Book Review of The Road by Cormac McCarthy

September 1, 2023

In this post, I will be reviewing The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road is a post-apocalyptic survival story about a father and his son traveling to the coast in the dying remnants of the United States.

*Disclaimer: Reviews may contain spoilers. All views are the personal opinions of Chad Pettit. They do not reflect the beliefs or opinions of the author, nor are they endorsements of any beliefs.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road is a post-apocalyptic survival story. A blight has destroyed the earth, covering it in ash and destroying plant life. The world is not dying; it’s dead. The few remaining survivors must move continuously, in search of food and supplies.

The unnamed protagonist (The Man) and the also unnamed supporting lead (The Boy) are on their way to the coast in search of, well, anything. The man, who has lost his wife and everything about his old life, is desparate to keep his son alive amid insurmountable odds including starvation, cannibals, and his own declining health.

The Good

I’m not going to waste words. I loved this novel. Instant top five. Full disclosure: I listened to this on audiobook. Anyone who listens to audiobooks understands how easily a good book can be ruined by a bad or the wrong narrator.

That is not the case with this book. The narrator, Tom Stechschulte, perfectly captures the personality of the characters and reads with such subtle skill that he disappears, bringing the story to life in the listener’s mind.

Balance

I appreciated how balanced this book is. The scenes are just the right length, at least in my opinion. I never felt bored or wanted to skip ahead. Each part of the book has the right amount of tension and suspense to keep the reader engaged.

Cormac McCarthy skillfully paints a picture without overloading the reader with details. He doesn’t waste the reader’s time with extraneous details. If he wants the reader to see the protagonist dragging a mattress, he says that. I don’t need to know the spring count, and McCarthy is aware of that!

The characters are also flawed in all the right ways. Who wants to read about flawless characters who always say the right things at exactly the right time? I don’t. There were interactions between the main characters that made me think, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.”

That’s a good thing. These are characters reacting to an incredibly unique situation. Their actions and reactions reflect their circumstances, and McCarthy displays a masterful understanding of human nature.

Image credit: LitHubhttps://lithub.com/what-did-critics-think-of-cormac-mccarthys-the-road-when-it-first-came-out/

Relatability

The story might be set in a world that doesn’t exist, but Mccarthy does a great job of suspending the reader’s disbelief. I found myself nodding several times as I imagined what the father must be feeling.

The protagonist of The Road is what a protagonist in a story like this should be: none of us and all of us. Even down to the foods the characters find. We can imagine the joy the man must have felt at finding the last coke in a ransacked vending machine or taking a sip of coffee for the first time in months while a storm raged overhead.

I found myself feeling empathetic to the man in his most hopeless moments and to the boy when he was paralyzed with shock.

The Bad

I don’t have anything negative to say about this book. It’s masterfully written with well-developed world building, tight and engaging prose, excellent pacing, relatable characters, and a thoughtful plot that is simultaneously entertaining and introspective.

However, the reader should be aware that this is no fairy tale. The premise of a scorched earth and scattered survivors should make the tone clear. I don’t think anyone’s every picked up a book like this and thought it was going to be a happy story, but it’s worth mentioning that there be darkness this way.

Humanity

McCarthy pulls no punches with his exploration into human nature under dire circumstances. The book is dark, but not for the sake of darkness. Not in a way that embraces darkness.

The Road is about who we are at our weakest. When all hope is lost, who are we? What will we become, and what are we willing to do?

It’s easy to sit in our air-conditioned homes, sipping perfectly brewed coffee, and judge a person who would steal from desperate people. Or murder someone. Eat another person. Commit suicide.

But what would you do?

When the father passes a hopeless survivor without a word, the son is understandably upset, but the father’s explanation is not only reasonable; it’s the only rational choice.

When he loses his temper with his son, we feel sorry for the boy, but we know the father’s anger is justified. If not justified then understandable.

This book will make you pause and reflect. I finished it several days ago, and I’m still reeling. Still pondering my own humanity. Still wondering how far I’d go to hold onto what I have.

Image credit: The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/movies/25road.html

The Beautiful

I could go on for hours and write a post thousands of words long describing all the sensational things about this book. I won’t. Rather, I’ll leave you with my favorite takeaways.

The setting. Despite the devastation of the world McCarthy depicts, I’ve never imagined the place and time of a story so clearly as this.
The characters. Unique and relatable, as I’ve attempted to express.
The themes. There are many. The most dominant, for me, being the idea that life is valuable and worth clinging to.
The prose. More than a master storyteller, Cormac McCarthy is a master wordsmith. Cut from the same literary cloth as Ray Bradbury, McCarthy transports you into his story world with words woven like a tapestry.
The resolution. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say it ends as it should.