The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I’ve read some depressing books in my time, but my god is this one hard to take sometimes.
For lack of a better (less depressing) summary, The Road is about a father and son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where they are constantly in fear of roving gangs of cannibals. Yep, cannibals. It sounds so totally over the top, but it’s not really. McCarthy doesn’t jump right into this idea, he leads you there slowly by letting you know there is a nameless danger.
I read one review somewhere where they found the boy too breathy and less sympathetic than his father. I disagree, rather heavily. The boy is just that, a boy, and I try to dig back into memories of childhood — memories of having childish thoughts and feelings — and try to imagine being a child in such a circumstance and I can’t. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s too horrifying to contemplate or if it’s because I’m too old, but regardless I cannot help but feel strongly for the boy, especially in the latter half of the book.
The ending is a little too convenient, but it has to be. If it hadn’t ended the way it had I would have had to send a strongly worded letter to Cormac McCarthy. I can’t say I ”enjoyed” the book (anything this sad and dark in never something you enjoy but rather something else entirely), as The Road certainly gives A Fine Balance (by Rohinton Mistry) a run for its money as The Most Depressing Book Ever, but McCarthy does at least give us a wee tiny sliver of light in the darkness, and the story held me the entire time.