oprah's book club online (free, of course) so I can watch the only TV interview Cormac McCarthy has ever done (it's on Oprah's book club site).

Interesting watch if you have 20 mins or so. (And don't mind giving you email address to Oprah Winfrey).


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

really?  I'm going to have a look at that. Is it any good??  I don't really rate Oprah's style of interviewing to be honest!


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## Pie 1 (Sep 5, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I don't really rate Oprah's style of interviewing to be honest!



Me neither & to his credit McCarthy just kind of ignores it and rambles (interesting) answers instead  
He comes accross as a very nice, humble guy  - no mystery about him -  just a man who isn't remotely interested in being in the spotlight or navel gazing and Oprah is the one who ends up looking a bit awkward actually.


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## camouflage (Sep 5, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> OK then. Adam Sandler? Bobcat Goldthwaite?



*gives Orang a funny look, shuffles down a little bit*

I guess you're saying Tommy Lee Jones isn't a serious enough actor to carry the role, which may well be true. He certainly has the face for it though. 

Or maybe you're just a wrong'un. Adam Sandler indeed.*spits in disgust*

Forrest Whittaker then, think about it.... (except the guys son is blonde, but who'll notice that little descrepency when the gattling-gun weilding nazi mutant lesbians on quad-bikes turn up).


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## Orang Utan (Sep 5, 2007)

No, I'm only fooling with ya, fella. The person who I imagined as soon as I started reading was Billy Bob Thornton. I heard the narrative in his voice too IYKWIM.


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

Actually - I can see what foreigner means about Forrest.   I think he would be good in that role - and changing the colour of the two characters in it wouldn't make any difference I don't think.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 5, 2007)

Who says they would be changing the colour of the characters anyway?


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

no one - doesn't mean that they couldn't


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## King Biscuit Time (Sep 5, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> really?  I'm going to have a look at that. Is it any good??  I don't really rate Oprah's style of interviewing to be honest!




Me either, but he's interesting enough for it not to matter. She doesn't say a lot (for her).


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## Orang Utan (Sep 5, 2007)

No, what I mean is that the race of the characters is never specified anyway


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

someone up there mentioned that the son is blond - that would make for caucasian wouldn't it?  I can't remember tbh - maybe I assumed white because I'm:

a.) racist 

or

b.) he's an "everyman" character so you apply your own ethnicity to him


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## twistedAM (Sep 5, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> someone up there mentioned that the son is blond - that would make for caucasian wouldn't it?  I can't remember tbh - maybe I assumed white because I'm:
> 
> a.) racist
> 
> ...



something made me think they were white and maybe it was the blonde thing but I can't remeber eveything in the book; the character seemed to be all-american, midwest-suburban, litle league baseball, apple pie etc


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

twisted said:
			
		

> something made me think they were white and maybe it was the blonde thing but I can't remeber eveything in the book; the character seemed to be all-american, midwest-suburban, litle league baseball, apple pie etc



I think he writes it so they are average - so that you can put yourself in their shoes.  I think OU may be right that it isn't made clear.  
It definitely isn't explicit in any case.


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## camouflage (Sep 5, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I think he writes it so they are average - so that you can put yourself in their shoes.  I think OU may be right that it isn't made clear.
> It definitely isn't explicit in any case.



It is explicit that they are white, on a couple of occasions they strip off to bath or swim, and the writer notes their shockingly thin boney white bodies. On another occasion the father bruises his shoulder opening a door and it turns blue. The kids hair is shown as blonde when the father gives him a haircut.

Doesn't matter though, I'm not racist or anything, I'm just saying.


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## Pieface (Sep 5, 2007)

foreigner said:
			
		

> Doesn't matter though, I'm not racist or anything, I'm just saying.



 

you're right - it does.

I'm not doing a very good impression of someone who has read this book am I?

The average point still stands though


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## Orang Utan (Sep 5, 2007)

How unobservant of me


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## Maltin (Sep 11, 2007)

It has been suggested that Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star in the film.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20055675,00.html


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## soam (Jan 2, 2008)

Just read this over Christmas and very deep and disturbing it is 

I saw the story in monochrome when i read it - so i hope the film is done the same..

I like  the fact that whatever disaster has befallen the earth is never  specified. And also the endless monotony of the days....bleak


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## ringo (Jan 3, 2008)

twisted said:
			
		

> Whose directing The Road?
> 
> I am looking forward to the Coen Brothers take on No Country For Old Men (a book I enjoyed but probably his weakest; funny how it was followed very quickly by his best!)
> 
> Anyone here read Suttree?? I keep banging on about it but no one seems to have read it. I loved it.



Yup, Suttree and Child Of God are my top recommendations. Despite him being my favourite author I thought No Country was a real low point in his writing, Border Trilogy was OK but I can't really see why they've been elevated above his bleaker books. Just got a copy of the long out of print "Orchard Keeper", so grateful for the commercial success of  The Road for getting this reissued.


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## brianx (Feb 1, 2008)

It's been a long time since I've cried reading a book.

What a beautiful book but I'd never give it to my friend who's just had a baby.


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## Dillinger4 (Feb 1, 2008)

brianx said:


> It's been a long time since I've cried reading a book.
> 
> What a beautiful book but I'd never give it to my friend who's just had a baby.



I know exactly which part you are thinking of.


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## The Groke (Feb 2, 2008)

Finished it now....I thought.....I thought it was _good_ but sadly I didn't seem to "feel it" quite as much as everyone else on here.


Dunno why - I think maybe my expectations were too high to start with.

Maybe I missed something - I found the ending very unsatisfactory at any rate. 


Hm.


That said, out of the two books I have been reading as recommended by posters here - The Road being one - I am fucking _loving_ Kavalier and Clay.


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## brianx (Feb 2, 2008)

I bought a can of peaches today as in the book that's as good as it gets. 

I don't know if it's a wake up call but I don't think so we'll carry on as we've always done. Since reading this I've started feeding the birds in my garden as that's one of the things that the man misses. We take so much for granted.


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## Dillinger4 (Feb 2, 2008)

I felt let down by _The Road_. I think it was a little over hyped, really. 

I am looking forward to reading other stuff by Cormac McCarthy at some point though.


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## twistedAM (Feb 2, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> I felt let down by _The Road_. I think it was a little over hyped, really.
> 
> I am looking forward to reading other stuff by Cormac McCarthy at some point though.



I see what you mean and maybe it's a shame that you didn't have to haul yourself through the intensity of the Border Trilogy and other MCCarthy heavyweights before you read The Road. With him, a lot of it is about the sparse rpose. he achieves a lot with a few words in the Road.


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## Dillinger4 (Feb 2, 2008)

I felt like I could summarize the _The Road_ in a few sentences, after reading it.

"I am scared"
"Ok"
"I am hungry"
"Alright"

ETC ETC

It has gone up in my estimations since reading it, though. I have had time to mull over it a little bit.


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## blinky_bill (Feb 2, 2008)

The Road and No Country are my least favourite Cormac Mccarthy books.
They're both good but not for the reasons why I read Mccarthy. I think he peaked with Blood Meridian really, although The Crossing was pretty special.
Rumours are that he has completed another book. It's set in New Orleans and it's a big one.


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## twistedAM (Feb 2, 2008)

No on else seems to rate Suttree apart from me.

I agree about No Country.

I like The Road a lot but if it was music it would be an EP  rather than an album iyswim.


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## blinky_bill (Feb 2, 2008)

Suttree is an amazing book. I would rate Suttree and Blood Meridian as two of the stand out books of the last century.
I have to read it again sometime. I think alot of it went over my head.


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## D'wards (Feb 7, 2008)

I bought this today on the strength of this thread, brand new, from a bookshop (which i never do). Better be good Urbans!


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## Barking_Mad (Feb 8, 2008)

I read 'The Road' last week after finding it brand new in a discount bookstore for £3.

Very good read indeed.


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## The Boy (Jul 19, 2008)

Got givn a copy of this by a friend to take on holiday but I ended up reading it in two sittings about a fortnight before I've even left.

Not really a booky kind of guy so any book that can hav me that hooked that I just have to finish it can't be bad.  I found his writing jarred with me somewhat for the first 37 pages, but once I got used to it I didn't notice.  About the only complaint I have is that neded a coupl of pages too late (IMO of course).


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## dodgepot (Dec 8, 2008)

bumping an old thread...

i bought The Road a while ago, never read any cormac mccarthy's books before (but have seen "no country...")

started reading this yesterday evening and couldn't put it down - already half way through. jolly old romp, innit? is that typical of his works?

what books of his should i go for next?


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## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

Read this a while ago - thought it was verging on the dreadful tbh. The central premise of following The Actual Road was senseless when it was full of hoards of deperate cannibals and the writing was simplistic in a way that insulted me. 

I have a copy going spare if anyone wants it like.


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## foo (Dec 8, 2008)

i loved The Road and i'm now reading the Orchard Keeper at the moment...it's pretty hard going.


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## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

Yo yo



Spoiler: N_igma



It would have been better if the child died with the father I thought.


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## dodgepot (Dec 8, 2008)

thanks for that. fuck's sake  

putting *spoiler* directly above a one-sentence spoiler ain't really much help. can't you edit it to use the spoiler code so other people don't read it without wanting to? too late for me though....


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

dodgepot said:


> thanks for that. fuck's sake
> 
> putting *spoiler* directly above a one-sentence spoiler ain't really much help. can't you edit it to use the spoiler code so other people don't read it without wanting to? too late for me though....



Actually I knew you were going to read that so I did it on purpose so ner! 


Seriously though, how do you use the spoiler thingy majig?


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> Actually I knew you were going to read that so I did it on purpose so ner!
> 
> 
> Seriously though, how do you use the spoiler thingy majig?



That's really mean and a bit rude


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> That's really mean and a bit rude



Suck my tits.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> Suck my tits.



Up yer bollocks


----------



## dodgepot (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> Actually I knew you were going to read that so I did it on purpose so ner!
> 
> 
> Seriously though, how do you use the spoiler thingy majig?



instructions in this thread here which was made a sticky in this forum precisely to try and prevent people from ruining other people's enjoyment of films and books.

you've ruined my week and it's only monday morning


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

dodgepot said:


> instructions in this thread here which was made a sticky in this forum precisely to try and prevent people from ruining other people's enjoyment of films and books.
> 
> you've ruined my week and it's only monday morning



*passes mince pie* Hope that helps!


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

dodgepot said:


> you've ruined my week and it's only monday morning



Haha fuck sake you'd think I rid yer ma or something. Calm down sonny jim!


----------



## Pieface (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> The central premise of following The Actual Road was senseless when it was full of hoards of deperate cannibals
> .




I don't understand this - what do you mean?  Use spoiler code if you need to.

Dodgepot - if you like the jolly romps I'll lend you Blood Meridien next


----------



## dodgepot (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> Haha fuck sake you'd think I rid yer ma or something. Calm down sonny jim!



oh i'm calm, just a bit annoyed. don't you think it's *extremely* knobbish to spoil someone's enjoyment of a book or film on purpose (as you've admitted to doing so) and not even apologise? oh well, maybe it's funny if you're 12 or something 

cheers PieEye.


----------



## themonkeyman (Dec 8, 2008)

sounds excellent, buying it now, thanks for the heads up


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

dodgepot said:


> oh i'm calm, just a bit annoyed. don't you think it's *extremely* knobbish to spoil someone's enjoyment of a book or film on purpose (as you've admitted to doing so) and not even apologise? oh well, maybe it's funny if you're 12 or something
> 
> cheers PieEye.



Haha I only said I did it on purpose to annoy you, winding you up like (which you should know something about already when reading another recent thread ). 

I didn't mean to spoil it for you but you should have read that I put a spoiler (even if it wasn't clearly defined)  there anyway. Do you reaad from the bottom up or something when reading posts? 

Anyhoo it's all fixed now.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

PieEye said:


> I don't understand this - what do you mean?  Use spoiler code if you need to.
> 
> Dodgepot - if you like the jolly romps I'll lend you Blood Meridien next






Spoiler: 5t3IIa's thoughts on The Road



They followed the road/s and only seemed to have to hide off to the side a few times to avoid other people... Why stroll down the middle of the road when it is the most dangerous place to be, then call the book The Road? Seemed shonky. 

Also there was a oddly-written manipulative passage about a pile of boiled bones and clothing that needed reading twice to make sure it wasn't the kid that was dead.

Finding the bunker was just a ridiculous *boom* ray of sunshine in a bleak book = shonky.

There was also a strange attitude to other people (the old geezer in the road) that may or may not be a reasonable idea of what people in that situation would act like but it seemed peculilarly quite _American_ to me and I found it a bit crap. Not sure I can fully defend this last point but it's what struck me.


----------



## dodgepot (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> Haha I only said I did it on purpose to annoy you, winding you up like (which you should know something about already when reading another recent thread ).
> 
> I didn't mean to spoil it for you but you should have read that I put a spoiler (even if it wasn't clearly defined)  there anyway. Do you reaad from the bottom up or something when reading posts?
> 
> Anyhoo it's all fixed now.



it's a bit tricky to avoid what someone has written when they've put it directly under the word spolier, with only a one line gap between them. i, along with a lot of people i'd imagine, skim over posts first before reading in detail.

oh, and it's a bit different just teasing someone about a post they've made and purposefully revealing the ending of a book someone is enjoying just to annoy them.

still, as you say it's all fixed now - you editing your post to add the spoiler code has made me instanstly forget what you wrote


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

dodgepot said:


> still, as you say it's all fixed now - you editing your post to add the spoiler code has made me instanstly forget what you wrote





You need to chilllllllll out bro.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> You need to chilllllllll out bro.



You need to grooooooow up, knobber.


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> You need to grooooooow up, knobber.



Who asked you for your opinion? Not me anyway maharishi.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> Who asked you for your opinion? Not me anyway maharishi.



 Wot an idiot


----------



## Pieface (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> Spoiler: 5t3IIa's thoughts on The Road
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I can't remember how to do the code so I've replied within your post.


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> Wot an idiot



Ah great err..."comeback".


----------



## Pieface (Dec 8, 2008)

You did bad and was pulled up on it - stop ruining the thread


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

PieEye said:


> I can't remember how to do the code so I've replied within your post.



Now I can't re-quote it  You're probably right in your comments. I read it expecting to be blown away and being annoyed (by a book?!  ) just grew and grew as I went on and never recovered. I have had that happen before and by now I should have learned to take a step back before I finally get around to the more highly-regarded popular stuff 



N_igma said:


> Ah great err..."comeback".



It's not a fight matey. You've been quite rude and don't seem to accept it.


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> It's not a fight matey. You've been quite rude and don't seem to accept it.



It's a wind up, dodgepot knows all about wind ups.


----------



## foo (Dec 8, 2008)

the humanity (if that's the right word) of The Road made me cry. i found it a stunning book, the most oustanding read of the past few years for me.

not finding his other books as enthralling though i have to say...


----------



## El Jefe (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> Read this a while ago - thought it was verging on the dreadful tbh. The central premise of following The Actual Road was senseless when it was full of hoards of deperate cannibals and the writing was simplistic in a way that insulted me.
> 
> I have a copy going spare if anyone wants it like.



I'm amazed you think that.. I think it's one of the most affecting books I've ever read. If you wanted to read it in some realistic sense (as per your spoiler comments) maybe you could find some flaws, but I just didn't see it like that. I found it absolutely heartbreakingly and fantastically written.



5t3IIa said:


> You've been quite rude and don't seem to accept it.




Sadly, he seems to find some deep personal satisfaction in acting like a dick.

ah well


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Sadly, he seems to find some deep personal satisfaction in acting like a dick.
> 
> ah well



You did have to rear your ugly head didn't you? If there's one person in this site, the whole internet probably who takes "deep personal satisfaction in acting like a dick" then it's you. Take a look in the mirror why don't ya?


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 8, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I'm amazed you think that.. I think it's one of the most affecting books I've ever read. If you wanted to read it in some realistic sense (as per your spoiler comments) maybe you could find some flaws, but I just didn't see it like that. I found it absolutely heartbreakingly and fantastically written.



I wil admit I may well have pre-folded my arms and sneered "Go on then, impress me" at it before I even started. I'd read a lot of threads like this, and on other boards, and set it up to fail. It's childish, and it's also the reason I never got into Radiohead when I was a teen  I expect you know what I mean.

I was more heartbroken, deeply affected and moved by Fortress of Solitude. I know you're a Letham fan 

`


----------



## El Jefe (Dec 8, 2008)

5t3IIa said:


> I was more heartbroken, deeply affected and moved by Fortress of Solitude. I know you're a Letham fan
> 
> `


That's an awesome book, although perhaps it tails off a bit. But yeh, Letham is wonderful


----------



## Pie 1 (Dec 8, 2008)

N_igma said:


> You did have to rear your ugly head...




Oh, just fuck the fuck off this thread you fucking prick! 
Jesus.


----------



## Structaural (Dec 8, 2008)

I finished it a couple of weeks ago. Really stays with you.
I took it as nuclear holocaust (mainly because I've been playing a post-apocalyptic game called Fallout3 at the same time) but I can see the environmental angle now, not that the event is actually important. What was interesting is that it is some time after the event, so nothing is left, everything has already been looted, found, consumed. Interesting on the man trying to show his son how to be a good guy but also being a 'bad' guy when forced and being picked up on it. Eerie, powerful book, my second of his - he doesn't need many words (or apostrophes) to tell his stories... going to try The Crossing next.


----------



## Pieface (Dec 8, 2008)

His use of punctuation is really interesting actually - and he writes some of the longest sentences in fiction yet they're grammatically correct (I think!) and read fine.


----------



## El Jefe (Dec 8, 2008)

Structaural said:


> going to try The Crossing next.



I'd read All The Pretty Horses - it's a trilogy and you might fuck it up if you read it in the wrong order. The order of The Crossing / All The Pretty Horses isn't too bad, but make sure you don't read the third one out of sequence


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 8, 2008)

PieEye said:


> His use of punctuation is really interesting actually - and he writes some of the longest sentences in fiction yet they're grammatically correct (I think!) and read fine.



Jose Saramago probably the has the longest sentences in fiction (that I have seen, anyway)


----------



## Pieface (Dec 8, 2008)

Post it if you can


----------



## Structaural (Dec 8, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I'd read All The Pretty Horses - it's a trilogy and you might fuck it up if you read it in the wrong order. The order of The Crossing / All The Pretty Horses isn't too bad, but make sure you don't read the third one out of sequence



ah, right cheers, that would be sensible


----------



## sojourner (Dec 8, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I'd read *All The Pretty Horses *- it's a trilogy and you might fuck it up if you read it in the wrong order. The order of The Crossing / All The Pretty Horses isn't too bad, but make sure you don't read the third one out of sequence



Best one by far out of the trilogy for me that


----------



## Structaural (Dec 8, 2008)

PieEye said:


> His use of punctuation is really interesting actually - and he writes some of the longest sentences in fiction yet they're grammatically correct (I think!) and read fine.



I like it another author Im fond of writes similarly –Jim Harrison.


----------



## ringo (Dec 8, 2008)

I found the trilogy All The Pretty Horses to be the weakest of his books. Too refined and not dark enough. I think the strength of his writing is dependent on the dichotomy between the beauty of nature and the brutality of humans. 

I appreciate that does read back as a bit 'English student's 1st year undergraduate essay', but it is what I mean.


----------



## Pieface (Dec 8, 2008)

Well the landscape does beat their arses fairly frequently too, especially in the Road where we've fucked the environment and so now it's fucking us, but I see what you're saying there.   It's frontier fiction, nothing's tamed - including the people.

I'm just about to start Sutree...


----------



## ringo (Dec 8, 2008)

Sutree's excellent, right up there with Child Of God.


----------



## foo (Dec 8, 2008)

i think i'll try Sutree too then


----------



## christonabike (Dec 8, 2008)

I liked The Road cos it's a good book, and it was about time I read something stripped back


----------



## marshall (Dec 8, 2008)

I didn’t think he’d ever top ‘blood meridian’, but ‘the road’ stayed with me for months…and I loved the lack of names and stripped down grammar/punctuation: no fat required, only the bare essentials needed in that world. 

Oh, and dodge, ignore the ‘spoiler’, it really doesn’t spoil anything.


----------



## N_igma (Dec 8, 2008)

Pie 1 said:


> Oh, just fuck the fuck off this thread you fucking prick!
> Jesus.



You calmed down yet sweetie pie?


----------



## themonkeyman (Jan 7, 2009)

quality book, now need a new read


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2009)

I got the Border Trilogy but gave up half way through The Crossing - it was too 'lyrical' and I got fed up of reading of geographical feature I didn't know the meaning of. Gonna try Blood Meridian next instead I think.


----------



## dwenfish (Mar 10, 2009)

i just finished it in one (and a half) sittings- it's interesting reading the other comments on it, that some people found it a bit of a disappointment due to all the hype surrounding it- for me it was completely the opposite, i'd never heard of it or the author (though his name now rings a bell for no country..)my dad sent it to me (with no recommendation) and he usually reads entertaining yet rubbish thriller type books...anyway it really blew me away, a fantastic bit of writing and very moving...


----------



## dwenfish (Mar 10, 2009)

.


----------



## beeboo (Mar 10, 2009)

Interesting to see this bumped - I read it at the weekend in one day(stayed up til 3am despite having been awake for 24hrs).  Not sure how much I liked the ending, but it was the kind of book where any ending would have been unsatisfying.


----------



## dwenfish (Mar 10, 2009)

beeboo said:


> Interesting to see this bumped - I read it at the weekend in one day(stayed up til 3am despite having been awake for 24hrs).  Not sure how much I liked the ending, but it was the kind of book where any ending would have been unsatisfying.



yeah i know what you mean



Spoiler:  testing spoiler 123



i thought the bit where the dad dies is brilliant but wasn't too keen on how the boy got adopted by some well meaning wanderers...though i guess that bit could be seen to support a reading of the book offering some sort of hope for humanity...


----------



## beeboo (Mar 10, 2009)

Spoiler: the ending



It read a bit too much like a 'happy ending' for my liking. I think I would have preferred if they'd left it at the point where the man knew death was imminent, but when he was beginning to struggle to decide whether to take the boy with him.



Having read the rest of the thread, I'm surprised some people didn't think it would lend itself to a film.  I didn't know when I read it there was a film in the offing, but I thought it absolutely screamed 'film adaptation', it's so tense and tightly told that it's not a huge leap to a screenplay, and the idea of the vast destroyed landscapes lend themselves to big screen.  I think it *could* be a brilliant film, but with the standard of the book so high, it's going to be easier to be dissappointed than impressed.


----------



## bluestreak (Mar 10, 2009)

Agreed.


----------



## disco_dave_2000 (Mar 10, 2009)

haven't bothered with the book - but just called my son Cormac - so it's alright by me - as you were


----------



## KellyDJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Finished this in the early hours of this morning in one sitting.  I thought it was brilliant, I loved the simple style of writing and I felt all of the emotions of the characters as I was reading.   Very disturbing stuff


----------



## ilovebush&blair (Jul 24, 2009)

just finished this book and thought it was amazing its about a boy and his father who are traveling across a post-apocalyptic landscape trying to survive its really bleak and disturbing anyone else read it?

and they have made it into a film that looks quite good:


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jul 24, 2009)

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=214531&highlight=road+cormac+mccarthy


----------



## Pie 1 (Jul 25, 2009)

ilovebush&blair said:


> anyone else read it?



Umm, you posted on page 6 of a 2 year old thread about the book


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jul 25, 2009)

The thread was merged!


----------



## Looby (Jul 25, 2009)

I think there's 4 or 5 merged.


----------



## Pie 1 (Jul 25, 2009)

Ah, OK.


----------



## cliche guevara (Jul 25, 2009)

Awesome book, hope the film adaptation works. 

So what do we think 'the event' was, then? My money is on supervolcano, the ash, mass extinction, and wide range of burnt out cities pile up in favour of wither that, or a big asteroid strike.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Oct 19, 2009)

I can't wait for the film. I think I'll watch the film first before I read the book...


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 29, 2009)

Just a 10 day *bump* this time  Started Monday night, just finished it:  That was some biblical shit. _What_ a  prose style.

Who'd be a single parent, eh?


----------



## Stoat Boy (Oct 29, 2009)

I relish everything post apocolyptic but this was just shite. Fuck, I nearly threw it away after the first 15 or so pages because I cannot remember ever reading such pretentious bollocks in whole life.

If the film is going to be 'true' to the book then its going to be the most mind numbingly tedious piece of cinema ever. 

Even a literary yob like me can see that its really meant as an allegory for life and all its struggles but even so, its total and utter dross.

Seriously, did anybody really enjoy it ? Or is this just a case of the Emperors New Clothes syndrome ?


----------



## bluestreak (Oct 29, 2009)

It's an allegory for life?  Fuck, I missed that bit, I thought it was an intellectualisation of a trashy 80s horror movie.  Even so, it was a great read.

What's your favourite piece of post-apocolyptic fiction SB?


----------



## The Groke (Oct 29, 2009)

Stoat Boy said:


> pretentious



This really must be one of the most oft misused words on the boards these days...


----------



## bluestreak (Oct 29, 2009)

The Groke said:


> This really must be one of the most oft misused words on the boards these days...




In general, I think.  In common usage it no longer means :


pretentiousness - ostentation: lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity
pretentiousness - the quality of being pretentious (behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth)

And now means 


pretentiousness -  far too clever for me to understand
pretentiousness - attempting to make an intelligent or artistic point using abstract or complex ideas that completely pass me by


----------



## The Groke (Oct 29, 2009)

bluestreak said:


> And now means
> 
> 
> pretentiousness -  far too clever for me to understand
> pretentiousness - attempting to make an intelligent or artistic point using abstract or complex ideas that completely pass me by



word.


----------



## bluestreak (Oct 29, 2009)

If you're not sure which usage a person means, simply ask them why they thought it was pretentious.  You will then find out if they actually know what pretentious means, or were merely utilising a word they thought they understood and would make them appear intellectual critics, but instead reveals them to be, well, pompous and vain.  Pretentious, some might even say.

See also, hipster irony.


----------



## Stoat Boy (Oct 29, 2009)

Works for me but as I have said I am a liteary yob and tend to read for pure enjoyment as opposed to finding the deeper meaning of life and I will admit to perhaps having a built in dislike of what tends to get praise from the sort of North London literati that I both despise and also perhaps have a certain chip on my shoulder about because they seem to do quite well out of it all. 

As to my favourite Post apoc novels, well thats a hard one.

If I had pick the three that I tend to find myself going back to time and time again then it has to be 'Earth Abides', 'The Stand' and also more recently 'World War Z'. The last one is perhaps not strictly post apoc but more just about an apocalyptic event but its still pretty smashing.

Zombies and pandemics, thats my bag. Not really into the Nuke stuff or the sort of paranoid societal break downs either although I will still lap them up.


----------



## The Groke (Oct 29, 2009)

Fair enough.

What did you find pretentious about The Road?


----------



## bluestreak (Oct 29, 2009)

I must agree with World War Z.  I liked that better than The Road.  More fun, more engaging - no that's definitely the wrong word, as i read both books in one sitting, but perhaps the journalistic style made it more real as it was like reading a sunday supplement rather than the dark imagination of the final days of a man during the final days of man, less gave me the bleak soul fear for a week.


----------



## The Groke (Oct 29, 2009)

bluestreak said:


> I must agree with World War Z.




It _is _good agreed.

Totally different kettle of dessicated ash to The Road though.


----------



## The Groke (Oct 29, 2009)

on reflection, "dessicated ash" is pretty tautologous.

*sigh*


----------



## bluestreak (Oct 29, 2009)

Pretentious Groke, inelegant and attempting to appear clever.

Damn your hairy man boobs!

Although actually, it does sound nice.  It has a nice rhythm to it that would fit in some morbid iambic pentameter thingy.


----------



## Stoat Boy (Oct 29, 2009)

The Groke said:


> What did you find pretentious about The Road?



All of it. 

Just found the whole thing like wading through mud. Now its obvious that its not a classic post apoc novel for all sorts of reasons (for example nobody wearing American football shoulder pads) but even as an allegory of life its sheer unremiting misery and pessimism is just a load of bollocks. 

Life has its ups and downs, thats for sure but it aint ever that bad and the book just seemed like self-indulgence that people lapped up purely because of who wrote it. 

As to making it into a film, well I aint holding my breath. 

Hated it. I read it because I can be shockingly narrow minded at times and do try to go outside of my comfort zone but this book did nothing to convince me that I am not right, most of the time, to be so.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 29, 2009)

Stoat Boy said:


> I relish everything post apocolyptic but this was just shite. Fuck, I nearly threw it away after the first 15 or so pages because I cannot remember ever reading such pretentious bollocks in whole life.


You're right. In fact it was a bit like that stupid one with the bloke and the whale. I mean, yeah, it's an allegory. Big deal.

It's also a pastiche, which obviously means it's derivative and pointless, like maybe Pratchett or some other goon.

Also, only one character has a name, it's pared down so even the use of apostrophes feel out of place . . . actually the huge style effort is almost as pretentious as that one about the young man getting expelled and going to New York. All that effort just to say nothing about stuff like teen angst and emerging sexual identity.


----------



## Stoat Boy (Oct 29, 2009)

London_Calling said:


> Also, only one character has a name, it's pared down so even the use of apostrophes feel out of place . . . actually the huge style effort is almost as pretentious as that one about the young man getting expelled and going to New York. All that effort just to say nothing about stuff like teen angst and emerging sexual identity.



I agree. "Catcher in the Rye" has to be amongst the most over rated books ever. 

Who really gives a fuck what a spolit little whining brat has to say about anything ?


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 29, 2009)

Stoat Boy said:


> I agree. "Catcher in the Rye" has to be amongst the most over rated books ever.
> 
> Who really gives a fuck what a spolit little whining brat has to say about anything ?


Especially in that tone;  that annoying 1st person and the colloquial bullshit. Some even call it a literary style, like it led to a genre itself or something.

Can you believe someone took the effort to try and create a whole style for one page, let alone a whole book. For what, a stupid, simple story about a spolit, middle class idiot!?

And what about that other one with all that whale shit allegory, symbolism and metaphors and bullshit  - WTF!


----------



## Stoat Boy (Oct 29, 2009)

London_Calling said:


> Especially in that tone;  that annoying 1st person and the colloquial bullshit. Some even call it a literary style, like it led to a genre itself or something.




Dont mind the style. 

When done by a Mr Mark Timlin in his series of novels featuring 'Nick Sharman' I feel the whole genre was at its high point (apart from the last one with the twins. Very odd).


----------



## rubbershoes (Oct 29, 2009)

Stoat Boy said:


> even as an allegory of life its sheer unremiting misery and pessimism is just a load of bollocks.



you're right. it needed a bit of slapstick


----------



## DownwardDog (Oct 29, 2009)

rubbershoes said:


> you're right. it needed a bit of slapstick



The bloke in the cellar with no legs should have had a Comic Relief red nose on the lighten the mood.

The genius of The Road is that we all know that's exactly how people would behave in that situation.


----------



## Diamond (Oct 29, 2009)

The Groke said:


> on reflection, "dessicated ash" is pretty tautologous.
> 
> *sigh*



Not really.

You can get wet ash.

He just means very, very dry ash.

I really don't see how anyone could find The Road pretentious.

It has a very linear narrative featuring straightforward characters and uncomplicated themes while the style of the prose is also simple and direct.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 29, 2009)

Diamond said:


> I really don't see how anyone could find The Road pretentious.


Agree, waaaay outside of any range of reactions I could imagine.


----------



## Stoat Boy (Oct 29, 2009)

DownwardDog said:


> The genius of The Road is that we all know that's exactly how people would behave in that situation.




In what situation ?


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 29, 2009)

Stoat Boy said:


> In what situation ?



no hope


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 1, 2009)

It keeps bugging me, this. I think it’s the act of faith implicit in the journey itself. I mean why – is there a rational basis for thinking things will be better on the coast or south, after all a warm climate attracts more people to scarcer resources, doing that is the inverse of why humans migrated north in the first place.

So, I’m musing on the idea of irrational faith, and that in some circumstances people need faith – or to take a leap of faith – in order to continue at all. The immediate contrast is with the man’s wife who committed suicide.

In terms of a metaphor, extreme social conditions that might work could include US style poverty, as well as drug addiction. I suppose the faith would be capitalism or institutional religion.

Just sketching out a thought because it is nagging at me.

It’s also interesting that everyone who is migrating is doing so in the same direction – they never pass anyone going the opposite way. And the 'good guys' thing. Hmmmm.


----------



## paolo (Dec 2, 2009)

I'm not enough of a fiction reader to make any deep critical review...  but...

...an urb lent me this book, randomly, in the summer. I think it's the best book I've ever read. The relentlessness was initially frustrating, but then you realise that's the whole point.

The film must be out soon?

The trailer I've just watched looks a bit glossy. Someone earlier said it should have been B&W. I'd agree. Wasted chance for the film producers to be as daring as the author. I'll probably watch it anyway, but I'm sure it will be the book that will really stay with me.


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## Orang Utan (Dec 2, 2009)

there's an excellent interview with mccarthy here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574529703577274572.html


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## jusali (Dec 16, 2009)

Just finished this last night blubbed at the end.
Being a Father and having a son aged 4 it really, really got to me.
I hope against hope that this doesn't happen mine or his lifetime.


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## The Octagon (Dec 16, 2009)

paolo999 said:


> The film must be out soon?
> 
> The trailer I've just watched looks a bit glossy. Someone earlier said it should have been B&W. I'd agree. Wasted chance for the film producers to be as daring as the author. I'll probably watch it anyway, but I'm sure it will be the book that will really stay with me.



Early next year I believe, the production was messed around a little by Miramax's Oscar-hunting (they reckon Viggo's got a good shout for Best Actor) and so was pushed back slightly.

According to the latest Empire interview with the makers, the trailer misrepresents the film a bit, it's meant to be very faithful to the tone / structure of the book (perhaps to it's detriment, if the episodic / repetitiveness doesn't appeal to the average viewer).

Looking forward to seeing how they do it, the Director made The Proposition, which was a great film.


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## Sunspots (Dec 16, 2009)

The Octagon said:


> Early next year I believe



8th January, I think.  It's _exactly_ the kind of film everybody will want to see that week...


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## rubbershoes (Dec 16, 2009)

Sunspots said:


> 8th January, I think.  It's _exactly_ the kind of film everybody will want to see that week...



people having a sober January will add to the glumness when they watch it


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## rubbershoes (Dec 16, 2009)

paolo999 said:


> The trailer I've just watched looks a bit glossy. Someone earlier said it should have been B&W. I'd agree. Wasted chance for the film producers to be as daring as the author. I'll probably watch it anyway, but I'm sure it will be the book that will really stay with me.



not seen the trailer but wouldn't theybest way for it to be in colour, but largely have an absence of colour. there's that line in the book about colours and the names of colours disappearing


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## London_Calling (Dec 16, 2009)

Yep.


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## goldenecitrone (Jan 3, 2010)

Sweet FA said:


> Not exactly a summer beach book then



Finally got round to reading this on a beach in the Philippines. It was very good, but I couldn't escape the impression that it was a very western book. Not everyone in the world needs supermarkets and fast food joints to survive. Look at Ray Mears.


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## Serotonin (Jan 3, 2010)

Anyone read one of McCarthy's earlier works, Blood Meridian? I thought The Road was bleak and disturbing but I found Blood Meridian far far worse. Its set in the Old West, and is about scalp hunters. Nasty stuff- rape, murder, paedophilia.


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## kerb (Jan 3, 2010)

paolo999 said:


> The trailer I've just watched looks a bit glossy. Someone earlier said it should have been B&W. I'd agree. Wasted chance for the film producers to be as daring as the author. I'll probably watch it anyway, but I'm sure it will be the book that will really stay with me.



I thought it looked way to colourful for my liking and at present have no plans in watching this. It should be b&w in my opinion perhaps with blue/grey split-tone. That's how I imagined it when I read it anyway. 

So sad to say, even though it was one of the best books I've read, I won't be rushing to see this.

Also from the trailer alone it looked like the mother had a prominent role in the film, or is it just me?


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## Reno (Jan 3, 2010)

I saw this over Christmas and thought it was quite a dreary film and not unlike a few other post-apocalyptic movies I've seen. It's not a terrible film and watchable enough, but its a disappointment after the excellent Australian western The Proposition by the same team. Apart from the flashbacks it certainly doesn't look colourful, it's almost monochrome. I haven't read the book, but quite a few critics have commented that without it's prose the story looses its subtleties and nuances.


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## Structaural (Jan 15, 2010)

goldenecitrone said:
			
		

> Finally got round to reading this on a beach in the Philippines. It was very good, but I couldn't escape the impression that it was a very western book. Not everyone in the world needs supermarkets and fast food joints to survive. Look at Ray Mears.



I got the sense that the natural world
was completely dead, no land to live off, only cans survived whatever cataclysm happened.


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## goldenecitrone (Jan 15, 2010)

Structaural said:


> I got the sense that the natural world
> was completely dead, no land to live off, only cans survived whatever cataclysm happened.



Not just cans, they found apples, too. I know it's just a work of fiction, but I couldn't quite suspend disbelief enough to really immerse myself in that world.


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## Col_Buendia (Jan 15, 2010)

God, just watched the film last night, and by about 30 mins from the end was really ready to get up and leave. Not read the book, so am only talking about the film, but relentlessly depressing and oppressive, and absolutely nothing to cough up 8 quid to get into the cinema for.

Seemed to me it was what Hollywood reckons an 'arty' film should be like. I'm a sucker for a good apocalypse film, Omega Man and whatnot, but this was too bullying in its singlemindedness. It's just not a story I enjoyed watching "unfold" on screen, and I can't imagine for the life of me why anyone would want to knowingly watch this. Both of us regretted not going to see something even a tiny bit more entertaining.


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## Geoffrey (Jan 16, 2010)

Col_Buendia said:


> God, just watched the film last night, and by about 30 mins from the end was really ready to get up and leave. Not read the book, so am only talking about the film, but relentlessly depressing and oppressive, and absolutely nothing to cough up 8 quid to get into the cinema for.
> 
> Seemed to me it was what Hollywood reckons an 'arty' film should be like. I'm a sucker for a good apocalypse film, Omega Man and whatnot, but this was too bullying in its singlemindedness. It's just not a story I enjoyed watching "unfold" on screen, and I can't imagine for the life of me why anyone would want to knowingly watch this. Both of us regretted not going to see something even a tiny bit more entertaining.



I enjoyed the film.  I'm not sure if I agree with the idea that it is supposed to be hollywoods idea of an arty type movie.  I think the way it is shot, with barren landscapes, lack of colour, lingering camera shots etc is to highlight the oppressiveness of the landscape and the situation faced by the man and boy and not really to give it an arthouse slant.  It is harrowing and a bit hard to watch at times, but I guess the filmmakers we're trying to capture the essence of the book as best as they could.  

It made a nice change for a post apocolyptic movie as too many of the more recent efforts in this genre have concentrated on the post apocolyptic event (complete with the obligatory mega special effects) and not on the time afterwards.  Different strokes for different folks i guess.


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## London_Calling (Jan 16, 2010)

Thread about the film of The Road


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## Geoffrey (Jan 16, 2010)

Thanks.  I didn't see that thread.


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