A Picture of Desolation

The Road

By Cormac McCarthy

Well first, I must apologize for my failure to keep up with my blog posts.  Turns out, being a full time teacher, and being in grad school occupies quite a bit of one's time.  I really don't think I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for all of that.  In a recent hiatus from writing papers I was able to complete a book and find a few moments to sit down and write about it.  That book was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I'm sure we've all seen the apocalyptic zombie movies that have been permeating the movie theaters these days-

Zombieland

Shaun of the Dead

McCarthy painted a very different apocalyptic picture.  One in which there is no hope.  There is no salvation.  There are no one-liners for comedic relief.  All they have is the road and survival.  The struggle to stay alive is constantly endangered by the "bad guys" who capture and enslave or eat any others that they find on the road (they are not zombies, in spite of the comparison that pictures lays out.)

The book is written without chapter breaks, perhaps representing the idea that they never have a break in their journey.  It is desolate and dark but a book worth reading.   In our modern age when our "needs" include cell phones and iPads, this read truly shows what it's like to only have one other person in the world, and reduces "needs" to those most necessary for survival.

Finishing this book almost required a recovery period.  I needed a mental break in order to process the life presented in The Road; and it certainly made my daily complaints of lacking a boyfriend and my phone that is in a constant state of dying (even when it's on a charger) seem menial.  That said, it is a soul-wrenching page-turner that is definitely worth reading.