I just finished this amazing book. I can’t stop thinking about it. Has anyone else read it?
Just, wow.
I had the same reaction. I can’t get the book out of my head.
I can’t imagine having that dad’s strength of will. His love for his son helped leaven the bleak hopelessness of the book.
It was a bit restrained, for a McCarthy novel. But then he never really wallows in depravity, does he?
Spoilers follow.
One interesting aspect was the overall religious implication. Whatever apocolypse befell the earth almost had to be the wrath of god - what else could so completely destroy all life on the planet, while leaving a few humans to scrabble through the ashes? Every tree, every plant, every fish, every bird. What else but hell fire?
Also the allusions that the dad made about the future - how he didn’t think that their continuing luck was just luck. And the light in the boy. And the boy’s continual judgments “is he a good guy?” “those are the bad guys, right?” “We’re the good guys, right?”
The entire book led perfectly to the inevitable death of the father, and the despair and loss of all hope that was sure to follow. I was dreading it for most of the book. Which made the actual ending so much more powerful.
Even though he’s my favorite author, a review left me hesitant because of the bleakness and despair. Apparently, it’s worth it though?
Absolutely. Despite the unrelenting greyness (he uses the adjective “leaden” more than once I’m pretty sure), the depth of the relationship between the father and son, and the final few pages, leave you with a feeling of hope that you certainly don’t find in Blood Meridian.
I didn’t get the hellfire vibe, but that’s just me, not believing in hellfire. 
But I have no explanation or even a reasonable guess about what happened. I suppose uncontrolled fires could account for some of the grayness, but something killed the earth. We’ve all seen things growing fairly quickly after forest fires and volcanic eruptions, but we saw nothing green in this world.
And it was always raining or snowing, so the climate must have been messed up too.
I got the impression that the boy was born after the event and was never around anyone except his mom, briefly, and his dad. It says a lot about his dad that the boy was so normal and that he cared so much about other people. How did he learn that?
And now it’s an Oprah Selection! http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/03/28/books.winfrey.ap/index.html
How do you think her adoring followers are going to take to such a bleak, postapocalyptic novel?
I’m in the minority here, but I thought it was a weak idea, badly executed. Maybe it’s because of the whole allegory of sacrifice and redemption deal grafted to a world-building premise that seemed implausible and kept intruding on my suspension of disbelief. To me it just read like a mainstream author’s bad attempt to write science fiction, and I was very disappointed. Though of course it’s stylistically better, I’d file it next to Jonathan Livington Seagull, also a heavy-handed allegory.
It’ll be interesting, that’s for sure. So this means McCarthy will do an interview? He doesn’t do many.
I hope none of the discussions try to tie The Road with The Secret. “They brought it on themselves! Negative thinking = apocalypse!”
SPOILERS
Maybe it was meteorite, dust clouds blocking the sun, screwing up the climate and all that fun stuff. But I guess hellfire could make sense as well, since practically everything is dead and scorched.
Don’t have too much contribute since I just finished this novel (in one sitting, which is fairly rare for me) and am still digesting it. One part that sticks out and nearly made me tear up is when they found the bomb shelter with the food and supplies.
A very worthwhile read overall, highly recommended.
I found it to be the most depressing book I ever finished. Even the ending, which some took as hopeful, left me thinking, same story, different players.
I thought it was great, but damn it put me in a bleak mood! I listened to the audiobook and I highly recommend it.
Also, I’m pretty sure it was a nuclear war, he flashed back to the first bomb going off with him and his wife in bed. The son was born shortly after, and the wife killed herself when he was able to talk and understand death, so it must have been a few years later.