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Post by bec on Jul 30, 2010 8:01:12 GMT
You're too kind. Thank you.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Jul 30, 2010 9:05:23 GMT
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
I quite enjoyed the film (apart from the soppy ending) so I thought I'd give the book a go.
Trouble is, I'm having the same problem with this as I had with No Country For Old Men. I don't like the style of dialogue appearing with no quotation marks.
And the grammar...Christ, no commas when they're needed, so many words appearing without possessive apostrophes...I wonder if this is down to crap editing or Cormac's 'style'. Either way, it keeps dragging me out of the story, just as NCFOM.
One of the few times that the film is even better than the book, IMHO.
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Post by shaun on Jul 30, 2010 20:35:24 GMT
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I quite enjoyed the film (apart from the soppy ending) so I thought I'd give the book a go. Trouble is, I'm having the same problem with this as I had with No Country For Old Men. I don't like the style of dialogue appearing with no quotation marks. And the grammar...Christ, no commas when they're needed, so many words appearing without possessive apostrophes...I wonder if this is down to crap editing or Cormac's 'style'. Either way, it keeps dragging me out of the story, just as NCFOM. One of the few times that the film is even better than the book, IMHO. Didn't like the film - really didn't like the book.
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Post by williemeikle on Jul 30, 2010 21:48:34 GMT
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I quite enjoyed the film (apart from the soppy ending) so I thought I'd give the book a go. Trouble is, I'm having the same problem with this as I had with No Country For Old Men. I don't like the style of dialogue appearing with no quotation marks. And the grammar...Christ, no commas when they're needed, so many words appearing without possessive apostrophes...I wonder if this is down to crap editing or Cormac's 'style'. Either way, it keeps dragging me out of the story, just as NCFOM. One of the few times that the film is even better than the book, IMHO. Didn't like the film - really didn't like the book. Looks like three for three.... I felt the same about the book. Haven't seen the film... and probably won't bother.
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Post by Dreadlocksmile on Aug 4, 2010 11:20:11 GMT
Hmmmmm...I guess I'm the only one on here that really enjoyed the book & film (book was better imo).
DLS Review: First published back in 2006, American author Cormac McCarthy’s novel ‘The Road’ became an instant hit with the public and critics alike. The novel was awarded with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize For Fiction in 2006 and then the following year the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction.
The story follows an unnamed father and his son as they take on the treacherous journey south, to warmer climates across the post-apocalyptic landscape of the United States. Set some years after the cataclysmic devastation of the Earth, life is on the brink of utter extinction all around the pair, with ash covering everything and the sun hidden behind thick clouds of the noxious black soot.
Their search to a more habitable climate is one that also hopes to lead them to other survivors who have not been reduced to barbaric acts of violence, cruelty and cannibalism. In their relatively simplistic manner, they refer to these so far somewhat illusive people as ‘the good guys’, whose presence on the Earth seems somewhat minimal against the multitude of survivors who have taken to a more sinister way of survival.
Scavenging for food and any useful tools along their slow journey is the norm. Starvation is a constant threat that hangs over the duo, with food scarce and all natural produce vanished from the desecrated grounds around them.
The man’s son knows no other world; however the man is haunted by memories of life before this dramatic apocalypse. His wife (the boy’s mother) killed herself many years ago, her lingering image playing with the man’s emotions each night within his dreams.
Their most direct route across this unforgiving landscape is via a road that slices across the landscape. However, with the road comes danger, as other survivors will be using this route; and many of these are far from what they would refer to as ‘the good guys’.
Their life is hard, their journey filled with danger, and hunger is always on their back. The man’s promise to always protect his son will be put to the test at almost every corner of their soul-destroying journey along this treacherous and danger-filled road.
From the outset, McCarthy sets down the hopelessness of life upon this desolate and dying world with such a poetic stance in which it is hard not to be moved by the sheer despair of the book. With each footstep that the pair takes on their bitter journey southwards, the author continues with a heart-wrenching dialogue between the two that encapsulates their cold and uncaring surroundings.
Although the plot and their premise is somewhat of a singular and simplistic nature (simply that of a journey south and nothing more), McCarthy dances upon the readers nerves with an unrelenting barrage of events and encounters to keep up the constant threat of danger upon the two. Many of these encounters result in savage depictions of the cruelty that now occurs as a day-to-day occurrence and indeed as a desperate choice of survival for many. These brutal passages are shocking in their blank-faced reality of the situation and the barbaric lengths man will go to in order to survive. Each and every one is another harrowing brushstroke towards McCarthy’s portrait of utter despair in a world that is dying.
The writing style itself is cold and blunt, with no emphasis given to the actual act of speech or any breakdown given into that of chapters. This constant text without any true breaks mirrors the almost endless nature of the pair’s journey. There are no breaks in their struggle for survival (well…maybe one), which is cleverly reflected in the actual reading of the book.
The strength of the novel is not found within the simplicity of the plot, nor is it found within the numerous events that the pair are forced to encounter on their way south. What makes ‘The Road’ such a dramatic and gripping tale that claws the reader into the bitterly unforgiving post-apocalyptic world, is the constant confrontation of the reality of this new world that the author never once lets up on from the moment the tale first begins. Each movement, each word spoken and each breath taken is one in which it is portrayed in this utterly ravaged world. Every can of food found is a triumph in the face of starvation. Every implement or tool discovered along their way is a further chance at easing the daily pain of their survival. Nothing is taken for granted anymore. And with that, each can of food lost or tool that is broken, is an emotionally shattering event that hits the reader in the face like a sledgehammer swung in a cold and uncaring blizzard.
McCarthy repeatedly wallows in the prospect of the pair’s eventual demise along with that of the rest of humanities. Indeed, the question is asked and asked and then asked again, as to what is the point in existing when there is nothing left of a future? The characters ultimately find comfort in the simplicity of their companionship alone. This in turn leads to numerous emotionally heavy and heart-wrenching dialogues between the two, with conversation cut so bare that each and every word seems to reverberate across the desolate landscape.
Taken as a whole, the novel is a monumental journey into what makes us humans, playing with questions and emotions across a bleak canvas of desperation. Broken down into the basic story segments, the novel is a purposeful vision of one of the most desolate and unforgiving worlds ever envisioned. The text is harsh in its depictions of humanities desperation as well as at the same time being warming in the comfort of a truly beautiful father-son companionship.
The novel runs for a total of 307 pages. A film adaptation of the novel, directed by John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee was released early on in 2010.
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Post by Dreadlocksmile on Aug 20, 2010 19:33:20 GMT
This arrived today: Thought it was about time I gave one of our Willie's novels a go...
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Post by williemeikle on Aug 20, 2010 20:08:32 GMT
Hard to get one of those now... the Omnibus edition superceded them. If you want to read the rest of the series, and have any trouble getting them, give me a shout.
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Post by Dreadlocksmile on Aug 20, 2010 20:16:58 GMT
Hard to get one of those now... the Omnibus edition superceded them. If you want to read the rest of the series, and have any trouble getting them, give me a shout. Top darts! I might well take you up on that good sir.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Aug 20, 2010 22:43:58 GMT
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Post by ian on Aug 3, 2011 22:13:51 GMT
I picked up Famine by Graham Masterton and Off Season by Jack Ketchum a couple of days ago. Most pleased, it's been a while since I've discovered anything worth buying in Bradford's charity shops.
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Post by dlsevern on Dec 8, 2012 19:56:10 GMT
Horns by Joe Hill
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