The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Category: Fiction Grade: C

What a huge disappointment! After reading some of McCarthy's past work, especially All the Pretty Horses or No Country For Old Men, I really think he's one of the best novelists alive. He writes stark, graphic, often violent novels. They're difficult to read. He has lots of quirks, almost literary tics, like never using apostrophes, but his books carry through all this.

Not this one. The Road is the story of a father and son - never named - in a post-apocalyptic world. All the plants, animals and most humans are dead. The pair is walking south. Basically, that's it. Nothing particularly interesting happens. There are no flights of beautiful prose. The story is bleak and we repeatedly get scintillating conversations between the duo like "You OK?" - "Sure" - "OK" - "OK". Over and over.

Skip this one and go pick up something like Blood Meridian or one of the ones mentioned above to see what this incredible writer can do on a good day.