July / USA Reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

[lugdunum]

Loved the last paragraph:

Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

I also liked this last paragraph. Really nice ending. So peaceful. It's like going from a sepia photo to a color one.

I felt as though the ending was no ending at all. I think it just shows a continuation. The boy goes on, life goes on, people keep striving. The last paragraph also felt like a continuation because the boy remembered and therefore the past and the beauty of the earth remained. Mankind is tenacious.

I agree on that one too. Even though as I said before and as someone esle said previously "I'll be wondering all week about what will happen to the boy".

[bouquin]

What age would you give the boy? He is afraid all the time, always so tremulous. One would think that he would have more mettle, given the overwhelmingly trying circumstances that he is in and has always known.

[Virgil]

What age would you give the boy? He is afraid all the time, always so tremulous. One would think that he would have more mettle, given the overwhelmingly trying circumstances that he is in and has always known.

I was meaning to ask this myself. I would put him at six or seven at most. What do others think?

[motherhubbard]

I think the book took place over time. In the end I thought he was a little older, maybe 11.

[lugdunum]

Yes, I would say around 8/9. And about a year older at the end of the book.

[Tersely]

I must confess I did have a strong urge to buy lots of canned food once I finished the book

If not, as exampled in the book, there's always people around

[DapperDrake]

Yeah, I'd put him between 6 and 10 tops. What I was trying to workout the whole way though the book was how much time had elapsed since the nukes fell, this is where I start to have problems with the book because the whole premise just does not add up.
Lets look at the scenario, enough nukes are set off in America and presumably the rest of the world to create significant firestorms in most major cities, the smoke/soot gets up into the stratosphere. Now thinking about it that could create a nuclear winter situation that would potentially last years but I would of though 2-3 at the most, and yes a lot of vegetation and animal life would die. in the book though there is complete destruction, no plant life at all and no birds, animals, or fish.
Thats too extreme, there is obviously a significant amount of sunlight getting through as they do have daylight in the story even though they don't see the sun, some plants and trees would 100% certainly have survived and in the fire areas some would certainly be growing back even in the first few years, and I don't think you would get rid of birds and animals so easily either, life is tenacious.
Think about it, the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor impact, supposedly igniting the methane rich atmosphere and creating a global firestorm, followed by perhaps a decade of darkness and deep winter. Lizards, rodents, fish, sharks etc. all survived as did most plant life. The impression given in the story is of irredeemable and final destruction which is just totally unrealistic, how long would it take for food to run out and civilisation to breakdown to the extent in the story? How many governments have food/fuel stockpiles and bunkers, what about using hydroponics and artificial light to grow food? How long would it take America to work though its supplies of ammunition and firearms? the thugs in the story we're using spears, clubs, and knives!!! there's got to be thousands of bullets for every citizen in the US and more than a gun per person, I would of thought it would take at least a decade to even begin to run out.

The whole scenario presented in the story just could not happen. All the way though the book I was trying to make sense of it in my head but it just doesn't work.

All that aside I thought it was very good.

[Virgil]

Yeah, I'd put him between 6 and 10 tops. What I was trying to workout the whole way though the book was how much time had elapsed since the nukes fell, this is where I start to have problems with the book because the whole premise just does not add up.
Lets look at the scenario, enough nukes are set off in America and presumably the rest of the world to create significant firestorms in most major cities, the smoke/soot gets up into the stratosphere. Now thinking about it that could create a nuclear winter situation that would potentially last years but I would of though 2-3 at the most, and yes a lot of vegetation and animal life would die. in the book though there is complete destruction, no plant life at all and no birds, animals, or fish.
Thats too extreme, there is obviously a significant amount of sunlight getting through as they do have daylight in the story even though they don't see the sun, some plants and trees would 100% certainly have survived and in the fire areas some would certainly be growing back even in the first few years, and I don't think you would get rid of birds and animals so easily either, life is tenacious.
Think about it, the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor impact, supposedly igniting the methane rich atmosphere and creating a global firestorm, followed by perhaps a decade of darkness and deep winter. Lizards, rodents, fish, sharks etc. all survived as did most plant life. The impression given in the story is of irredeemable and final destruction which is just totally unrealistic, how long would it take for food to run out and civilisation to breakdown to the extent in the story? How many governments have food/fuel stockpiles and bunkers, what about using hydroponics and artificial light to grow food? How long would it take America to work though its supplies of ammunition and firearms? the thugs in the story we're using spears, clubs, and knives!!! there's got to be thousands of bullets for every citizen in the US and more than a gun per person, I would of thought it would take at least a decade to even begin to run out.

The whole scenario presented in the story just could not happen. All the way though the book I was trying to make sense of it in my head but it just doesn't work.

All that aside I thought it was very good.

I do not recall it ever saying it was a nuclear explosion. In Wikipedia (granted it may not be accurate) it says the following:

The Road follows a man and a boy, father and son, journeying together for many months across a post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm. The story takes place in the former United States, where civilization has been destroyed, along with most life; the precise fate of the rest of the earth is not made clear, though the implication is that the disaster has affected the entire planet. What is left of humanity now consists largely of bands of cannibals and their prey, and refugees who scavenge for canned food or other surviving foodstuffs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_(novel).


All I remember it saying was that there were fires. It coud have been an asteroid hitting the earth or something like that initiated it all. It leaves it to the imagination to speculate.

[Hira]

Initially I thought too there would be nukes or something of that sort, but now I think perhaps there were some sort of wide-scale volcanic eruptions:

In two days' time they came upon a country where firestorms had passed leaving mile on mile of destruction

[Jozanny]

Not to interrupt the current flow of the discussion, but my copy may have landed in the package room today, unless it was The Third Policeman, which I ordered with The Road. I will in any case try to join in tomorrow evening, and read all of your posts more carefully. I scrolled by so as not to read spoilers.

[Hira]

Cool Jozanny, hope you'll join in soon.

I also liked this last paragraph. Really nice ending. So peaceful. It's like going from a sepia photo to a color one.

I felt as though the ending was no ending at all. I think it just shows a continuation. The boy goes on, life goes on, people keep striving. The last paragraph also felt like a continuation because the boy remembered and therefore the past and the beauty of the earth remained. Mankind is tenacious.

I thought, to some extent, it rang of some kind of a sad nostalgia, about the world gone past, the world that will no longer be. Such a sad, beautiful paragraph.

[bouquin]

I do not recall it ever saying it was a nuclear explosion. In Wikipedia (granted it may not be accurate) it says the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_(novel).


All I remember it saying was that there were fires. It coud have been an asteroid hitting the earth or something like that initiated it all. It leaves it to the imagination to speculate.

I was struck by the apparent number of bridges still left standing. I did not really keep tabs, nevertheless, Papa and Boy seem to be crossing them and seeking shelter under them every other day. I am skeptical about the plausibility of that.

[DapperDrake]

I do not recall it ever saying it was a nuclear explosion. In Wikipedia (granted it may not be accurate) it says the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_(novel).


All I remember it saying was that there were fires. It coud have been an asteroid hitting the earth or something like that initiated it all. It leaves it to the imagination to speculate.

Well you're right, I don't think it says nuclear in so many words but if I remember correctly, and I don't have the book with me right now, there is a description of the day the apocalypse happened. The man described distant thuds, EMP knocking out electronic equipment, mushroom clouds even?
And they sheltered from the shockwave in a bath tub, or at least that was implied.

There was no doubt in my mind he was describing nuclear explosions but I'll have to go back to the book to be sure.

Edit: Here, I found this quote on the net:

The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. What is it? she said. He didnt answer. He went into the bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power was already gone. A dull rose glow in the windowglass. He dropped to one knee and raised the lever to stop the tub and the turned on both taps as far as they would go. She was standing in the doorway in her nightwear, clutching the jamb, cradling her belly in one hand. What is it? she said. What is happening?
I dont know.
Why are you taking a bath?
I'm not.

Not conclusive but it was enough to convince me. I suppose It could of been a meteor but that really didn't occur to me at the time.

[bouquin]

I feel the same way. I started a bit way through it (pausing to comment now) and it feels like I'm glazing over every once and awhile. I think it's probably the structure. It's not broken up with quotations everywhere so I do get lost between them speaking,the landscape being explained, or actions happening around them. Guess I better slow down

I found the dialogues rather uninspired towards the beginning. They alternated mainly between saying "okay" over and over again and the boy declaring that he is scared. But I think the exchange between Papa and Boy does get better as the story develops.

There's one paragraph on page 87 (Vintage International edition, 2007) that's written in the first person, I'm wondering why it is so :

The dog that he remembers followed us for two days. I tried to coax it to come but it would not. I made a noose of wire to catch it. There were three cartridges in the pistol. None to spare. She walked away down the road. The boy looked after her and then he looked at me and then he looked at the dog and he began to cry and to beg for the dog's life and I promised I would not hurt the dog. A trellis of a dog with the hide stretched over it. The next day it was gone. That is the dog he remembers. He doesn't remember any little boys.

[lugdunum]

There's one paragraph on page 87 (Vintage International edition, 2007) that's written in the first person, I'm wondering why it is so :

The dog that he remembers followed us for two days. I tried to coax it to come but it would not. I made a noose of wire to catch it. There were three cartridges in the pistol. None to spare. She walked away down the road. The boy looked after her and then he looked at me and then he looked at the dog and he began to cry and to beg for the dog's life and I promised I would not hurt the dog. A trellis of a dog with the hide stretched over it. The next day it was gone. That is the dog he remembers. He doesn't remember any little boys.

Yep, I was also asking this previously?

I really don't understand the purpose/meaning of this paragraph.
Why is Papa the narrator all of a sudden?
And who is she?
And why does it say that "he" (the boy?) "Doesn't remember any little boys" when throughout the book the boy will be remembering (even obsessed) with the little boy?

Any ideas?