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)

Beautifully told

It was a slow burn but let me tell you, the way i CRIIIEEEEDDDD. Man.

Boring as hell until the very end. Narrator is trash

I love Armageddon books but man this was a snoozer. Nothing really happens other than a man and his son traveling through a post apocalyptic world without much adventure happening. For some reason the narrator irked the heck out of me. His impersonations of the characters was really cheesy. First time that’s ever been an issue for me. Oh yeah And the kid is annoying is hell. Dude should have smacked him. 😂

Magnificent

Beautiful story about the things that matter most in life. If you hunger for depth and complete absence of superficiality, this is the book for you!

Trip home from Florida flew by!

Suspending disbelief was not difficult with a take so richly told and beautifully acted. I’m a new fan of Mr. McCarty. May he rest in peace.

Into the darkness

The work is a journey through despair and longing for connection and safety. The book leaves out all of the fluff and drives straight to the day by day existence of the characters. The question being asked is this. Can humans in our day survive a famine? Could we? How would we?

A Boy and his Dad

This story is NOT about a post-apocalyptic adventure as much as it is about a father's love and care for his son.
The road is life.
MY dad is nearing the end of his journey and this story touched me like few others.
It plods along in places and there are moments of tension. "Papa" guides his boy through all the dangers.
I didn't love it until I recognized it for the allegory it was.

Perfection

Well read, easy to visualize and feels like a classic that’ll be read allnd loved for a long long time

Cormack McCarthy does it again

Listened to this after Blood Meridian. This was another fantastic book. Highly recommend. Narrator was great.

Finished in a day...Full of symbolism & metaphors

I am in a book club, and last year we read Blood Meridian. That one was a difficult read, at times, but I could not put it down. I have wanted to read some other McCarthy books, and I chose this one a couple of days ago and finished it within a day. Both books are full of symbolism and metaphors, but BM was a more significant downer for me, while The Road reflected a lot about hope. Yes, it's dark and dismal, and Stechschulte is a great narrator who helps you to feel all of that - but you have to go below the surface a bit to understand the complexities of the book.

Admittedly, it reminded me a bit of The Walking Dead, which makes sense as they are both post-Apocalyptic. If you are not familiar with McCarthy's writing, the audiobook may be more enjoyable than a physical book. McCarthy defies the rules of writing, which is a turn off to some. I would encourage you to listen to the audiobook version, and maybe do a re-read later of the physical book, and after that, perhaps, watch the movie if you want. Both BM and The Road have changed me a little, for the better.

I mean it’s ight

I didn’t like how it ended and I was kinda scary but it was a good book tho