The Road in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 05, 2015 Bogdan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-world

A depressing story set in post-apocalyptic world that seem to be the result of a nuclear world war or some kind of asteroid that destroyed the entire life on Earth except some (few) humans. It is exploring the brutality of human nature in case such an event would happen.

On that background the question that the novel tries to answer is if in those conditions humanity as a set of values will continue to exists or the survivors would simply loose any trace of what makes us humans. And the answer it A depressing story set in post-apocalyptic world that seem to be the result of a nuclear world war or some kind of asteroid that destroyed the entire life on Earth except some (few) humans. It is exploring the brutality of human nature in case such an event would happen.

On that background the question that the novel tries to answer is if in those conditions humanity as a set of values will continue to exists or the survivors would simply loose any trace of what makes us humans. And the answer it is that despite many survivors that will become savage, moral values of good and bad will continue to exists. Interesting idea, and quite well proven by the novel, so I'll give it a 5 for premise.

Regarding the form, I noticed that the dialogues are suppressed and are actually included in the narrative. Also the narrator seems to shift from a third person (that it is the predominant) with the unnamed adult that it is one the main characters. Also the characters are all unnamed to show that the social conventions are not followed anymore. Because I did not liked the change in narrators and I was not amazed by the author writing skills, I'll give it a 3 for form.

In terms of originality, I know the post-apocalyptic world is a common theme in literature, especially since the Cold War when the nuclear arsenal of US and Russia build up. I personally did not read so far too much of that literature, as I was afraid the authors started to imagine many other things that are highly improbable (mutants, zombies, etc). But this one at least stays in the limits of probability and tries not to speculate too much. So I will give it a 3 for the level of originality.

On the characters, none of them are named. As I said, this is a literary device to show that social conventions are no longer valid. It is just the blood relationship between father and son that continues to mean something. Then, if you take the characters individually, we learn very little about each of them except the two main protagonists, but they seem to act accordingly with what you would expect from a normal person in the respective situations. I liked how the characters are made but I cannot say they were extraordinarily, so I will give it a 4 for characters.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, despite being short and basically built on a single level, the novel message is quite complex and forces the reader to think how they would react or behave in the respective situations. So I will rate it with a 4 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, the author deliberately not mentions the cataclysm that changed the world irremediably. We can only make suppositions. The effects resembles a nuclear world war except for the effects of radiation. I searched the Internet and this novel is classified under "Other" types of apocalyptic events in the list of fiction works. If we simply ignore the causes that created the world, then the novel is highly consistent with itself. This is why my rating for credibility is 4.

The last criteria is edition. I enjoyed the nice cover and white paper that ensured a very nice reading experience. I also liked the translation that was as a good referee (if you don't notice it is a translated work, then it is a great translation). As the editor added up a book sign, it forced me to give it a 5.

To summarize, you need a tough stomach to digest this novel as there are some scenes where incredible things happen. But in the end, it is not about the horrors that could happen in that imagined post-apocalyptic world, but about that humanity can still survive, even if in just a few individuals. All in all, my final rating for it is 4.00, which requires no rounding on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 4.00 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+

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Jul 02, 2024 Shiva rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, winner-shortlist-booker-giller-poli

One of the most emotional books Ive read recently and I loved it. It is the story of the man and the boy and their survival in an apocalyptic world. But it is much more than that. The man believes he is responsible their survival, finding food, shelter, navigating the country for any signs of “good people”, but most of all the survival and well being of the boy. While the boy believes he is one who has to think of everything and keep them on their right path.
While the man makes them survive, th ...more

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