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Slow, dull, and simplistic. This post-apocalyptic story of "the power of love" never develops beyond an account of what the unnamed man and his son eat, where they sleep, and how many times they run into "the bad guys." (They, of course, are "the good guys.") There's little character development, no explanation of the apocalypse that left so many people alive but destroyed societies, killed off all animals, and left the oceans gray. McCarthy's prose is simple, but with this failure of a plot it's hardly engaging. He uses strange punctuation that no clear purpose (such as leaving out apostrophes, but only some of the time), and in fact distracts from the dull plot. The story is depressing, with a mood of apathy, sprinkled with occasional scenes of horror (infants roasting over a fire, for example). It's no clear what the author is trying to achieve with this novel, but it certainly does not succeed as a powerful tale of love, with characters who aren't complex nor very interesting. The novel is thankfully short; it leaves the reader bored, slightly appalled, and glad it's over when it ends. ]]>
A long, tiresome read. The 400-plus-paged novel relies on the characters' relationships to sustain the plot and reader interest, but those relationships, like the characters, are clichéd and two-dimesional and somewhat hard to believe. Also hard to believe are the personal stories of the characters — such as Tallulah Hart, who rises to success as a TV journalist, covering everything from individuals' crises to international affairs.. only to host a daytime talk show called "The Girlfriend Hour" to represent the pinnacle of her success as a professional journalist? Right. The book reads as an author's first try, a very rough draft, a story that's readable enough if you have a long train ride and nothing else to do, but certainly not worth your time if you have anything better to do. The story has redeemable qualities, scattered moments in the plot that touch the reader and a few laughs here and there, but the writing is not developed enough to make the novel anything more than mediocre. ]]>
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The kind of book you have to keep reading, because even though it's not very good, you have to know whether a smallpox pandemic is going to hit the world.
I really don't like Caroline B. Cooney's use of clichéd "evil foreign terrorists bent on destroying Americans and dancing in the streets" with xenophobia and conservative nationalism, also present in some other books of hers.
But an interesting enough read if you have nothing else to do.
I didn't like the end though; it tried to tie up everything nicely without sufficient answers to the obvious questions. ]]>
A good book, although a bit too melodramatic and happily-ever-after to be realistic. Not a terribly memorable story, but I did like that took place in Australia. ]]>
I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the second half. Unfortunately, after the grandparents' generation, the characters become a lot less interesting, complex, and believable. ]]>