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What Members Thought
It would be difficult for me to say that I enjoyed this book, per say, as it is one of the bleakest works I have read in my life. At times, like the Man and his Son, I felt compelled to give up. However, McCarthy set out to write a dark book about very dark times, and he has succeeded. The Road is a spare, deadpan, brilliantly executed foray into the Post-Apocalypse. McCarthy has a way with words I have rarely witnessed in modern authors.
Absolutely outstanding! 5 stars!
Not your typical Oprah book, and I mean that as a high compliment. I normally stay far far away from her picks, because the relentlessly depressing multi-generational family sagas she favors tend to be both soul-crushing and mind-numbing. The Road carries the theme of family, but the execution is substantially better than other picks of hers.
While other reviewers may feel differently, I felt McCarthy's style choices (the diary feel, the anonymous characters, the stripped language) really worked ...more
While other reviewers may feel differently, I felt McCarthy's style choices (the diary feel, the anonymous characters, the stripped language) really worked ...more
Ranking and reviewing The Road is not easy for me ... I neither loathed it nor loved it, and thus do not fall into the prevalent, polarized camps of reviews. Well, maybe it's not so difficult to give it a middling rating actually, but processing my thoughts on it took a while.
I didn't at all mind McCarthy's stylistic idiosyncrasies, which fit the dystopian setting perfectly ... who needs apostrophes and quotation marks when one lacks food and water, faces cannibalistic threats, etc., for days o ...more
I didn't at all mind McCarthy's stylistic idiosyncrasies, which fit the dystopian setting perfectly ... who needs apostrophes and quotation marks when one lacks food and water, faces cannibalistic threats, etc., for days o ...more
I should probably rate this higher, but it was so depressing, and inconsistent. The father and the boy were so concerned about tainted food, but they drank any sort of water they came across. Isn't it possible the water was tainted also?
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I would not have necessarily chosen this book as the content looked pretty grim, and as I always say - if I want real life, I'll go to work - but sometimes its good to have books forced upon you. It is grim, unquestionably. There were moments I had to take a break, a deep breath and then force myself to read on; but the prose is gripping and the story moves forward relentlessly. And there are moments of beauty in this harshly constructed world. It's easy to recommend this book, although I think
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Really liked the writing that i would qualify of poetic prose ...
Dark subject all in subtlely
Almost gave it a 5 stars
Dark subject all in subtlely
Almost gave it a 5 stars
Haunting... and yet a bit boring in parts... I really liked it, but admit to skimming through the last 1/3 of it.
Feb 13, 2011
Laura
marked it as to-read
Mar 11, 2012
Dana Arbelaez
marked it as to-read
Nov 15, 2013
Sylvie
added it
Jan 22, 2014
Gary Dale
marked it as to-read
Apr 28, 2019
Tammy Grimm
marked it as to-read
Jan 22, 2022
Anya
marked it as to-read
May 12, 2023
Melissa
marked it as to-read
