[Closed] Just finished reading 'the road'...

The film does the book justice quite well. They are both probably the most moving pieces of either art form I have ever encountered: If you don't tear-up or cry at the end you have a heart of stone.

The ending in the film holds a lot less uncertainty......

A bit like in 'No country......', where HE wipes blood from his boot after visiting the wife - reading it I believed he couldn't kill her, as she wouldn't call the coin.

Have you read Suttree o Blood Meridian?

Among the best living authors without any doubt.

I haven't but now off to download - good call

Also managed to download the screenplay for the counsellor which makes for bloody hard reading..

From what I remember, the ending to the novel is fairly certain, but I may be mistaken. Blood Meridian is, IMO, one of the greatest novels ever.

I have never read Suttree though. Hmmmmm, what have I read by him:

No Country for Old Men
Blood Meridian
Child of God
The Outer Darkness
The Road.

I started the Border Trilogy but didn't really get that far to be honest.

my favourite book. thankfully I read it before I became a father - I think I'd still be blubbing now if I had read it later.
a story of hope where there is no hope.

film is great too and does well to portray the pace and mood of the book, but it can't match the way the book leaves you emotionally wrecked and makes you question the futility of your own existence, but somehow in a good way...
It helps that Viggo Mortensen is dreamy.

It is certainly one of those books that leaves an indelible mark.

It helps that Viggo Mortensen is dreamy.

I'd say it's because he's a great actor 😀

my favourite book. thankfully I read it before I became a father

I can't read it now for exactly that reason. Beautiful but very bleak.

Loved both the book and the film . Am currently reading blood meridian but to be honest am finding it quite hard work .

Very similar experience here - finished it at 3am, exhausted and blubbing. Have got a copy of the film in the house but have put off watching it for exactly the same reason. I don't think any other piece of art has affected me that deeply, so it would be a big ask for the film to come up to that level too. I might have to re-read the book before crossing that rubicon.

Blood Meridian IS hard work, but very worth it.

I am not eloquent enough to express my feelings about, The Road. For me it was a physical as well as just a reading experience. I was with them, fighting for them all the way through the book ( I am a Father to a boy the same age at the time of reading).

Of course I recommended it to friends, the men who read it all thought the same as me, however the women who read it did not have the same feeling for it at all.

The Film was a great representation of the book and a great film, however nowhere near the experience of reading the book.

a story of hope where there is no hope

McCarthy doesn't do hope. His books are unrelentingly bleak. We are all dying and evil prevails, is his message.

[b]Torso in a Lake[/b]....When I read it, I was supplying the Hope, very clever of Macarthy I thought 😀

I've only watched the film, didn't leave me ever wanting to watch the book.

I'm sure it's great, but I'd rather not enter depression voluntarily.

- I didn't like the book, said the boy

- why? Said the man

- cos it was a load of shit, said the boy.

- I didn't like the book, said the boy

- why? Said the man

- cos it was a load of shit, said the boy.

- You will understand it better, when you grow to be a man, said the man.

There is always hope.

Torso in a Lake....When I read it, I was supplying the Hope, very clever of Macarthy I though

Never thought of it like that. Brings a new depth to the book.

McCarthy doesn't do hope. His books are unrelentingly bleak. We are all dying and evil prevails, is his message.

Look deeper.

His Border Trilogy and Blood Meridian are my favorites. The Road was a little too disturbing.

Double post - phone acting up!

[i]Suttree[/i] and [i]The Crossing[/i] are my personal favourites. An amazing writer.

LOVE the apocalyptic genre...books, movies, games you name it.
Just could not get away with the prose in the road, keep meaning to go back and try it but never get around. If you want a truly awesome apocalyptic book checj out the stand by Stephen King or Swan song by Robert R. McCammon.

I think there is much hope in McCarthy

The worlds he's writing about, whether its the old west, present day, or apocalyptic near future is always populated with terrifying brutality and evil. But the good always survives too.

The film of the road is good - just don't watch the film of "All the pretty horses"

Cheers lordmerchant - will have a look at those two

An amazing writer.

+lots

Sadly l saw the film first... Which genuinely terrified me.... So the book lost it's impact, saying that the pair of them took their toil on me so to speak.... That was about a year ago I might have "recovered" now to give it another read.

Loved the Border Trilogy, one of my favourites, but could not get on with The Road. I'm probably a sucker for more of a back to nature feel rather than post apocalyptic nihilism.

Good thread, makes a change from the usual "Which is your favourite James Bond villain" moronic trash!

What a book.

It was as grim as a grim thing ,with extra bleak.
Glad that I read it in the Summer months 😯

Preferred the Border Trilogy - this one was just bleak, with added bleak, with side order extra hot bleak, wrapped in a sandwich of pared down dialogue masquerading as profundity 😉 nice and short though, which is a plus!

Looks like The Border Trilogy is coming out on top here. Thanks for the timely reminder, I must read the books again.

I've only read the road and blood meridian (both after recommendations on here quite a while ago)

in order of reading:

IMO The Road was fantastic - bleakly, unremittingly grim and a hard but great one-shot read (my kids were about the "right" age at the time, too)

By contrast, I thought Blood Meridian was a big letdown - same rich language but something wasn't right; felt ostentatious or something
(I'm reluctant to read any more in case they are too, so I'm giving it a few years off)

Is this the book of which The Last of Us is a computer game version? I have the game, not opened it yet. Not seen or read any other form tho.

What a book.

It was as grim as a grim thing ,with extra bleak.
Glad that I read it in the Summer months

Very true, stood outside afterwards last night and everything just felt that little bit colder..makes me think twice about winter bike packing. Or maybe I should in preparation

- I didn't like the book, said the bleak boy

- why? Said the man, bleakly

- cos it was a bleaking load of shit, said the boy.

It was as grim as a grim thing ,with extra bleak.

Kind of, but I will remember it as a love story ( between a Father and a son ) more than anything else.

If you liked the Border Trilogy..........don't watch the film of All the pretty horses.

Read Edgar Allan Poes 'Fall of the house of Usher' instead.

For me Cormack McCarthy's writing is utterly compelling. At first very hard to get into with unusual dialogue, but once you catch the rhythm his work is totally absorbing & I've never been so moved by any other author. You usually need to read something light after, though...

I thought it was awful tbh. Some good points- I love the sheer bleakness of it and the fact that he didn't feel like he had to explain it all, too many post-apocalyptic stories are obsessed with the pre-... but once you realise that they're basically in a tunnel shooter it gets dull. They're starving but every time they run out of food they find some, every time the plot requires a crisis it immediately happens, and there are actual end of level bosses. Oh and then it just stops.

I'm liking Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy at the moment

They're starving but every time they run out of food they find some, every time the plot requires a crisis it immediately happens

it wouldn't be much of a story if, when they ran out of food, they just died would it? it wouldn't be very tense and captivating if there were no crises and they just kept on pushing that trolley through the ash for 250 pages unhindered.

No... But he strips it of any logic, they're characters (well, almost) in a plot (well, kind of), not people in a world. Suspension of disbelief is fine but a story should follow its own rules, you can't have food be impossible to find and then suddenly have it fall from the sky for the sake of plot. Unless you're the Hunger Games anyway.

[i]McCarthy doesn't do hope. His books are unrelentingly bleak. We are all dying and evil prevails, is his message. [/i]

Did you read all the way to the end?

Northwind, it's not about "what happens" though really, it's about a dying man's struggle to ensure the survival of his son.

If you liked the Border Trilogy..........don't watch the film of All the pretty horses.

Read Edgar Allan Poes 'Fall of the house of Usher' instead.

Cheers for that, will look it up. Just bought Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson which looks promising. I read Reamde last summer by the same author, following a recommendation on here, and quite enjoyed it.

Haven't read it in a while but was very moved by it. As usual, the book is far better than the film IMHO.

Both book and film brought back several nightmares I had as a child about Armageddon during the Cold War!!

I'm probably a sucker for more of a back to nature feel rather than post apocalyptic nihilism.

Indeed - the description of the wolf (and [i]that[/i] dog fight, where she & Billy make their stand) in [i]The Crossing[/i] is particularly outstanding, as is CM's more general feel for landscapes. He's able to convey immense grandeur without being remotely sentimental: no matter how often I read it, the ending of [i]The Crossing[/i] - the near-geological sadness of it - still demolishes me. By any standard, even by those of his American predecessors (and CM surely warrants comparison with Faulkner, etc), he is an absolutely outstanding writer.

As for the absence of hope... I disagree, although there's no disguising the general bleakness (murderous characters, indifferent Nature). In many respects, the semi-autobiographical [i]Suttree[/i] is hugely uplifting - a man living life at near-rock bottom, without losing either his dignity or humour. The relationship between the father & son in [i]The Road[/i] is almost unbearably gripping, but it's probably my least-favourite of his books. I actually find [i]Blood Meridian[/i] to be the most apocalyptic of 'em all - I mean, who could ever adequately portray the Judge on film? 😯

Just bought Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson which looks promising.

That was weird. Brilliant, but at the same time rambling and not really a story about anything; more like just a series of characters and events.

nickc - Member

Northwind, it's not about "what happens" though really, it's about a dying man's struggle to ensure the survival of his son.

Which he... doesn't. Actually he just wobbles along as scripted events unfurl, then predictably as soon as he dies yet another perfectly timed and incredibly unlikely intervention happens.

Don't want to ruin it for those yet to read it, but I took a different view of the ending of the Road. Perhaps it's so unlikely an intervention as to make you question it? Suppose it's a question of optimism and pessimism.

I liked All The Pretty Horses a great deal, but struggled with the joylessness of the Crossing and haven't started Cities of the Plain as a result.

Blood Meridian has a lot of fans, but not sure I've got the stomach for some of the scenes depicted..

Which he... doesn't. Actually he just wobbles along [b]as scripted events unfurl[/b], then predictably as soon as he dies yet another perfectly timed and incredibly unlikely intervention happens.

It's a frickin novel. What else did you expect?

If you like McCarthy then you should pick up a copy of Butcher's Crossing by John Williams IMO

The Road is my least favourite of the Cormac McCarthy books I've read.

It lacks the epic sweeping beauty of The Border Trilogy which is by far my favourite.

IMO one of the 10 best writers alive today.

mikey74 - Member

It's a frickin novel. What else did you expect?

I'd like for things to be remotely convincing. I find it very hard to get involved in a novel when it's this ridiculous, it undermines everything. No sense of threat or jeopardy or progress which means that the characters actions and subsequently motivations become meaningless.

Goodness knows how you made it to the end.

Luckily it wasn't very long. And I did hope that it might get better, since I did enjoy the writing. Instead,it got worse. Never mind.

Surely you must have realised when you got, say three quarters through, that it was that ridiculous that it was beyond saving...just one predictable, scripted episode after another?

Instead,it got worse

This here is your meta-fiction moment... everybody has a novel, uuh, inside them - & you can give us [i]Reading The Road[/i]: a grim struggle, an arduous journey, as you battle with the unscripted events that come your way. 😀

😆

there are actual end of level bosses

This is a very fair criticism of [i]The Road[/i] - and I suspect it's why some CM super-fans don't like it asmuch as his other books (i.e. he could have won the Pulitzer Prize for something else...). But when I read it, I was so utterly transfixed by the father-son relationship & their desperate love, I simply ignored the book's [potential] flaws. I have absolutely zero paternal instincts - and I was fugging howling by the end.

Also, the very last passage is stunning - a kind of eulogy for the American landscape.

I read 'The Road' when I was coming down with pneumonia - it freaked the hell out of me. The ending was a surprise, certainly.

'The Crossing' was unrelentingly bleak. You naturally want the characters to do well, to be repaid for noble deeds, but it just gets worse and worse.

I enjoyed 'No Country for Old Men' the most. The film is an excellent representation of the novel.

The film is an excellent representation of the novel

Aye - trust the the Coen Bros to get it right.

deadlydarcy - Member

Surely you must have realised when you got, say three quarters through, that it was that ridiculous that it was beyond saving...just one predictable, scripted episode after another?

Nah, sometimes the earlier failings of a novel are paid off, setting up some change of direction or style later on, or just worth it for some other aspect of the book. And there were parts I enjoyed, I just think they were outnumbered. (also, I'm terrible at stopping a book once I've started... I mean, I kept going with the wheel of time ffs and that was like having nails hammered into your brain)

Ok, it was just that you said it was "awful".

I have so little time to read these days that if I'm getting the impression a book is awful, I put it down - I got caught out reading shit books when I got talked into a book club type shite affair a few years back. Never again. 😡 But fair dues for persevering...seems like the book carried some chink of hope somewhere. 🙂

I got talked into a book club

I just [i]know[/i] that you really belong in Arts-ville, er, Southville.

Join us... 😀

As an aside: I quite enjoyed [url= http://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jan/27/broadcasting.tvandradio ]this series[/url], some years back.

[img] [/img]

I read it a few years ago in one sitting also as couldn't put it down. Still one of the most memorable books I've read and the film is good but I just think when you read an amazing book the film can't come close. Haven't read a good book in ages..need some suggestions!

Thank you for this thread and introducing me
Haven't had time to do much reading in the last 5 or so years, hence I've only just discovered CM
Off to get a load more of his books now

hence I've only just discovered CM

You have much to look forward to. 😀

Just searched for this thread to get myself some reminders for a good read for my hol next week. Have ordered Pretty little horses and Swan Song which was tough to track down in print! Selling for £30 odd quid 2nd hand on Amazon but found myself a sneaky copy for £3.70 on ebay. Do love a good apocalyptic story especially when on a beach!

iain1775

Don't buy 'em. I've got most of 'em.

Pretty little horses

You want 'All the pretty horses'.......

Pretty little horses

[img] [/img]

McCarthy guest-writing an episode of [i]Father Ted[/i] would be a thing of beauty...

markalden - Member
iain1775

Don't buy 'em. I've got most of 'em.

How does that help?