I don’t know why it took me so long to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy’s novel presents a bleak, ashen world and the tragic chaos of mankind on the brink of extinction. An anonymous cataclysmic event has shattered the ecosystem. A man and his son embark on a desperate flight south to the sea in order to escape the coming winter. As they slog along the road, what’s left of humanity seems destined to consume itself and them, if they are not careful.
Usually a premise like that fills me with joy and anticipation. When I finally got around to reading it, I wasn’t disappointed. McCarthy combines his excellent facility for gripping prose with the lyric epic poetry reminiscent of Homer’s Odyssey complete with flashbacks of domestic life unhinged by the emerging dystopia. The stanzas add a rhythm that propels the story yet it never seems heavy-handed. Occasional grammar mistakes and misspellings add a certain authenticity to the narrative and to the characters’ plight. The Road is a sincere portrayal of humanity at it’s worst and at it’s best and is worthy of all praise from Oprah to Pulitzer.