The Road Explained

The Road
Author:Cormac McCarthy
Country:United States
Language:English
Genre:Post-apocalyptic fiction
Tragedy[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Publisher:Alfred A. Knopf
Release Date:September 26, 2006
Media Type:Print (hardcover)
Pages:287
Isbn:0-307-26543-9
Oclc:70630525

The Road is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed industrial civilization and nearly all life. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat.

Plot

A father and his young son journey on foot across the post-apocalyptic ash-covered United States some years after an undefined extinction event resulting in societal collapse and the extinction of almost all life on Earth.[7] The boy's mother, who was pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, has died by suicide at some point after his birth.

Realizing they cannot survive the winter in northern latitudes, the father takes the boy south along county roads towards the sea, carrying their meager possessions in their knapsacks and a supermarket cart. The father is suffering from a cough. He assures his son that they are "good guys" who are "carrying the fire". The pair has a revolver, but only two rounds. The father has tried to teach the boy to use the gun on himself if necessary, to avoid falling into the hands of cannibals.

They attempt to evade a group of marauders traveling along the road but one of the marauders discovers them and seizes the boy. The father shoots the marauder dead and they flee the marauder's companions, abandoning most of their possessions. Later, when searching a mansion for supplies, they discover a locked cellar, containing people who have been imprisoned by their captors in order to eat them limb by limb, and flee into the woods.

As they near starvation, the pair discovers a concealed bunker filled with food, clothes and other supplies. They stay there for several days regaining their strength and then carry on, taking supplies with them in a cart. They encounter an old man with whom the boy insists they share food. Farther along the road they evade a group whose members include pregnant women, and soon after they discover an abandoned campsite with a newborn infant roasted on a spit. They soon run out of supplies and begin to starve before finding a house containing more food to carry in their cart, but the man's condition worsens.

The pair reaches the sea, where they discover a boat that has drifted from shore. The man swims to it and recovers supplies, including a flare gun. While the boy is sleeping on the beach, their cart is stolen together with all their possessions. They pursue and confront the thief, a wretched man traveling alone. The father forces him to strip naked at gunpoint and takes his clothes together with the cart. This distresses the boy, so the father returns and leaves the man's clothes and shoes on the road, but the man has disappeared.

While walking through a town inland, a man in a window shoots the father in the leg with an arrow. The father responds by shooting his assailant with the flare gun. The pair moves further south along the beach. The father's condition worsens, and after several days he realizes he will soon die. The father tells the son he can talk to him after he is gone, and that he must continue without him. After the father dies, the boy stays with his body for three days. The boy is approached by a man carrying a shotgun. The man tells the boy he and his wife have a son and daughter. He convinces the boy he is one of the "good guys" and takes the boy under his protection.

Development history

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, McCarthy said that the inspiration for the book came during a 2003 visit to El Paso, Texas, with his young son. Imagining what the city might look like fifty to a hundred years into the future, he pictured "fires on the hill" and thought about his son.[8] He took some initial notes but did not return to the idea until a few years later, while in Ireland. Then the novel came to him quickly, taking only six weeks to write, and he dedicated it to his son, John Francis McCarthy.[9]

In an interview with John Jurgensen of The Wall Street Journal, McCarthy described conversations he and his brother had about different scenarios for an apocalypse. One of the scenarios involved survivors turning to cannibalism: "when everything's gone, the only thing left to eat is each other."[10]

Reception

The Road has received numerous positive reviews and honors since its publication. Critics have deemed it "heartbreaking", "haunting", and "emotionally shattering".[11] [12] [13] The review aggregator Metacritic reported the book had an average score of 90 out of 100, based on thirty-one reviews.[14] According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on twelve critic reviews, with seven being "rave", two "positive", and three "mixed".[15] The book received a 91% from The Lit Review based on twenty-seven critic reviews and the consensus of the reviews being, "McCarthy's bleak vision of the apocalypse is perhaps also the most affecting, touching poetic yet written".[16] On Bookmarks, November/December 2006 issue, the book received 4.5 out of 5 stars based on critic reviews, with the critical summary saying, "Only the Houston Chronicle faulted McCarthy for failing to deliver a clear message, but even its reviewer conceded that McCarthy 'nevertheless remains one of our great storytellers, a master of suspense and narrative power.[17]

In Literary Review, Sebastian Shakespeare wrote: "McCarthy transforms what could have been a ludicrous story into a tense psychological drama about a man living on the edge of sanity. It is remarkable for its acuity, empathy and insight."[18] The Village Voice referred to it as "McCarthy's purest fable yet".[11] In a New York Review of Books article, author Michael Chabon heralded the novel. Discussing the novel's relation to established genres, he insists that The Road is not science fiction; although "the adventure story in both its modern and epic forms... structures the narrative", Chabon says, "ultimately it is as a lyrical epic of horror that The Road is best understood."[19] Entertainment Weekly in June 2008 named The Road the best book, fiction or non-fiction, of the past 25 years.[20] Later the magazine put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "With its spare prose, McCarthy's post-apocalyptic odyssey from 2006 managed to be both harrowing and heartbreaking."[21] In 2019, the novel was ranked 17th on The Guardians list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.[22]

On March 28, 2007, the selection of The Road as the next novel in Oprah Winfrey's Book Club was announced. A televised interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show was conducted on June 5, 2007, McCarthy's first, although he had been interviewed for the print media before.[9] The announcement of McCarthy's television appearance surprised his followers. "Wait a minute until I can pick my jaw up off the floor," said John Wegner, an English professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, and editor of The Cormac McCarthy Journal, when told of the interview.[23] During Winfrey's interview, McCarthy insisted his son, John Francis, was also his co-author, as some of the conversations between the father and son in the novel were based upon conversations between McCarthy and John Francis in real life. McCarthy also dedicated the novel to his son.[8]

On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed The Road on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels. Although the text does not explicitly mention climate change, The Guardian listed it as one of the five best climate change novels[24] and George Monbiot has called it "the most important environmental book ever written" for depicting a world without a biosphere.[25] [26]

Awards and nominations

In 2006, McCarthy was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in fiction and the Believer Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.[27] On April 16, 2007, the novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.[28] In 2012, it was shortlisted for the Best of the James Tait Black.[29] [30] In 2024, it was named by the New York Times Book Review as the 13th best book of the 21st century.[31]

Adaptations

See main article: article and The Road (2009 film). A film adaptation of the novel, directed by John Hillcoat and written by Joe Penhall, opened in theaters on November 25, 2009. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as the man and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the boy. Production took place in Louisiana, Oregon, and several locations in Pennsylvania.[32] The film, like the novel, received generally positive reviews from critics.

In March 2024, the Franco-Belgian publisher Dargaud released a graphic-novel adaptation of The Road illustrated by Manu Larcenet that was well received by the public.[33] [34] An English edition will be publishedin September 2024 by Abrams ComicArts.[35]

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Accounting for The Road: Tragedy, Courage, and Cavell's Acknowledgment. Benjamin. Mangrum. October 20, 2013. Philosophy and Literature. 37. 2. 267–290. Project MUSE. 10.1353/phl.2013.0033. 170548922.
  2. Web site: Exploring Tragedy through Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Somer. Salomon. November 12, 2010. Transpositions.
  3. Web site: REVIEW: 'The Road' Is A Gripping Prepper Novel Full Of Tragedy, Struggle And Hope. Kathy. Bernier. December 3, 2016. Off The Grid News.
  4. Web site: The Road by Cormac McCarthy book review - Fantasy Book Review. www.fantasybookreview.co.uk.
  5. Web site: McCarthy's The Road and Ethical Choice in a Post-Apocalyptic World. docs.lib.purdue.edu. August 10, 2020.
  6. The Double Death of Humanity in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Stephen. Joyce. December 31, 2016. Transatlantica. Revue d'études américaines. American Studies Journal. 2. journals.openedition.org. 10.4000/transatlantica.8386. free.
  7. Mavri . Kristjan . Cormac McCarthy's The Road Revisited: Memory and Language in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction . Politics of Memory . 2 - Year 3 06/2013 - LC.2.
  8. Web site: Winfrey. Oprah. Oprah's Exclusive Interview with Cormac McCarthy Video. Oprah Winfrey Show. Harpo Productions, Inc.. May 2, 2012.
  9. News: Michael Conlon . Writer Cormac McCarthy confides in Oprah Winfrey . Reuters . June 5, 2007 . November 28, 2009.
  10. News: John Jurgensen . Hollywood's Favorite Cowboy . The Wall Street Journal . November 20, 2009 . April 25, 2012.
  11. News: Mark . Holcomb . End of the Line – After Decades of Stalking Armageddon's Perimeters, Cormac McCarthy Finally Steps Over the Border . The Village Voice . April 23, 2007.
  12. Jones, Malcolm (September 22, 2006)."On the Lost Highway" Newsweek.
  13. News: The Road to Hell . The Guardian . November 4, 2006 . London . March 27, 2010 . Alan . Warner.
  14. Web site: The Road. February 15, 2008. Metacritic. https://web.archive.org/web/20080119030232/http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/mccarthycormac/road . January 19, 2008.
  15. Web site: The Road. July 12, 2024 . Book Marks.
  16. Web site: 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. July 12, 2024. The Lit Review. https://web.archive.org/web/20120405180401/http://www.thelitreview.com/the-road-by-cormac-mccarthy.html. April 5, 2012.
  17. Web site: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. January 14, 2023 . Bookmarks. https://web.archive.org/web/20170527102324/http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/road/cormac-mccarthy. May 27, 2017.
  18. Web site: October 5, 2023 . Sebastian . Shakespeare . Bleak Horizon . October 5, 2023 . Literary Review . en.
  19. News: Michael . Chabon . After the Apocalypse . . February 15, 2007 . November 28, 2009.
  20. The New Classics: Books – The 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008 . June 10, 2009 . Entertainment Weekly . October 31, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081031185015/https://ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207349,00.html . dead .
  21. Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009). "THE 100 Greatest Movies, TV shows, albums, Books, Characters, Scenes, Eipisodes, Songs, Dresses, Music videos & Trends that entertained us over the past ten years". Entertainment Weekly (1079/1080): 74–84.
  22. Web site: The 100 best books of the 21st century . The Guardian . September 21, 2019 . September 22, 2019.
  23. News: Julia Keller . Julia Keller . Oprah's selection a real shocker: Winfrey, McCarthy strange bookfellows . Chicago Tribune . March 29, 2007 . July 7, 2017 . December 5, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081205174329/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/1246151131.html?dids=1246151131:1246151131&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+29%2C+2007&author=Julia+Keller&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Oprah%27s+selection+a+real+shocker+ . dead .
  24. Web site: January 19, 2017. Five of the best climate-change novels. June 11, 2021. The Guardian. en.
  25. Web site: June 11, 2014. Why the cultural response to global warming makes for a heated debate. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/why-the-cultural-response-to-global-warming-makes-for-a-heated-debate-9524081.html . June 18, 2022 . subscription . live. June 11, 2021. The Independent. en.
  26. Web site: October 30, 2007. George Monbiot: Civilisation ends with a shutdown of human concern. Are we there already?. June 11, 2021. the Guardian. en.
  27. Web site: National Book Critics Circle – Honoring outstanding writing and fostering a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature since 1974. https://web.archive.org/web/20070205013337/http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=finalists. February 5, 2007. www.bookcritics.org.
  28. News: Novelist McCarthy wins Pulitzer . BBC . April 17, 2007 . September 8, 2007 .
  29. Web site: Book prize names six of the best in search for winner . Herald Scotland . Russell . Leadbetter . October 21, 2012 . October 21, 2012.
  30. Web site: Authors in running for 'best of best' James Tait Black award . BBC News . October 21, 2012 . October 21, 2012.
  31. Web site: The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century . The New York Times . July 16, 2024 . July 8, 2024.
  32. News: Mortensen, Theron on The Road to Pittsburgh . USA Today . January 16, 2008 . January 7, 2010.
  33. Web site: La route . August 2, 2024 . Goodreads . en.
  34. Web site: La Route (BD) – Manu Larcenet . August 2, 2024 . Babelio . fr.
  35. Book: McCarthy, Cormac. September 17, 2024. The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation. Abrams ComicArts. 978-1-4197-7677-9 .