With a touching story of a father and son struggling to remain whole in a broken world, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road displays an excellent assembly of powerful imagery and a classic flickering hope for a brighter future. While this experimental, post-apocalyptic novel …more describes a dark Earth and its merciless inhabitants, McCarthy puts an intense emphasis on what little hope the world continues to possess in the form of a boy, born after the end of civilized society, who “carries the fire” and inspires others to do the same.

Faced with vicious cannibals, ruthless thieves, and the occasional straggler not so different from themselves, the father and son journey south along “The Road” in hopes to reach a warmer climate before the cold and deadly winter sweeps over them. Food is scarce, shelter is rare, and potential dangers lurk around every corner. Although suicide is a tempting option, they continue through the ash and snow to survive, refusing to surrender although the world has already abandoned them. Any science fiction reader with an interest in opening basement doors to find a pantry of food in the form of still-breathing human beings and a preference for a bittersweet ending will definitely possess a fondness for this novel.

While particularly exploring the collapse of society and the breakdown of social standards, the main description of the story is spun in an intricate web of sentence fragments depicting mostly the landscape and the psychological stresses on the main characters’ minds; although do not confuse McCarthy’s lack of proper sentence structure and his frequently confusing refusal to include quotation marks and other indications of “who-spoke-when’s” with a case of ignoring the accepted grammatical rules for the simple reason of “I just can.” Bold experimentation with style and form of writing is one of the many Modern characteristics that The Road possesses, a poetic quality few can achieve with such finesse and elegance as McCarthy. The novel remains something of an “easy read,” written in a straightforward fashion, a relief from the numerous novels that are frequently undermined by their over stylized and flowery descriptions.

The Road definitely goes on the top shelf of my bookcase with the rest of my favorites. It’s heart-wrenching, curious, and invigorating – leaving the interpretation for what ended the modern world completely up to my own bit of imagination, a trait I can easily admire. McCarthy’s granted the rare coupling of wanting more while at the same time feeling completely satisfied with its ending. A perfect candidate for a rainy day, once you start down The Road, there’s no turning back. (less)