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11 November 2011

BOOK: The Road- Cormac McCarthy

McCarthy's The Road might be the book that stays in my mind as a fiction which is very simple and yet very much of a substance. Oprah influenced me to buy the cheap version of it at BookXcess

The novel starts with two nameless persons- a father and his son walking on a barren, cold road in America heading coast. Large portions of the story are told to describe the journey from an unknown place to the coastal side of America. Maybe I am not qualified enough to judge the novel as 'all modern novel can do is done here' (Warner, Guardian) but the story is very simple but filled with words that capture your heart and imagination. Within the period of several months, the father and son face cannibals and hoping to come across 'good people'. It is post-apocalyptic and hence the dusty atmosphere. It is not mentioned what catastrophe has happened that left America to be in the situation though. The mother of the son killed herself before the story starts since she could not cope with the situation. What have happened before the story starts is a mystery. The father died when they reached the coast and the son does not know what to do with his father's corpse for three days until one of the 'good guys' comes and save him. 

As mentioned before, the novel is so simple that it keeps the message alive. People do the unimaginable things, including eating their children to survive. As Kirsty Wark of Observer put it- a warning. Some reviews call it as an observation to future as effects of global warming. I study Palaeoclimate and I doubt it though. 

Or you might wish you'd never been born.
Well, beggars can't be choosers.
You think that would be asking too much.
What's done is done. Anyway, it's foolish to ask for luxury in times like these.
I guess so. -Nameless Father and Son dialogue. The Road. 

The book is terrible. Terribly beauty. Simple with a profound message.-The Chukai Insider

2 comments:

  1. Haha, aku bagitau sume doh pasal plot dia. Ayah dia mati last sekali. Hahahaah!

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