To be honest, I am not sure what to say in my final post about The Road, other than that I really enjoyed the book. However, I would not go as far as to say that I am anxious to read more of Cormac McCarthy's work. His writing style worked in The Road, but there were certain points where I wish he had switched to a more traditional writing style to identify events that cannot be read in the same summary-like tone as the rest of the book. I am specifically talking about the end of the book, when the man dies. McCarthy's writing style took away from the emotional impact this should have on the boy. It still feels like summary, and I think the pace of the book should slow down significantly for this one section. The book did seem to slow down when we first meet the "bad guys" to establish the significance of that event, so the death of the only person the boy has ever loved in the world should be regarded as being just as important.
While reading this book I assumed this was a deliberate choice of McCarthy to change writing styles for this book, but apparently he never uses quotation marks and his style of writing is consistent throughout all of his books. This is off-putting to me as a reader, because quotation marks are helpful while reading. McCarthy is a great writer, but I do not care for his particular style all the time.
The evolution of the boy's attitude toward life is something I believe is also worth mentioning in this final post. In the beginning of the book, The boy wants to die, so that he can be with his mother. Had there been no evolution in his character he would have wanted to die more after the death of his father. He does, at first want this but his father quickly persuades him to keep on living. The boy survives so that he can keep the flame of morality burning in this dark and evil wasteland.
To wrap this up, I would like to highly recommend this book to absolutely anyone. It is a great read if you get around a quarter of the way in.
Hey Andrew, I must say I agree with you about the writing style. I don't know about you, but finding out that he uses that style in most of his other books made it less special for me. But, that being said, you must admit, the writing style will make the reader stop and think. As I wrote in my "why AP" blog post, any book that will make an audience think has AP potential. So as much as the writing style was a bother, would you say that there was perhaps some value in it? Just something to consider. Also, nice commentary about the boy. I actually forgot about how he wanted to die in the beginning because all I could remember was how much I wanted him to die (should have killed him off in the end and not the man). But way to point out the character evolution.
ReplyDeleteI've heard about The Road from other people, and I'm glad you liked it other than sounding like a summary and having no quotation marks, what made the author's style unique? Also, since he has shown that he is capable of slowing down his writing, he deliberately didn't at the end? I haven't read the book, but maybe maintaining the pace of the book was supposed to mean something, like the boy has grown used to death and loss in his life.
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