As some of you know, I'm quite keen on post-apocalypse stories. So, with the upcoming end of the world, I figured I'd make another attempt at reading Cormic McCarthy's The Road.
I say make another attempt because I've had a copy of the book since just after the feature film (starring Aragorn, king of men) came out. I was so interested in seeing it, as I had heard it was a really good post-apocalypse story. But I insisted on reading the book before seeing the movie. I don't often do this, but this time, I was going to!
And twice now, I've picked it up. And twice now, I've put it back down after about 30 pages. As I see it, there's three reasons for this:
1. I am not much of a reader. Unless a book really grabs me, I'm not likely to finish it.
2. I've never read another one of this fellow's novels, but The Road has next to no punctuation. Only periods and the occasional comma. I'm sure this has its stylistic reasons, but as someone who grew up reading a certain way (you know, the way the language was intended to be written), I find it sometimes hard to understand if characters are talking, or it's more description, or what exactly I am reading.
3. It's utterly depressing. For those not in the know, The Road is the story of a father and son, who are desperately trying to find warmer climes in the face of a brutal winter. The world they are in is a destroyed, unkempt wasteland. Bands of rapists and cannibals comb the country side, actively slaying other survivors. So far, the book seems to follow the perspective of the father (who, as of where I am in the story, has no name. Neither has the son. They are just 'the Man' and 'the Boy'). The Man was alive before the devastation, so we get a very clear look at how someone who lived in our contemporary life handles having the world demolished, and having to survive for the sake of someone he loves. Thing is, it's really, really hard to survive out there. The Man, being a worried father, is constantly concerned about the health and safety of his child. And without all our modern conveniences, trekking through the countryside at the start of winter poses a lot of threats to the health and safety of his child.
So, this time, I've managed to get even further in. I'm a whopping 72 pages deep, and still keen on it. However, it is really, really bleak.
And since it's a season for sharing, I thought I'd revitalize the old blog, and share with you all just how depressing it is, in a new series I'd like to call: The Most Depressing Thing I Read in The Road Today Was...
FAIR WARNING! There will probably be spoilers. And, selfishly, I have to ask that no one spoil anything further ahead for me. Despite it taking many years to do this, I've managed to not have it ruined. I genuinely have no idea what's going to happen.
All right. Stop reading now, if you don't want to have anything spoiled.
THE MOST DEPRESSING THING I READ IN THE ROAD TODAY WAS...
... Years after the world collapsed, but years before the present time the story takes place in, the man has an argument with his wife. We know his wife is dead at the start of the story, but this is the first time we've heard more.
The argument, as it turns out, is that she demands to commit suicide, citing that the Man can't possibly protect her and the Boy. She feels this kind of death would be merciful, rather than being assaulted and eventually devoured by the denizens of their world. She urges him to kill all three of them, but when he refuses, she still wants to off herself. She refuses to say goodbye to her son. She beats down the Man's confidence, and tosses aside any notion of there being any point to surviving. The Man, who is bewildered by her determination, cannot stop her, and she carries out her plans.
That is some pretty heavy shit. But, wait, it gets worse.
The kicker is that the man only reminisces on this AFTER he's thrown away the last photo he had of her. Which he had clung onto all these years to remember her by. So now, he can literally never see her again.
You're welcome. Stay tuned for more.
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