From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

The Road

Cormac McCarthy

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: April 30, 2025

Discussion: MODERN / POPULAR READS

Why we're reading this: April 2025 - Modern

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What Members Thought

Mar 08, 2011 Franzi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, own

I really enjoyed this one. Half reading, half listening to the audiobook. The narrator does an amazing job voicing the different characters, Tom Stechschulte, you should check out his other audiobooks too, highly recommended. The prose is beautiful even though I know that The Road is McCarthy's most reduced prose yet. I definitely can't wait to read his other novels now.
Unfortunately I was spoiled by the movie, watched that one a few years ago but could still remember most of it, I had loved to ...more

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Jul 20, 2010 thecmancan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read the book in about 3 days on the bus/trains. Not the best place to read it actually as sometimes the dreary mood made it feel like it was a mistake to get out of bed that day.

The style certainly takes getting used to. The prose is not without merit. However, I think Mr. McCarthy falls in love with words here. His attention to detail is great but how often can you read about the darn ash everywhere, rain pattering on the tarp and how hungry they are before you say ENOUGH! Although, the freq I read the book in about 3 days on the bus/trains. Not the best place to read it actually as sometimes the dreary mood made it feel like it was a mistake to get out of bed that day.

The style certainly takes getting used to. The prose is not without merit. However, I think Mr. McCarthy falls in love with words here. His attention to detail is great but how often can you read about the darn ash everywhere, rain pattering on the tarp and how hungry they are before you say ENOUGH! Although, the frequent repetition of hunger/thirst/fear/fire/cold etc. gave rhythm to the text that I found myself grooving along. At points, I was thinking, they gotta be running outta food etc. and bam! next page....etc.

I'm done ragging on Mr. McCarthy's prose in this book. It works for the most part but really drags down the pacing of the book without adding much to the character.

Thematically, the book is a masterpiece. I really enjoyed the interplay between good and evil. Which is rather starkly segregated in the work. Aside from that i feel that sometimes life feels like "the road". you keep on truckin' even though the going is rough. Every time it seemed like there an impassable obstacle, you get "lucky" like the boy and his papa and have to keep truckin'. Then when you get to a plateau or a destination, you find that it's not all that it's cracked up to be and life is more of the same. Then one day we'd all find ourselves taking our last breathes and dying namelessly like the papa.

But there is hope!

The hope lies in your children. He's the future, he's the innocence that you've lost. He's the happy-go-lucky son of a gun who hadn't seen enough of the world to be cynical like you. He wants to help everyone and is sympathetic. He's the best damn thing in your life and darn it you want to keep that fire in him bright. So you know what, even if you know damn well that you're dying of some disease that you don't about it and that getting up each morning is the bravest thing you can do all day; you do it. Because see the fire of youth, desire and hope burn inside your flesh blood is worth it. To have have someone carry the torch and hopefully get somewhere better is worth it.

So yea, it's a pretty emotional response. Shows ya how happy I am with where I'm at in life! But The Road spoke to me like that. It's a personal response but it feels right. ...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Carys rated it it was amazing

Shelves: blown-away, always-in-style, re-read-some-day, 2012-books, audiobook

this is the most brilliant book i have read for a long time. i really enjoyed the humanity in the boy it showed that people are inherently good but circumstances/survival will bring out the worst in everyone. it was stark and grey and moving. i wept at the end. there were times when i was reading it that i would get a shock at all the colour in the world when i looked around - it wrapped me up.

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Mar 13, 2012 Alan Hughes added it

Shelves: fiction

This is a haunting book. It vividly describes a post-apocalyptic world which could engender despair and depression. But with the skilful, slow development of character and relationships hope is always present and by the end it is quite uplifting

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