The Road

Just got done reading this last Sunday while it was storming outside. It was a good read I thought, but I'd say it's not the kind of book everyone would enjoy. A friend of mine from work lent it to me after we had an in-depth discussion about "No Country for Old Men" which was based on another Cormac McCarthy book. This book is about a man and his son who are travelling down a road trying to survive in a world that is dark and gray and cold and destroyed by an unspecified event. The ground is covered in ash, the sun has been blocked out for years, and the air they breath is polluted with ash. Plant and animal life is non-existent. The two of them live off of any canned food they can find. It's pretty grim. They frequently came across dead bodies along their travels and have to be careful to avoid other people for fear they would be killed to be eaten. The event that lead to this grim state of the world is never specified in the book but as I read along I thought it sounded like the aftermath of a big asteroid. There's no mention of radiation anywhere but reading the forums at Amazon there are some folks that are absolutely certain it was a nuclear holocaust. Anyone that says that didn't read very closely I think. The book says, "A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions", and that's as specific as it ever gets. The ash everywhere and the fact that forests and cities are burned seems to match this. How the world came to be how it was in the book is of minor importance, but it seems to be the first thing that everyone says about the book to describe it. It was either a man-made disaster or one brought on by outside forces. It doesn't much matter, but what makes the book interesting is the journey the two of them have.

I just read now that this is being made into a movie. I'll check that out for sure. I wonder how that will turn out. NY Times article on the move here.