The Road

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2007

America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst this destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still, they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world of utter devastation.

Bleak but brilliant, with glimmers of hope and humor, The Road is a stunning allegory and perhaps Cormac McCarthy's finest novel to date. This remarkable departure from his previous works has been hailed by Kirkus Reviews as a "novel of horrific beauty, where death is the only truth".

McCarthy, a New York Times best-selling author, is a past recipient of the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. He is widely considered one of America's greatest writers.

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Critic reviews

"McCarthy's prose retains its ability to seduce...and there are nods to the gentler aspects of the human spirit." (The New Yorker)
"One of McCarthy's best novels, probably his most moving and perhaps his most personal...Every moment of The Road is rich with dilemmas that are as shattering as they are unspoken...McCarthy is so accomplished that the reader senses the mysterious and intuitive changes between father and son that can't be articulated, let alone dramatized...Both lyric and savage, both desperate and transcendent, although transcendence is singed around the edges...Tag McCarthy one of the four or five great American novelists of his generation." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Pressure Cooker

As far as I can remember, I dont recall ever being as emotionally charged by a story as I was by The Road. It was so difficult to contain my anxiety and at times my tears. I fought thinking of my eldest son, Noah, and I trying to exist in a world so void of the things I take for granted everyday: air, water, food, civility, society, peace. It was a completely emersive experience that made me want to shower the fictitious soot of my day's trials. The minute I got home after finishing this audiobook I held my son and wept.

The writing is poetic prose... lyrical and spare..

I couldn't stop reading. The man and the boy, "good guys" walking towards warmer weather and other's like them. Together they face the horrors left years after the apocalyse and dangers of traveling. Gradual and sublte changes in voice patterns as son faces fears and becomes a man is incrediably done. If I taught English this would be a mandatory read in high school. I will come back to it again. Think Night by Elie Weisel... the world is horrid but the human spirit of goodness carries the fire. Intense but not profane or vulgar.

Perfect. Scarey. Beautiful.

Vivid, poetic and powerful, read masterfully by Mr. Stechschulte. A really special book. The kind of book that one can return to and listen to multiple times, like a great piece of music.

Intriguing and repulsive

The style of storytelling was grey and bleak which built on the feeling of what the story was telling. I was disturbed by that sense of hopelessness; and at the same time, was totally drawn into the character's personality. It was fascinating to me to have an entire book be both intriguing and repulsive.

Surprisingly good

The reviews of this book made me nervous about reading it however the story line was magnificently interesting and anyone with an imagination will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Intersting Concept

This book has an interesting premise but is somewhat morose. The book is a liitle slow in places. I listened until the end because I was waiting for some type of redemption. The charactor development was intriging but missed something. Enjoyable but far from a must listen.

Amazing Post-Apoc. Novel. and Stellar Narrator

I've listened to quite a few post-apocalyptic novels in the 3 years I've been subscribed to Audible. For some reason, they impact me more when narrated than when I've read them myself.

The Road is an awful but most likely the best of the genre. Of course,McCarthy is more of a poet than a fiction writer, so it's understandable why the story can be both awful and wonderful-both enlightening and depressing.

Tom Stechschulte was the perfect narrator for this book. He reads both the poetry and austere verbiage that McCarthy has written with meaning. He makes the dads patience-which is amazing-so realistic and details the child fears. There is a great deal of "I'm afraid" and "I know".."I'm really afraid", "I know" what can a dad say..the father doesn't give platitudes to the child..no "Everything will be fine" because the world is different and neither knows how everything will really be.

Since my family is a strong believer in being prepared, we all have Bug-out-bags (aka Bail out backpacks) where everyone has a weeks worth of food, water, clean socks, cooking implements etc. I have a sealed box of seeds specifically made up to sustain a family and as a master gardener, feel well prepared to turn my flower garden into a truck farm.

But then what..what happens years later-and what if, as is detailed in this book, the world is sterile? If nothing will grow and there is a limited amount of canned food available..what then? If there are no more animals to hunt-except human beings-than that what gets hunted-part of the more grisly part of the novel.

McCarthys 'dad' and 'son' both became alive to me, while their goal (go to the coast and go south) was understandable, the why was never answered..it is a just because. McCarthy takes the small family to the brink of starvation several times, but them something miraculous happens and they find food...Morel mushrooms in a dead rhodie hell thicket, a stash left by someone else and so on.

You never learn the names of the protagonists..actually the only name in the book was that of Eli, the 90 year old blind guy treking along by himself one night. Everyone else is the man, the child, the woman.

This is a deep and enlightening book along with being depressing and gloomy.

Does make one wonder exactly what she would do years after an occasion like this.

Buy it-it's worth the credit. But also buy "I Am Malala" to cheer you up afterward.

Alonzo

ONCE AGAIN A GREAT BOOK FROM COMAC McCARTHY. SUPERBLY WRITTEN, SUPPORTED BY GREAT NARRATION.
IN REAL TERMS THE READER FEELS HE TOO IS ON "THE ROAD". ALTHOUGH THE CHARACTERS ARE FEW THIS BOOK IS RICH IN DIALOGUE THE PRINCIPLE CHARACTERS ARE STRONG . THE SITUATIONS ENCOUNTERED ARE WELL SCOPED.
IN SHORT EXCELLENT. DESERVING OF A FIVE STAR RATING.

Writer's style

The author is widely acclaimed but his style takes some getting used to. It's kind of flowery, he is Mr. Adjective. But by the end I was used to it and felt like the style was akin to writing in High Def. I watched the movie after listening to the book. The book was better in my opinion but the movie is well done and only deletes some of the story but does change other elements. Interesting point about the movie. All the characters are white except for a thief, who is black. Not sure why.

Excellent story about a man and his sons love.

Cormac McCarthy is one of the great writers of the 20th Century. A beautiful written book. The movie does it justice and Tom Stechschulte is perfect reading this book. Makes you think how fragile our civilisation is.