Nameless father and son navigating a bleak, ash-strewn, post-apocalyptic world. Shows the best and worst of humanity and the powerful love of a father for his child. Very gloomy. Shifty punctuation. Like The Walking Dead, but without the zombies.

With a depressing central theme, the writing stripped right back and raw and an overly simplistic plot, I should have disliked this book. It is neither uplifting nor beautiful, action packed or thrilling, instead it is a book that will make you think, imagine, and contemplate all that is right and wrong in the world without being preachy or condescending.

A post-apocalyptic world that is set in monochrome, where the silence is deafening, the survival is brutal, and time is exhausting, and we as readers, along with the man and boy in the story, embark on a different type of journey, along ‘The Road’. Seeing and experiencing life in a planet destroyed because we did not do enough!!! We were warned, but could we recover? If not ‘ever is such a long time’!!!

The Plot

This bleak tale is of a father and his son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The man and boy have no names, the cause of the disaster is also unknown, although there are hints of a post nuclear holocaust or climate disaster. The only thing we do know is this is the US, but the exact location is also unknown.

Food is in short supply, the wild-life has disappeared and the land is overrun by gangs of cannibals who roam the lands picking off the last remaining survivors, amid the worst depravation that the country has ever and most likely will never see again.

The colour has disappeared from the landscape, and the last remaining survivors move amidst a drifting haze of smoke and mist. Even the thin trees are black and standing like ‘heathen candles’. There is no sound. All means of communication has been shut down. We are witnessing the collapse of world order, the destruction of civilisation, disintegration of our planet.

Few survive but they don’t talk about death because they are already there.

Review and Comments

Yes, it has happened. We were all warned. We did nothing. We allowed this to happen. Our inaction has ended civilisation!!!

Certainly, a timely piece when we are living with unprecedented heat, drastic changes in our planet, and a few countries constantly threatening nuclear attacks on free people.

However, it was the sparse writing, clipped sentences and the rudimentary nature of the writing that held the books power. Stripped back from using vivid descriptions, expressive prose and nameless people and places, the reader is forced to play their part in imaging this new world or the end of it!!!. Very powerful and affecting.

I think the nameless people, cause and location were also deliberate to remove the connections we make to people and places to deliver this strong message. So cleverly written. If I wanted to be picky I would say, if either event occurred things like the trees would probably not survive when the people did not.

Do I love this genre? – No. Would I read many more post-apocalyptic stories? – Probably not unless highly recommended. Am I glad I read this? – Absolutely. Which is testament to how well the author wrote this story when someone who does not enjoy dystopian stories can rate this a 5 stars.

Utterly compelling, sometimes ambiguous but incredibly thought provoking achieved mainly through the rawness in the writing which was needed to carry this story.

Haunting, devastating, but very cleverly written, as we are left with a key message…
“Ever is such as long time”

And forever is such a long time. Don’t you think?

Vale Cormac McCarthy 1933 - 2023

This is a story of a man and a boy, a father and son, wandering cluelessly in a post-apocalyptic world. They walk on the road pushing the rusty shopping cart filled with stolen food and provisions from abandoned homes and shops whose owners have long died. They seek a safe place to sleep and eat: in the woods, on the beach, on the roadside in the freezing temperatures and rain, and sometimes in filthy abandoned houses.

Cormac McCarthy certainly has a very unique way of writing. The Road is written in a very simple way but with such incredible power. I enjoyed the structure of the book and the use of either long sentences or very short ones. Yes, no, nothing, okay etc. I didn’t even mind the lack of grammar.

Reading this I could feel the loneliness of a dead world and the intense connection of two people who are afraid of losing each other. It made me think about a world where there are no human beings left and what is life when everything you ever knew and loved was destroyed and incinerated.

I’m so glad I finally read this.

n  “You have to carry the fire."
I don't know how to."
Yes, you do."
Is the fire real? The fire?"
Yes it is."
Where is it? I don't know where it is."
Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.”n