Aug 17

Written by:
8/17/2009 3:59 PM 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Picador is producing a beautiful new hardback edition of a book that is viewed by many as the most extraordinarily written book of the last ten years, and whose author is consistently touted to win the Nobel Prize. Publication will follow the release of what will be a hugely acclaimed film starring Viggo Mortensen ['Lord of the Rings'] and Academy Award winner Charlize Theron. A father and his son walk alone through burned America, heading through the ravaged landscape to the coast. This is the profoundly moving story of their journey. 'An American classic which, at a stroke, makes McCarthy a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature ...An absolutely wonderful book that people will be reading for generations' - Andrew O'Hagan. 'So good that it will devour you, in parts. It is incandescent' - Niall Griffiths, 'Daily Telegraph'. 'You will read on, absolutely convinced, thrilled, mesmerised. All the modern novel can do is done here' - Alan Warner, 'Guardian'.

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Review By: Ronlynn Isaacs - Bookworm rating 3/5

First Impressions:

First few lines of the book, gave me the impression of homeless people living on the street. For example in reference to the book: when the Father & son were sleeping under a tarp, also the Mentioning of stinking robes and blankets.

Key points which stuck out for me:

a)      Father & son travelling for many years for miles across mountains, long stretches of roads covered in ash, through the forest towards the south to the sea for hope of a better future.

b)      Travelling in darkness at times as the sky is also dark from the burned ash.  Some sort of destructive force has left the land them travelling in ash. There is no mention of what happened or how the world ended up the way it did, but it must have been some sort of apocalyptic force – fire, bomb. Even nuclear experiment going wrong.  

c)      Mother committed suicide as she did not want to have to strive for survival. They will soon die whether eaten by cannibals or committing suicide. She had no second thought to leaving her son with her husband. The father carries a revolver with two bullets. If the need arises and they are faced with the worst scenario he will either use it to kill the bad guys or he will kill his son and himself.   They push around a shopping cart with little food and blankets to keep them warm.

d)      Among the ash incinerated corpses lies strew across the land. Gruesome pictures are illustrated of people hanging on barbed wires burnt to the bone. Smell of human flesh in the air. Smell of fear in the air. Father having to protect the child from the other survivors.

e)      There are only a few survivors and all of them also scavenge for food and shelter.

f)       The father considers themselves the good guys and the son is carrying the “fire” The fire could mean that he is the future. Giving the child hope of a new life.

g)      Just when you think that they would die, because all their food and water is up, the father manages to find a house, shop or any building that withstood the destruction, to find food, water and necessary tools for survival. This scene is played over a few times in the story. So basically you know what will happen the next time they run out of food. 

h)      Theme of a Battle between good and evil whereby the child does not like the stealing, but the father explains in each case that if they do not take the food, someone else will and they will die. The son believes that they are doing a bad thing by looting the places they come across. The relationship between father & son grows at times, then when the father does something bad, the child do not talk to him. The father re-assures the son all the time that they will be fine.

i)        Descriptive scenery, imaginative of how the world can look in a destructive way. McCarthy uses short sentences. Punctuation is a bit off.

Here is my opinion on the book:

At first thought looking at the title, you know it will be about long journey from one place to another.

This book in my opinion is not for an inexperience reader, in that, the first few pages of the book do not grab your attention, and you will have to persevere in order to get to grips with the story. Many people might find this book boring. This could be due to the book not having chapters, it is like one long road that you travelling.

The story is sad, touching and tearful at times.  In my opinion, this is not for the faint of heart as this is sad reality of how a father has to watch his son starve, and give hope and comfort at the same time to him.  This is not a book any parent will easily forget as it carries a strong presence of a strong love for a child, protecting them from all harm.  The child has no time to play, as there is a constant battle to survive.

The story shows sheer determination to survive under such harsh circumstances.  This is display with the Father and son persevering all obstacles as they arise.  It is also clear in the book, the love the Father has for his son. The determination is also display with journey to reach the sea at all cost. The father seems to be a very resourceful character, as he always seems to find the right tools and equipment for survival.

There was some apocalyptic disaster that took place, but not explained, except in the description of the ash darkened backdrops. This sets the tone for a constant battle between good and evil. In any household we are taught right from wrong, things like do not kill people, but in this instance the wrong is being portrayed as being right.   

The book is very descriptive, in fact scary in parts for example, referring to infants being roasted on a fire to be eaten, but this all ties into the scene of a post-apocalyptic landscape.

The ending of the book seems to come too suddenly and without revealing the ending, it was not the type of ending I was expecting, but then again it’s my first read of an apocalyptic novel. 

Overall, I give this book 3 out of 5, the overall story line was good, but for me, it does not have enough grip in the beginning, I guess it is due to me mostly reading John Grisham novels.