Book Review: The Road

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is a post-apocalyptic story of a man and his son, trudging through America towards a coast. The reader isn’t informed about what the apocalyptic event was; we’re just to understand that all life EXCEPT humans was annihilated in some event ten years prior. Many humans turn to cannibalism to survive. Father and son try to maintain their humanity (sans cannibalism), while trying to survive along their journey.

While the relationship between the two was kind of sweet, it wasn’t enough to sustain a story that 1) made no sense, 2) went on and on and 3) ended far too neatly in what was supposed to be uplifting but wasn’t, necessarily. An example of the nonsensical nature of the story was that if an event caused all other life to be extinguished, how did humanity make it out alive in the first place? And after ten years, how could humans survive without the necessary bacteria and other interdependent species? And if bacteria, insects and fungi weren’t around to break things down, why weren’t there huge piles of undecayed, dead matter? You get the picture.

The story, if one reads it as just narrative, has so many holes in logic and begs so much suspension of disbelief to make it ridiculous. Even if one takes it as an allegory of the devolution of human behavior when there is no hope for the future, then a MUCH better story is P.D. James’ The Children of Men (see review below). James introduces a single, inexplicable event that starts the devolution, but the rest of the story is consistent and well, sadly plausible. Do yourself a favor: skip this one.