I cruised through this book! And for good reason. Cormac McCarthy--like with "The Road"--exceptional at building the suspense.

To echo Diane...where has this author been all my life. Oh yeah! Right under my nose. Every time I entered a book store and browsed the shelves I am pretty sure I saw his books displayed but never paid them enough mind. Or I am sure I noticed someone reading his books, right? No?

Since reading The Road, I had wanted to read his other stuff. Once I saw this book was adapted to a movie and then won the Oscars for Best Picture/Director/Supporting Actor and Screenplay I knew I had to read it soon.

I finished it over the weekend and after reading the final 60 pages not only could I not sleep for about 30 minutes, I kept waking up periodically thinking about it.

Okay, enough on the suspense element. You get the picture. This book is not what you expect. If you expect a crime-murder novel, you will get it. But much more. It is visceral in its scenes, but those scenes reflect ourselves...our destiny as individuals, as a country and humanity itself--separately and collectively. What is our destiny? What path are we on? What do we deserve? What is our demise?

These are the existential questions since the beginning and after reading this you will wonder the same things.

I know I am being vague...deliberately vague. I am not going to go too much into it for fear of spoiling it. Though I have not seen the movie yet, I have seen enough trailers to know it probbaly follows the book well enough. The villain is just as frightening in the book as he looks in the movie. So I can't wait to see it myself.

I said it to someone after reading "The Road." If I was teaching a high school college level lit class...or even college lit, I would be reading and studying Cormac McCarthy. He is a classic contemporary author. No question about it.