Book Awards Reading Challenge

McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for this, his most recent novel set in a post-apocalyptic world. In sparse language he tells the story of a father and son who travel “The Road” in search of a better world. Essentially, they are trying to escape to an un-named location where they hope to find food, shelter, and a better life. There are grim scenes in this novel, when we realize that the boy’s mother has killed herself so as not to have to live in this nightmarish situation. There are scenes of gruesome cannibalism when we realize that, desperate to survive, some people have captured their fellow human beings and are keeping them in the cellar, eating them a little at a time.

Although I found the story to be compelling and, in the end, hopeful, I can’t say that I enjoyed this book, liked it, or would even recommend it to someone else. I have read other books in a similar post-apocalyptic setting, such as Adam Rapp’s excellent book The Copper Elephant or even Lois Lowry’s The Giver (which, although not post-apocalyptic, is, in essence, about a dystopian society). I can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t like it, but I just never cared for the characters.