The Road (Oprah's Book Club): Amazon.co.uk: Cormac McCarthy: Books

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Product Description

'Best Fiction of 2006', Observer
'One of the most powerful novels of 2006...an indelible end-times
parable' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Waterstone's Book Quarterly
'Both terrifying and beautiful, it is about...the best and worst
of humankind...[it's] impossible to recommend it too highly.' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

326 Reviews

5 star:		(215)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(16)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (326 customer reviews)

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85 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thousand Shades of Grey, 20 Feb 2007

By	Eugene Onegin (Lincoln England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road (Hardcover)

If you like your fiction to have an equitable balance of light and shade, peopled by a galaxy of interesting characters and interspersed with humour and social interaction, then The Road is certainly not for you. However, to cast this book aside would be to miss one of the most extraordinary feats of imaginative world painting in modern literature. McCarthy's subject is as bleak as it is possible to imagine: a post apocalyptic planet Earth in perpetual nuclear winter where the landscape is dead or dying covered in a ubiquitous black ash slowly choking and silencing every living thing. It is a world without sun, animals, and plants where a few humans scavenge to survive abandoning all compassion and morality to do so. Amidst this nightmare a father and his son are found trekking across the wasteland of the United States heading for the coast hoping to find something in a world where hope has ceased to exist. It is their story which holds our attention: amidst the endless desolation and as they battle to survive, McCarthy explores the doubts, suspicions, loyalties and trade offs which typify any filial bond with enormous sensitivity and perception. Yet this pair must face questions unlikely to have been faced by many in any era: what is the point of life when the world as we know it is just a disappearing memory in the mind of a father whose son knows only a world of emptiness? Why try to survive when there is no chance of life being sustained over the long term? Ultimately they find purpose in their own inter-dependence wherein they learn to find all meaning and incentive. This subject is not a new one of course, but what makes The Road so compelling is the author's ability to create this grey, desolate world with such sustained authority and conviction: never once does the curtain of illusion fall, not for a second is the spell broken: we walk the endless highways of nothingness, we ponder where the next can of food might be found, we share the fear that round the next corner might be a marauding armed gang ready to kill for a bottle of water. Beginning from a canvas painted with almost photographic realism, the writer affords his subject an almost allegorical form in order to ponder the philosophical issues raised by the annihilation of the earth and the consideration of what it means to live without expectation of a future. Written in shorn down, skeletal prose with not a single redundant phrase, McCarthy has created an unforgettable and profoundly moving meditation on what it is to be human in a world almost beyond the comprehension of mankind. A stunning achievement.

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87 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a superb book, 14 Nov 2006

By	Mike J. Wheeler (Kingswinford, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Road (Hardcover)

I picked this up after reading a glowing review in the press. I'm completely new to Cormac McCarthy having never read any of his other works. I have to say this is a superb book.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic future. Though it's never stated what exactly happened, the subtext suggests a nuclear winter following a war. The earth is burnt, all vegetation is dead and it rains and snows ash. The plot follows the journey of a man and his son towards the south in order to find somewhere they can do more than just survive. But as all food has now been plundered - this being several years since the disaster - they are always on the edge of starvation. They must travel without being seen, as most of humanity that is left has long since resorted to cannibalism to survive.

What this is really about though is the extraordinary relationship between man and boy. The lengths that the man will go to protect his son and see him through the other end. It is a novel that for all its darkness is full of love. And wow is this dark. Many authors have written about the end of the world/survival but I don't think I've read anything quite this bleak. The scenery is utterly symapathetic to the couple's plight. It is filled with an overpowering poignancy for things lost - birds, cows, blue seas.

This is a very sad but at the same time uplifting book. The language used is simple and the conversational parts between man and boy are deliberately kept short. A wonderful book that I couldn't put down until I'd finished.

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42 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A metaphorical look into a dark future. . ., , 14 Aug 2007

By	Molly Peters (CA, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Road (Paperback)

This is one of those books I can't stop thinking about long after I have turned the last page. The writing is pure pleasure to read and the message is like a punch in the gut, though still not fully understood... There is more to life than what we see....READ THIS BOOK! And when you finish this you will need to read something a bit more light hearted, so do try "Across the High Lonesome" a book about the modern west that I think deserves better know!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Do not delay reading this book for one more day
This book is devastating and will stay with you for a long time,if not for ever.

Published 1 day ago by E. Parker

1.0 out of 5 stars The Road........
I've never written a review on anything before but felt compelled to after reading this book, as all the other reviews are good. Read more

Published 2 days ago by A. Skinner

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Really wanted to like this book, but its just way too depressing. There is nothing light in it at all. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Rev. Joseph N. Adams

4.0 out of 5 stars haunting
This is a truly haunting book. As another reviewer said, it is difficult to stop thinking about. I did not find it uplifting however. I found it thoroughly depressing. Read more

Published 8 days ago by Ioannis Glinavos

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel that oozes emotion.
Me being new to Cormac McCarthy I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm a sceptic of hype.

But, wow, what a pleasant surprise to have all that praise validated... Read more

Published 11 days ago by J. McGhee

4.0 out of 5 stars A bleak yet compelling tale of human nature
Winner of the 2007 Pullitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2006 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, "The Road" is the tenth novel by the celebrated American novelist Cormac McCarthy. Read more

Published 19 days ago by J. Aitcheson

5.0 out of 5 stars best book I've read for at least a year!
I loved loved loved this book it was so good I read it on holiday and couldn't wait to get back to it everytime I had to go eat! Read more

Published 22 days ago by L. Jennings

4.0 out of 5 stars Ultimately disappointing.
The idea behind this book is good but it is ultimately let down by its denouement.Some of the characters are a bit hard to believe in as well. Read more

Published 22 days ago by S. P. Maillou

5.0 out of 5 stars The Road (A Beautiful story of a one man's fight for the survival of his son)
A fantastic story that is so wonderfully written it is near impossible to put it down. The landscape may be one of the bleakest settings for a story but the simple interaction... Read more

Published 23 days ago by Mr. M. D. R. Dickinson

5.0 out of 5 stars VVVVVV good
To any of the 1* reviewers who said they didn't enjoy it because it was bleak...... I wonder what you were expecting from an end-of-the-world tale. Read more

Published 28 days ago by Raine

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