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| The Road | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Knopf
Category: EBooks
List Price: $9.95
Buy New: $7.96
You Save: $1.99 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  (1608 reviews)
Sales Rank: 141
Format: Kindle Book
Language: English (Published)
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B000OI0G1Q
Publication Date: March 20, 2007
Release Date: March 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Road November 16, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the last time I listen to Oprah regarding any book. This book is dark but meaningless. I had to force myself to finish this pointless tragic story.
How this became a best seller is beyond me.
 Wow. What a great book but - whew - don't expect to be lift up. November 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Another outstanding book from Cormac. And out of his normal genre. I really enjoyed the book but it is gonna leave you feeling like you need some sunshine afterwards. Dark book, dark story telling done very well.
 Flat and endless November 15, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Pulitzer winner, great reviews, and I was bored by the tenth page.
I have no problem with McCarthy's prose style, the run-on sentences and sparse prose aptly illustrate the landscape of a devastated, post-apocalyptic planet and the minds of those who inhabit it. Jose Saramago's Blindness uses similiar literary style to much better effect. It also worked in McCarthy's brilliant, morally ambiguous No Country For Old Men. McCarthy's prose has never been a problem.
My problem was that- for the entire book- nothing happened. The man and the boy travel south. The boy rarely speaks. When he does, he usually says "Papa, I'm scared, I'm scared Papa." The Man shows no humanity to anyone besides the boy, but they're the "good guys". Man and boy journey to the sea. At the sea, things suck as much as they do everywhere else.
There is no enemy to overcome, no joy, no hope, no anger at the misery the world has been brought to, nothing but apathy expressed throughout the entire book. The rest of humanity has apparently become depraved and degenerate, but the contrast doesn't make father & son any more heroic by comparison. I found nothing compelling about either the boy or his father. Their story was flat, repetitive and boring. For a truly brilliant tale of disaster and redemption look to Jose Saramago's Blindness... or Max Brooks' World War Z... or Stephen King's the Stand. All of which are more profound than The Road.
A Thought-Provoking Nightmare November 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In a world somehow burned to a crisp, a few people survive. A father and young son travel south along a partially-melted highway to escape the winter. They have no names; nothing has a name any longer. On the way, they encounter others trying to survive, often by preying on the helpless, even enslaving and eating some. The child wants to help some of the more unfortunate, but the father's focus is entirely on saving the boy and himself. He trusts no one, and hides from all human contact. Eventually, the father dies of TB, and the boy, left alone, shows himself to a band of travelers, expecting to be eaten. But instead they adopt him, and it is obvious that the group of good people will form the basis for a renewal of civilization.
The theme appears to be that good will always triumph over evil eventually.
Four Little Old Men: A (Mostly) True Tale from a Small Cajun Town
Skeptical but pleased November 12, 2008
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
I didn't know exactly what to make of this book but I couldn't put it down. It was depressing and simple but somehow profound at the same time. I never would have picked it up based on its description but Oprah came through again.
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