The Road
 First Edition hardcover of The Road | |
| Author | Cormac McCarthy |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | September 26, 2006 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | 0307265439 |
| OCLC | 70630525 |
The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization and, apparently, almost all life on earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.
Plot summary
The Road follows an unnamed father and son journeying together across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and almost all life on Earth. Realizing that they will not survive another winter in their unspecified original location, the father leads the boy south, through a desolate American landscape along a vacant highway, towards the sea, sustained only by the vague hope of finding warmth and more "good people" like them, and carrying with them only what is on their backs and what will fit into a damaged supermarket cart.
The setting is extremely bleak; the sun is perpetually obscured by a layer of ash so thick that the pair must breathe through masks, and the land is devoid of living vegetation. There is frequent rain or snow, and electrical storms are common. Nearly all of the few human survivors are cannibalistic tribalists and/or nomads, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for human flesh, though that too is almost entirely depleted. Their presence is noted by their leavings, mutilated and/or decorated skulls.
Overwhelmed by this desperate and apparently hopeless situation, the boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the cataclysm, commits suicide some time before the story begins; the rationality and calmness of her act being her last "great gift" to the man and the boy. The father coughs blood every morning and knows he is dying, yet he struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation, as well as from what he sees as the boy's innocently well-meaning, but dangerous desire to help wanderers they meet. Through much of the story, the pistol they carry, meant for protection or suicide if necessary, has only one bullet. The boy has been told to use it on himself if capture is iminent, to spare himself the horror of death at the hands of the cannibals.
In the face of these obstacles, the man and the boy have only each other (they are "each the other's world entire"). The man maintains the pretense, and the boy holds on to the real faith, that there is a core of ethics left somewhere in humanity. They repeatedly assure one another that they are "the good guys," who are "carrying the fire."
On their journey, the duo scrounge for food, encounter roving bands of cannibals, and contend with casual horrors such as a new born infant being roasted on a spit, and people being kept captive as they are slowly harvested for food. Although the vast majority of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy," at one paragraph only in the discussion of the journey the story is told in the first person.
Although the man and the boy eventually reach the sea, neither the climate nor availability of food has improved. Despite having succeeded in defending the boy through extreme hardship, 'the man' has failed to find the salvation he had hoped for for his son, and succumbs to his illness and dies; leaving the boy alone, though he is told that he may continue to speak to the father and that the father would still be present. Three days later, however, the grieving boy encounters a man who has been tracking the father and son. This man, who has a wife and two children of his own, brings the boy to join his family. One of the children is a girl, implying the possibility of a future for the human race, despite the grim conditions. A brief epilogue meditates on nature and infinity in this altered environment.
Development history
The novel was released by Alfred A. Knopf on September 26, 2006. In his interview by Oprah Winfrey, McCarthy indicated that the inspiration for The Road came during a 2003 visit to El Paso, Texas, with his young son. Imagining what the city might look like in the future, he pictured "fires on the hill" and thought about his son. He took some initial notes but did not return to the idea until a few years later, while in Ireland. Then, the novel came to him quickly, and he dedicated it to his son, John Francis McCarthy.[1]
Literary significance and criticism
The Road has received numerous positive reviews and honors since its release. The review aggregator Metacritic reported the book had an average score of 90 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.[2] Critics have deemed it "heartbreaking", "haunting", and "emotionally shattering".[3][4][5] The Village Voice referred to it as "McCarthy's purest fable yet".[3] In a New York Review of Books article, author Michael Chabon heralded the novel. Discussing the novel's relation to established genres, Chabon insists The Road is not science fiction: although "the adventure story in both its modern and epic forms… structures the narrative", Chabon says, "ultimately it is as a lyrical epic of horror that The Road is best understood".[6] Entertainment Weekly in June 2008 named The Road the best book, fiction or non-fiction, of the past 25 years, ahead of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Toni Morrison's Beloved.[7]
On March 28, 2007, the selection of The Road as the next novel in Oprah Winfrey's Book Club was announced. A televised interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show was conducted on June 5, 2007 and it was McCarthy's first, though he had been interviewed for the printed media before.[1] The announcement of McCarthy's television appearance surprised those who follow him. "Wait a minute until I can pick my jaw up off the floor", said John Wegner, an English professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, and editor of the Cormac McCarthy Journal, when told of the interview.[8]
Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "With its spare prose, McCarthy's postapocalyptic odyssey from 2006 managed to be both harrowing and heartbreaking."[9]
Awards and nominations
On April 16, 2007, the novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.[10] It also won the 2006 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.[11] It was named book of the decade by The Times.
Film adaptation
A film adaptation of the novel, directed by John Hillcoat and written by Joe Penhall, opened in theatres on November 25, 2009. The film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the Man and the Boy. Production took place in Louisiana, Oregon, and several locations in Pennsylvania.[12]
Further reading
- McCarthy, Cormac (2006). The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0307265439
References
- ^ a b Michael Conlon (2007-06-05). "Writer Cormac McCarthy confides in Oprah Winfrey". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
- ^ "The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
- ^ a b Mark Holcomb. "End of the Line -- After Decades of Stalking Armageddon's Perimeters, Cormac McCarthy Finally Steps Over the Border". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Jones, Malcolm (September 22, 2006)."On the Lost Highway" Newsweek.
- ^ "The Road to Hell". The Guardian. November 4, 2006.
- ^ Michael Chabon (2007-02-15). "After the Apocalypse". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "The New Classics: Books. The 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- ^ Julia Keller. "Oprah's selection a real shocker: Winfrey, McCarthy strange bookfellows". Chicago Tribune.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "THE 100 Greatest MOVIES, TV SHOWS, ALBUMS, BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SCENES, EPISODES, SONGS, DRESSES, MUSIC VIDEOS, AND TRENDS THAT ENTERTAINED US OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84
- ^ "Novelist McCarthy wins Pulitzer". BBC. April 17, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ The National Book Critics Circle 2006 finalists[dead link]
- ^ "Mortensen, Theron on The Road to Pittsburgh". USA Today. January 16, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
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