The Road

I’ve heard a lot of good recommendation on The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Those good recommendations make me want to read it, but I don’t want to buy it because I’m unsure about its quality…I mean, it has been proven as great book because it won Pulitzer Prize, but I tend to have my own opinion or likeness toward a book. Award means nothing to me. So, for quite some times I put The Road in my to search for free book, which mean if a friend of mine bought it, I will borrow it 😉

 

However, an interview changed my feeling toward the book. That interview had made me want to buy the book. That interview made me become so curious about the book. It was an interview with my most favorite actor, Cillian Murphy. He was asked ‘what was the last thing that made you cry?’ and he answered ‘reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy’ …at that moment I was thinking ‘wow, it seemed like a powerful book because it can make a man cried and not many man cried over a book’ … So, I finally bought the book.

 

The story is about a journey of father and son through the ashes of the world. At that time, the world had turned into ashes, trees are dying and no animals can be found. Not many people live at that era. Hope seems do far away. A man determines to stay alive and never give up even though his wife chooses the other way. She is afraid of being raped and eaten. The man and his son travels to the south because they couldn’t possible survived another winter if they stay in their city.

On their journey, the try to hide from the bad guys, those guys will eat catch people as their food supply. There is a scene where the man has to shoot another man who is trying to get his boy and there is also a scene where they find a group of people being kept in a room as food supply. The father refused to trust anyone but the son with his innocent heart always wants to help other people. He has no heart to keep people hungry.

 

Once, they find their luck in an abandon house with lots of food. They stay there for a while but they have to keep moving because it’s not a safe place. When they reach south, the sea is no longer blue. Although hope seems to get farther and farther away, each tries to survive for the other. But no one can run away from faith, they can not be together forever.

 

The way McCarthy wrote his book is so different than any books I have read before. His style is unusual, especially when he wrote the conversation part, short and without explanation who was the speaker. At the first few pages, I couldn’t concentrate on his style of writing but as I went deeper into the book, finally I could enjoy the book.

 

I think The Road is a beautiful story of love between father and son, I love reading this kind of love story, however I find the book a bit too lingering. There are parts where I want to skip reading it (but didn’t do it). The moment of thrilling is not enough, considering this is a book about post apocalyptic journey. As for the sad moment, yes it was sad but it wasn’t as sad as The Kite Runner (it was nothing compares to The Kite Runner). I did cry.

 

Overall, The Road is the kind of book that I like but I don’t think I will read it again. It’s a 3 stars book for me.

 

A day after I finished reading the book, I borrowed my friend’s DVD and watched the movie. She thought that the movie isn’t that good. As for me, I kinda like the movie. It wasn’t as fantastic as The Lord of The Rings and The Green Mile when they turned it into a movie, but it wasn’t as bad as The Shining. It was good but not great. The story was exactly like the book with less detail.

 

The man was played by the charismatic Viggo Mortensen and the boy was played by Kodi Smit-McPhee. Kodi looks so much like Charlize Theron who played as hiss mom. It was nice to see Guy Pearce at the end of the movie, I want to see him more after watching Memento.

To see a better review on the movie, please check this review by Elgart of BuzzTurning.

 

Just like the book, I also give the book 3 stars.

 

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I share this review as my 1st book for R.I.P Challenge V, my 5th book/movie for Read The Book See The Movie Challenge, my 12th book for Suspense and Thriller Reading Challenge 2010 and my 11th book for New Author Challenge 2010.