My review
I ran through the book in the course of about two-and-a-half hours the other day, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not going to spend a lot of time comparing his work to Faulkner or Hemingway, or even discussing the literary devices he chooses to employ. Honestly, I don’t care which authors have similar styles or why McCarthy opted to ignore apostrophes throughout the work. What matters is I found it both moving and compelling, enough so that I was able avoid burdening myself with questions of plausibility.
It seems to me that the author is reflecting heavily on his own mortality and the impending end of his life, and that the book serves as his exploration of humankind’s endless tenacity in the face of inescapable doom. The world in The Road is dying, but each of our worlds is dying already, day by day. Like the father and son in the book, we shuffle onward regardless. To that point, I was impressed with the final paragraph of the novel, which I felt summed up the theme of the book thoroughly without directly stating it at all.
I have no idea if McCarthy is “Our Best Living Author” or not, but he’s certainly a talented man, and I enjoyed this book more than enough to be certain that I’ll pursue some of his other works.
