Comments on: 14 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy

By: Jude

Jude — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:46:23 +0000

It didn’t deserve the Pullitzer. It just didn’t. The characters are one-dimensional. Given his life story, the boy would have something more to him than big-eyed innocence, than flat-out purity. McCarthy could have answered the question he poses — what might life be like after an apocalypse? — with more imagination, wit, hope, and guts. It’s easy to be a naysayer. Also making the setting completely post-apocalyptic was a neat way to avoid the rigors of fictional creation. Plus women get a pretty bad rap in the book — the mom gave up while the dad persevered to care for the boy. The book does not ring true.

By: Maia Slowey

Maia Slowey — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:55:21 +0000

thanks for the above new post.

By: Red

Red — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:57:05 +0000

Hey, I appreciate that folks have different opinions, but I think a lot of people are not understanding just how difficult ‘The Road’ can be to read for some of us. I know people who had nightmares after reading it, and did not think the literary value was at all proportional to the trauma that they experienced. Others read the book, and got a lot out of it, and did not feel the story living in their heads and making them afraid in the same way.

Also, a statement like ‘people like you make other readers, students and literature buffs alike ashamed’ is pretty smug, and erases the possibility of individual interpretation. I’m not saying your comment went so far into this territory, but I don’t like the attitude that I sometimes encounter that if you don’t like a certain work (novel, film, music) you either ‘don’t get it’ or you don’t have good taste. People can dislike ‘The Road’, even hate it, or think it is just not that well-written (I have read some bad reviews) and simply have different tastes, or like different styles.

However, this is the single book that I read during Cannonball Read 1 (possibly ever in my life) that has grown most in stature after reading it, such that it has a permanent place in my consciousness. I do need to re-read it. For me, it is the kind of work that is ultimately incredibly enigmatic, such that I don’t feel I could ever truly understand everything in it, even if I spent a whole lifetime.

By: Val

Val — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:01:14 +0000

Well said Vanessa

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:40:10 +0000

Hey, have some respect Sabrina! This is one of the most horrific yet prolific pieces of writing I have come across in a long time. It is brutally honest and sometimes the truth is the ugliest thing you will ever hear, see or read. I admire McCarthy for having the talent and guts to tell a story of truth like this. This novel was so profound and heartbreaking for me, I read it twice in order to fully grasp it and now I feel compelled to write a critical essay on my thoughts of the book. My college community here is extremely involved in recent moving literary works and we anticipate the upcoming premier of the movie in October. This written work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. It is not “shit” but literature and people like you make other readers, students and literature buffs alike ashamed.

By: Red

Red — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:44:41 +0000

Sabrina - good move.

By: Sabrina

Sabrina — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:52:21 +0000

I mean, do I need to read about roving bands of cannibals with young boys they use as sexual slaves, or about an underground cellar of people being harvested for their limbs to feed said cannibals, or about a baby roasting on a spit in order to understand that people have bad sides?

Whaaaaaat. The fuck. I kept hearing about how good this book was, so I borrowed it from a friend the other day. I’m gonna be handing that shit back now.