Anyway, I recently finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. If you enjoy stream of consciousness, or have never read a book with that and are looking for something different, read this. It's an excellent book, and for some one who daydreams a lot (haha), I found it very easy to follow: no really long sentences that go on for an entire paragraph or so. I do have to warn you, though, that this book was extremely depressing and rather creepy, but so good.
While the incorrect grammar and run-ons irked me for most of the book, I did enjoy the power created by the repetitions. The Heart Beat and Warmth coming from the Thin Boy. Carrying the Fire; the will to survive as a "good guy". Ash. Gray. Oh, how gray and dismal this book was.
Oh, and the reason I included the upcoming "apocalypse" in my title was because this book was about a father and his young son traveling the roads in a post apocalyptic world where everything was dead (ash), and the "bad guys" have taken to cannibalism. Yuck.
On that note, I would like to focus on the son. If I had to guess, he is probably around the age of 6 and was born in an already apocalyptic world. And some people think that kids these days aren't having the "best"
childhood. This boy has never tasted Coke until his dad finds one can left in a machine, and he has never seen a blue sky. This boy has grown up gray. Yet, he is the symbol of humanity and unconditional love, which to me is not gray at all. He has seen his dad "steal" (the people aren't around anymore, but they still take from the houses they come across), his dad kill, and he has seen a gutted baby roasting over a fire (sorry), yet he is willing to share what little food and provisions he and his father have in order to help an old, almost blind man. At one point, he sees a boy about his age in a building, alone. He wants to take him with them, but the father says no. As they leave, the son looks back constantly, and then he begins to cry. Later in the novel, the same thing happens after they leave the old man mentioned above to journey alone. When their cart is stolen and the dad finds the cart and the thief, the dad takes the cart and forces the thief to give them every thread of clothing he is wearing, even though it is freezing out. So what does the little boy do? He weeps. And weeps. And weeps. Taking into account everything this boy has been through, it is hard to believe that he is this compassionate and kind. This boy is the main reason why I fell in love with this book and, to me, that there is always hope.
