The Road

Title: The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Year Published: 2006
My Rating: four out of five stars, or B

The Road is the story of a man and his son trying to survive nuclear winter and stay together. It's a bleak, dark tale, yet there are hopeful and loving moments between the man and his son. The best parts of the book show the touching relationship between the man and his son. For example, the man continually strives to provide food, warmth, and protection for his son despite dangerous circumstances. The man tries to maintain the normal life that existed before the world died. For example, he bandages his son's feet in blankets to keep them from getting frostbitten in the fierce cold as if he were tying his shoes to get him ready for school. They are elevated above the warped behavior everyone else adopts due to the harsh circumstances they live in. Thus, the son and his father remain a beacon of hope and light in the dark, dead world they live in.
I also liked the vivid imagery McCarthy used to describe the earth during a nuclear winter and the horrors that it caused. McCarthy's imagery makes a world unimaginable to the reader feel very real. The terrors he creates seem real as well, as he is excellent at showing the dark side of humanity. McCarthy's writing makes the world he describes in The Road extremely similar to the one we live in.
Overall, I had two responses to the novel: one that I was horrified, the other that I was inspired.
The Road gave me hope that no matter how terrible life is now, it will get better.