The Road by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A short, powerful book that follows all the familiar McCarthy themes of death, duty to family, trust and the often hidden nature of humanity. Far more readable than many of his earlier works, primarily because of its exclusion of Spanish dialogue (a realistic but difficult convention prominent in the Border Trilogy), but still occasionally relying on archaic or biblical vocabulary and syntax – broken into short paragraphic bursts that drive the story along swiftly. Many of McCarthy’s tropes are branded into the reader’s mind early on: ash mixed with an almost continuous snow or rain, and the relentless movement of man and boy questing ever further, knowing not for what.
Although not as altogether gripping as Blood Meridian (which was rooted somewhat in history), this book transcends the Western genre to give one of the sparsest and truest definitions of humankind, coming close to Hesse’s Siddhartha in its brutal simplicity.