The Road

by Cormac McCarthy | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 9780330448628 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingruzenawing on 10/24/2007
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8 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingruzenawing on Wednesday, October 24, 2007
2006, Picador pb 2007 307 p. <250 g, <3 cm.
Winner of the Pulitzer prize for fiction 2007.

A man and a boy are walking through America. The landscape is an apocalyptic one; burned, ravaged, and covered with ashes. No life can be seen or heard, but they still have to be on their guard. There are hints of other people, starving and turned to cannibals.
One reads tens of pages where not much happens. The man and the boy walk ahead, hide in what used to be a forest, make a fire, eat what they have left, sleep, and go on walking. Silence. No wind. Wind. Rain. Sometimes a lightning. Anyway the reader becomes careful and expectant, and just can’t stop reading the hypnotic text.

This was an experience. Terrifying, but beautifully written, thought-provoking. The boy asks the right questions to understand why it makes sense to the father to keep on protecting the fire of life, and not give himself up to despair.
I often remembered the story Blindness by José Saramago, which, too, made a great influence on me. The world of Blindness is a dystopic future fiction; The Road might be the true post-nuclear-war landscape.
(McCarthy's text is 10 x easier to read than Saramago's!)

-ruzena

Bookring (one month per capita):
onniManni (Pori)
aava, Tintti (Jkl)
thy (Nurmijärvi)
seethroughfaith (Turku)
~ onk muit Turkkust? ~
Ipsu (Hki)

Journal Entry 2 by wingmyrtilluswing from Pori, Satakunta Finland on Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The book is here safely. I try to read asap.

Journal Entry 3 by wingmyrtilluswing from Pori, Satakunta Finland on Thursday, November 22, 2007
This book took me to a world, where I didn’t really want to be. I read the book mostly in daylight, because I didn’t want the story into my dreams, this black, scary world with no hope and morality. The few humans left struggling for their lives. I don’t understand why there were any humans if all life was dead.

I didn’t understand all the decisions by the father. On the other hand he had to do them to protect the son, to be a good father. The son was really something, very human, yet strong and the old man (Ely) on the road was interesting.

I think it was both easy and difficult to read. Thank you ruzena for sharing this book!

Goes next to aava.

Journal Entry 4 by aava from Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi / Mellersta Finland Finland on Saturday, December 1, 2007
The book has arrived, thanks onnimanni and ruzena. Will read soon.

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A truly harrowing book if I ever read one. I have to say that I don't wholly agree with onnimanni. The book was not without it's fair share of hope and light, but they weren't that easy to see. I liked the cool and detachded style of writing, it did make it easier to keep on reading. This book reminds me how you have to see ugly and bad things to fully appreciate everything that is beautiful and good. I was watching the northern lights this night and felt the beauty of the universe all around me and maybe just maybe felt it more acutely after reading this book.

Thanks ruzena for the opportunity to read the book, it will stay with me for a long time.

Although certainly not a holiday season kind of book, this will travel next to Tintti.

Journal Entry 5 by Tintti from Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Thursday, December 13, 2007
The book arrived today. Thanks!

Journal Entry 6 by Tintti from Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Certainly not a holiday season book, as aava said, but what a story! It was really hard to put the book down, I just wanted to keep on reading. Although the world of the book is dark and depressing, there are little glimpses of beauty, and hope.

The last paragraph (about the trout) is absolutely stunning.

An amazing book, probably the best I've read this year.

Journal Entry 7 by thy from Nurmijärvi, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Friday, December 21, 2007
The book just arrived, thanks Tintti

Journal Entry 8 by thy from Nurmijärvi, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Road was the last book I read in 2007 and definitely one of the best ones if not the best read last year. I finished it already three days ago but I’m still thinking about it, especially the part where the cart was stolen and the man and the boy took it back from the man who stole it. That’s so typical of people, isn’t it?

Sent to stf on 2.1.

Journal Entry 9 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Thursday, January 3, 2008
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2007

Thanks for sending the to me Thy. It was waiting for me in the postbox when I came in this evening :)

A masterpiece that will soon be considered a classic

Looking forward to reading this!

Journal Entry 10 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Saturday, January 26, 2008
This is my next book to read.

As agreed with Ruzena I'll offer it at our next BC meeting in Feb and if no takers will send it back to her to complete the ring.

Journal Entry 11 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Sunday, January 27, 2008
starting this book today :) this is a pretty harrowing tale ... I find myself wondering time after time what is it that has happened, where is the ash from, why are they on the road.

Edited to add 2/3 of the way through on 28.1.08 - this book is hard to put down.


Journal Entry 12 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Sunday, January 27, 2008
left open for final entry

I finished The Road late on the 28th January. Kirsty Wark from The Observer wrote "that this is one of the most shocking and harrowing but ultimately redemptive books I have read" but I personally wasn't able to find much hope or even redemptive hints in the story.

The story here is a simple one. Everything is dead -trees, wildlife etc but we never find out why. Only a handful of humans live, and in harrowing circumstances. Survival is of the essence ... but it's not easy, and for most not possible. There is no hope, yet something makes the man and the boy not give up. What is it? We are never really told. The boy at least has a simple, primitive faith - and a tiny heart beating with compassion - but is it enough?

This is no fairy tale end, and perhaps it's a wake up call - to make our lives matter and to value our life, and the lives of others. I'm not sure.

Harrowing is the best adjective for this book. The road, the world is grey, ash covered. There is no colour left. Not the ideal book to read mid winter, but oddly appropriate in some ways.

One sad quote which bookcrossers can relate to I'm sure:

Years later he'd stood in the charred ruins of a library where blackened books lay in pools of water. Shelves tipped over. Some rage at the lies arranged in their thousands row on row. He picked up one of the books, and thumbed through the heavy blotted pages. He'd not have through the value of the smallest thing predicated on a world to come. It surprised him. That the space which these things occupied was itself an expectation. He let the ball fall and took a last look around and made his way out in to the cold gray light.

I found Cormac McCarthly's modern style of writing a bit strange, and especially his inconsistent (to my way of thinking) use of apostrophes - absent in words like can't and won't and don't .. but put in in words like let's. Go figure.

Released 16 yrs ago (2/7/2008 UTC) at Kortteliravintola Kerttu in Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES: At 6pm in the BC meeting in Kerttu

This is a book ring (which will go back to Ruzena) but she suggested I offer it to folk in Turku.

I haven't read more than a couple of pages yet - but just giving this pre-warning that it should be available next week should anyone be interested. Please PM me /Ruzena if you would like to be next in this ring. Thanks

Journal Entry 14 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Thursday, February 7, 2008
This wasn't picked up by anyone in Turku for the ring - so it's on its way to Hki now for IPSU!

Journal Entry 15 by lottuli from Pieksämäki, Etelä-Savo / Södra Savolax Finland on Sunday, February 10, 2008
Hello! Here's the courier calling :D

I'll take the book to our next PK-seutu meeting on Tuesday February 12th. In case Ipsu can't be there I'll Pm here about the book.

Journal Entry 16 by Ipsu from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thank you so much lottuli!! Poor courier, it has taken some effort to get the book to me due to PM problems.

Thanks ruzena for organizing such a interesting ring! I will get right to it. :)

Journal Entry 17 by wingruzenawing on Sunday, October 5, 2008
Arrived some days ago. Thank you for your comments! I'll read the book once more, and then it will be on the road again.

Journal Entry 18 by wingruzenawing on Monday, December 22, 2008
I've read the book once more, and as I now knew the great idea, the story was not plain horror at all.

The scheme of BookCrossing is that the books want to gather readers, not dust. Accordingly, I'll release the book in a place where readers do exist, and which is guaranteed to be dust-free.

-ruzena


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