Genre: Fiction/Dystopian
Series: Standalone
Page Count: 287
Publication Year: 2006
Publisher: Vintage International
Summary: A dad and his son walk across an apocalyptic earth trying to survive.
This book is critically acclaimed, winning the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, among other awards. I’m starting to have a track record for not agreeing with what people think are great books. That’s fine with me. I find it easier, and funner, to criticize books than praise them.
I sorta understand why some would think this is a masterpiece, but the story would have had more impact on me if certain aspects were different.
I think this isn’t a book you like for its story, characters, dialogue and overall writing. It’s one of those books where the message and themes take center stage. That, and the stylized writing.
The message I took away from this is don’t give up, but know when you’re beaten. These two trekked across the country in hopes of finding something better. They had no reason to think it’s better somewhere else but their perseverance and hope are admirable. You know there were people who gave up or turned to the darker side of humanity. I wanted the two to succeed in their quest to remain the good guys. They showcased humanity’s hope and courageousness in the face of certain death. The stuff they went through and saw was horrifying, depressing and bleak and yet they wanted to press on. It takes a lot more than just guts to do that. This quote sums it up:
What’s the bravest thing you ever did?
Getting up this morning.
They had many moments of doubt and fear and yet the dad tried to hide their desperate situation. He pushed them on even when he himself was getting ready to keel over. I wasn’t given anything to make me like them, but I cheered at every win they had. Finding food has never brought such relief to me.
Now that that’s out of the way, here’s all the stuff I didn’t like.
The dad and son. No names were given and they lacked so much personality I couldn’t care for their particular survival. Their character’s didn’t develop into anything, but maybe that was the point? That being in such a trash world numbs all growth in people and the earth? Or did they reach their final form before I even met them? I repeatedly got annoyed at the kid’s…everything. I’d have thought living in that environment would’ve ironed out some of his pathetic-ness. I get he’s afraid, but every time his dad went anywhere without him, he’d freak out. He came across as way too mentally fragile and useless to have not accidentally gotten his dad killed already. The dad, bless his heart, should have blown both their brains out many starving days before the book started. I get the need to live, but there was nothing to live for. They’re each other’s world and that’s sweet, but why would they want to live in that environment?
Speaking of the world…what happened? Everything’s burned and covered in ashes and more or less dead. I assume it was some sort of natural disaster. Was the whole earth affected? I guess it’d been several years since it happened so how did they live as long as they did?
The dialogue was garbage. A few times I knew something impactful had been said, but it didn’t stick the landing. I’m pretty sure every conversation included the word “okay” at least once. This world probably didn’t spawn many chatterboxes, but it would have helped me to like the two if they had actual conversations or meaningful inner monologues. I love dialogue and it kills me to hear nothing of value from anyone.
This is my second McCarthy book, the first was No Country for Old Men, so I knew what to expect with the writing. He doesn’t use any quotation marks and rarely uses apostrophes or dialogue tags. It’s difficult to distinguish who’s talking at times. The dad and son have many back-and-forth conversations and with such a stripped back approach, I had to frequently backtrack to find out who was talking. It also didn’t help that the dialogue was blander than Wonder Bread, providing no distinction between the son and dad.
The author’s reasoning for not using much punctuation is that he thinks it clutters the page. This time around, I could kinda see his position. But when I’m reading a normal book, I’m not thinking, “I wish this punctuation wasn’t assaulting my eyes.” It stands out from all the other books I’ve read, but is that a good thing to be remembered for?
The vocabulary swung from amateur hour to pedantic, eclectic English professor with no warning or reason. He used words I didn’t know such as dolmen, creosote, armature, crozzle, loess, and vermicular that slowed my reading as I looked them up. It’s not a bad thing to learn new words, but they didn’t flow with the rest of the locution and parlance. See, I can do it too. Paragraphs of worthless sludge kept making appearances. Fragmented sentences. Aside from the quote I mentioned, I’m not gonna remember anything that was written.
Will reading this gray wasteland of a book change your life? If it was written by someone else, maybe. The painfully stylized writing blocked any good lasting impression on my part. It’s not a waste of time if you know what you’re getting into, but if you’re picking it up on a whim, I’d be surprised if you make it through and like it. I won't read anymore of McCarthy’s books and now I need something happy to read.
Check out my rating here.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Why didn’t they stay at the bunker? All that food and a house and they didn’t even consider making barricades and living there. But why weren’t the people who made the bunker living in it? They happened to die before making it there? What about relatives, friends, neighbors? You can’t build a bunker on the sly; someone would have known about it.
I thought the dad would end up killing the son and then himself to protect themselves from cannibals. It was a little anticlimactic to see the dad give up like he did. I know he’s dying but it didn’t sit right with me to have him quit in such a whatever manner.
Who were those people at the end? Were they actually good guys or secret cannibals?
And really, where is everyone going? It’s not like The Grapes of Wrath where they’ve heard of good land somewhere else. Are they holding out hope for a secret paradise?
I don’t know; it seemed liked the author gave up and killed the dad just to end the book.