Yeah he wrote All the Pretty Horse and No Country for Old Men and loads of other critically acclaimed and 'important' books I've never read, but for whatever reason I picked up The Road. The story is primarily about the trials of a father and young son on a journey to the southern coast of the U.S. in a post apocalyptic nuclear winter. The best way I can think of to describe the book as a whole is "gray". It's muted in setting, dialogue, everything, so much so that when something of color happens it shocks your system. Don't confuse this boring however; I ripped through this page turner in less than 24 hours. It was moving in such a profound way. Two things stuck out to me thematically. One was "Hope for the hopeless", that the search for hope was just as important to survival as hope itself. It has a bit of cyclical logic, after all isn't searching for hope a type of hope in and of itself? The second and much more obvious theme was a father's love for his son. What won't he do? What wouldn't your father do for you? The book is cold and bleak and gray and heartbraking and the joy in it is wonderful. It's the joy that some of the questions and themes aren't part of your life, but the love and hope are. I highly recommend this book to each of you.
*** As a side note, please be aware that the book is very graphic in certain scenes and does contain canabilism and infanticide.
