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, most life on earth.
The Road by
Cormac McCarthy
More
Books from Amazon.co.uk
The novel was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black
Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.
Development
McCarthy's 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]
Plot summary
The Road follows a man and a boy, father and son,
journeying together for many months across a desolate,
post-apocalyptic landscape, some years – the period of time
almost the same as the age of the boy – after a great,
unexplained cataclysm. Civilization has been destroyed, and most
species have become extinct. The sun is obscured by deep, dark
clouds, and the climate has been altered radically. Plants do
not grow. Humanity consists largely of bands of cannibals, their
food-source captives, and refugee-travellers who scavenge for
food.
Reception
The Road has received numerous positive reviews and
honours since its September 26, 2006 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.
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 in print before.[7]
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]
British environmental campaigner George Monbiot was so
impressed by The Road that he declared McCarthy to be one
of the "50 people who could save the planet" in an article
published in January 2008. Monbiot wrote, "It could be the most
important environmental book ever. It is a thought experiment
that imagines a world without a biosphere, and shows that
everything we value depends on the ecosystem."[9]
This nomination echoes the review Monbiot had written some
months earlier for the Guardian in which he wrote, "A few weeks
ago I read what I believe is the most important environmental
book ever written. It is not Silent Spring, Small Is
Beautiful or even Walden. It contains no graphs, no
tables, no facts, figures, warnings, predictions or even
arguments. Nor does it carry a single dreary sentence, which,
sadly, distinguishes it from most environmental literature. It
is a novel, first published a year ago, and it will change the
way you see the world."[10]
Awards and nominations
On April 16, 2007, the novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction.[11]
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.[12]
Film adaptation
A film adaptation of the novel is currently in
post-production. It is directed by John Hillcoat and written by
Joe Penhall. The film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee
as the Man and the Boy, respectively. Production has taken place
in Louisiana, Oregon, and several locations in Pennsylvania
including Presque Isle State Park and the Abandoned Pennsylvania
Turnpike. It is due for release on October 16, 2009.[13]
|
Comments |
|
Waiting for comment |