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 enlarge | Author: Cormac Mccarthy
Publisher: Vintage Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $4.58
You Save: $10.37 (69%)
New (105) Used (208) Collectible (1) from $4.58
Rating:  1607 reviews
Sales Rank: 165
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 287
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307387895
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307387899
ASIN: 0307387895
Publication Date: March 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Binding tight, clean pages, no writing on text, minor cover wear, average edge wear on glossy cover, lower corner crease, good book.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wow. What a great book but - whew - don't expect to be lift up. November 16, 2008
Another outstanding book from Cormac. And out of his normal genre. I really enjoyed the book but it is gonna leave you feeling like you need some sunshine afterwards. Dark book, dark story telling done very well.
 Flat and endless November 15, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pulitzer winner, great reviews, and I was bored by the tenth page.
I have no problem with McCarthy's prose style, the run-on sentences and sparse prose aptly illustrate the landscape of a devastated, post-apocalyptic planet and the minds of those who inhabit it. Jose Saramago's Blindness uses similiar literary style to much better effect. It also worked in McCarthy's brilliant, morally ambiguous No Country For Old Men. McCarthy's prose has never been a problem.
My problem was that- for the entire book- nothing happened. The man and the boy travel south. The boy rarely speaks. When he does, he usually says "Papa, I'm scared, I'm scared Papa." The Man shows no humanity to anyone besides the boy, but they're the "good guys". Man and boy journey to the sea. At the sea, things suck as much as they do everywhere else.
There is no enemy to overcome, no joy, no hope, no anger at the misery the world has been brought to, nothing but apathy expressed throughout the entire book. The rest of humanity has apparently become depraved and degenerate, but the contrast doesn't make father & son any more heroic by comparison. I found nothing compelling about either the boy or his father. Their story was flat, repetitive and boring. For a truly brilliant tale of disaster and redemption look to Jose Saramago's Blindness... or Max Brooks' World War Z... or Stephen King's the Stand. All of which are more profound than The Road.
A Thought-Provoking Nightmare November 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In a world somehow burned to a crisp, a few people survive. A father and young son travel south along a partially-melted highway to escape the winter. They have no names; nothing has a name any longer. On the way, they encounter others trying to survive, often by preying on the helpless, even enslaving and eating some. The child wants to help some of the more unfortunate, but the father's focus is entirely on saving the boy and himself. He trusts no one, and hides from all human contact. Eventually, the father dies of TB, and the boy, left alone, shows himself to a band of travelers, expecting to be eaten. But instead they adopt him, and it is obvious that the group of good people will form the basis for a renewal of civilization.
The theme appears to be that good will always triumph over evil eventually.
Four Little Old Men: A (Mostly) True Tale from a Small Cajun Town
Skeptical but pleased November 12, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I didn't know exactly what to make of this book but I couldn't put it down. It was depressing and simple but somehow profound at the same time. I never would have picked it up based on its description but Oprah came through again.
Apocalyptic Love November 11, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Cormac McCarthy amazingly makes the relationship between father and son remarkably warm in the cold environs of post-apocalyptic United States - after the bomb or something similar has incinerated all of nature. The two main characters, each nameless and referred only as man and boy, allow us to watch their journey on the "Road" in the world we pray never to know.
The book is merely a chronological story of the daily long walks by the pair to the coast and then south - all the time seeking food and other needs for sustenance. All in a world of no sun. Eternal clouds. No stars. "The nights dead still and deader black. So cold." You might think: Why live? The father, understanding the inevitable end to this daily torture ". . . would raise his weeping eyes and see him [his son] standing there in the road looking back at him from some unimaginable future, glowing in the waste like a tabernacle." Unlike most other adults, the man has reason to live - to love and be loved. This ugly world has a beautiful story.
Fighting against all odds, in the moonscape left from the nuclear assault on man and nature, this book mixes two great movies' themes: "Two Women" and "Mad Max." Without sun, no food can be grown. Without light, temperatures plunge and winds sweep the lands. With the strange sunless weather patterns, the already burned trees fall like dominoes, expose the entire forestless continent to all winds, and leave all men prey to the badlands as most succumb if without masks or eye protection. It is not a jungle out there - all the flora is dead. It is hell. But, against these odds, the main characters fight on.
People become desperate in such desperate times. Children, the weakest, are freely eaten by the adults. Every day, following the inevitably black as ebony starless night, requires energy to walk on. Day or night, animal-like senses are needed to assure self preservation. In one conversation, the two discuss this never ending stress in obtaining preservation.
-If you're on the lookout all the time, does that mean that you're scared all the time?
-Well, I suppose you have to be scared enough to be on the lookout in the first place. To be cautious. Watchful.
-But the rest of the time you're not scared?
-Yeah. I don't know. Maybe you should always be on the lookout. If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it.
-Do you always expect it? Papa?
-I do. But sometimes I might forget to be one the lookout.
After having read the heavier and less personal "Blood Meridian" and seen the movie adaptation to "No Country For Old Men", I feared this book of the post apocalyptic world would be strewn with endless pages of blood, guts, exposed viscera and nauseatingly horrific accounts of violence. Surprisingly, it is not. Not that this book is void of shockingly violent behavior, or occasional scenes of putrid details. But, such accounts are not nearly as great as included in the other two works. And, on a personal note, that is appreciated.
This book moves incredibly quickly. The writing is clean, but skillfully done with strong words and Hemingwayesque minimalist style. McCarthy's success is not any surprise to any of his readers.
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