The Road

I heard about this new book by Cormac McCarthy on the ABC. I quite like end of the world novels, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s certainly very readable; I got through it in just a few hours. I’m not quite sure what it’s trying to say, however.

A man and his son are trudging along the roads through a burned USA, trying to get south to where they hope other people and a better life might lie. It’s really just a hopeful destination as they’ve got nowhere else to go. Most people are dead, and they scavenge food and shelter as best they can, protecting themselves from the bad people who are likely to eat them. In the end, the man dies, and the boy – who seems about four or so – latches onto another family group.

There’s no explanation of what has caused the end of the world scenario, although it’s inferred that it’s worldwide and there are barely any people or animals left. It’s funny reading about burned forests as a symbol of hopelessness, because as an Australian a burned forest is about renewal; it’s the only way, actually, that certain native plants can be propagated at all. That’s certainly not what’s meant here.

This book is a snapshot rather than a narrative. McCarthy has decided to throw out both commas and apostrophes in negative contractions (e.g. won’t, shouldn’t) – and if there’s some deep dark reason for that, it eludes me. There’s a lot of long plain sentences, and the style does feel slightly derivative. A great book should have a voice of its own; this doesn’t, but it’s still a pretty good read.