Is this more of a negative opinion or just a description for the entire tone of the book? (I’ve just discovered McCarthy and am gonna dive into Blood Meridian so I’m not familiar with his work.)
When I was a young man, my father had passed away very unexpectedly. A few months after his passing I had watched the film, completely oblivious that Cormac McCarthy was the writer behind the story. By the end of the film I was weeping like a helpless child left alone in the apocalypse. Fast forward ten years later, I read No Country for Old Men and McCarthy ends up being my favorite writer of all time. I consumed all of his books(Blood Meridian being the second, still one of my all time favorites) and I find out he is the writer of the road. I finish the Boarder trilogy and finally read The Road. More than ten years later, I am left weeping after I finish the story. I was at work when I finished it and had to go outside to the smoking area where I could grieve in private. I might be biased but this cemented the fact that Cormac McCarthy is my most favorite writer of all time. He is carrying the fire.
Charm, grief is horrible and unpredictable. A Welsh lady on a grief chatroom noted that we’re called “Survivors,” but are more accurate name would be “Existees.” Before this, we were carefree fools.
Holy shit I never realized he was filling the tub for drinking water. That changes the entire dynamic of the father character. From the moment it all started, he completely submerged himself in survival mode, and had a refusal to give up.
@Ryetronics not op but I would assume he thought the man was filling it with water as he contemplated suicide. So, he was considering drowning himself in the water
There's this part where the father teaches the son to use the gun on himself. It reminded me of accounts from WWII where Japanese people kept grenades with them so they could commit suicide rather than be captured. One horrifying account where there were large groups that had run out of grenades so they started bludgeoning each other with sticks and rocks.
Blood Meridian, Suttree, The Crossing, The Road - are the best books I’ve ever read. Thanks for this review. Being from Ukraine, and with all the news of possible nuclear strikes, this hits hard. Thinking about rereading it. Why the hell not
I first tried reading this book in middle school and it almost made me wanna kill myself. Tried it again as an adult and it's still depressing as hell but I could appreciate the beauty of it more I think. Really cemented why McCarthy is my favorite author. Liked the movie too.
I heard that the creators of The Last of Us game were greatly inspired by this book. This was a game with the best story I ever experienced and the ending was haunting me for weeks so I definitely need to read the book as well
I finished the book today and it was amazing. I loved it as much as the game, it was an experience to read and it left me feeling really hopeless in the end.
@@Gruso57 i was only talking about the plot of the last of us. Where did I suggest that The Road could be a game? They are in a different genre but the game plot was inspired by the novel. I only commented on that fact and I’m not trying to judge which one is “superior”.
This book is the only book in my entire life to bring me to tears. It, more than any book I've ever read, gives such a resounding portrayal of a strong relationship between a father and son. This book is an absolute masterpiece and my favorite book of all time.
Before I read The Road I was talking to a co-worker who was reading it. He said "it's the most depressing book I have ever read and I can't put it down." After reading it, I concur.
And why did they leave? To get to the Ocean?!!!! For WHAT?!! I am sorry, but this book was terrible in my opinion. I get it. Lots of symbolism and all that, but the kid was extremely annoying, and the book had no resolution. At all. i don't understand, and I read a lot of books
This is unreal. I literally finished this book last night and I immediately looked to see if you had a video on it, but didn't see anything. Thanks for the very timely video ;)
You nailed it when you said, "it's boring in its hopelessness." That absolutely encapsulates my personal feelings about the book, but you are also right when you said, "it does have some beautiful lines." Thanks for all your effort, I definetly enjoy hearing your opinions.
Whenever I think of Cormac McCarthy, I always think of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor record, F♯ A♯ ∞. "The car's on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides and a dark wind blows"
@@erniereyes1994 Thomas Pynchon is better than McCarthy, due pretty much solely to Gravity's Rainbow. (Though Mason & Dixon is also great.) Philip Roth is second-rate at best, almost a dime-store novelist. Toni Morrison is utter garbage and not worth mentioning. Also, Robert Coover, John Barth, Don Delillo, and Joseph McElroy are still alive, so...
@@cometcourse381 Blood Meridian is better than anything Pynchon has written by a wide margin. Suttree is a better "second-best" book than M&D as well. Agree about Roth; Delillo is highly overrated imo. Barth, McElroy are hipster picks. Morrison is far from garbage. Theroux is an extremely talented stylist. And the best living American writer after McCarthy is Marilynn Robinson.
I read this book right after finishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so at first I wasn’t liking it, it was like sunny vs no sun, ashes and cold. I tried again later and omg it was so intense I had to stop at certain points because I would feel so stress and anxious haha. Needless to say, Cormac McCarthy became one of my favorite contemporary writers.
"Beat the hell out of The Stand" should be on the dust jacket of this book. 😄 Now we need to see a video where you give your best one-sentence reviews of different books you've read.
The Stand and The Road are two completely different reads. I thin k that The Road digs a lot deeper into the question of what is the human experience when stripped bare and The Stand is basically adventure story with a more obvious global apocalypse with themes. I liked The Stand for it's page turning entertainment but I liked The Road for it's deeper themes of the man and the boy in a dying world and bond between the two and the persistence to struggle onward in a world with only i't's own dying to show.
NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!! The stand wipes it's behind with this book! Stephen King's post apocalyptic world is so much better than this. This is bleak, depressing and pointless from page one to the end. The only reason I can see someone saying they like this better than the stand, is because they did not want to, or like to read over a 1000 pages. The road is what, less than 300? No way anyone will ever convince me this is a better book than The Stand, or Cormac Mccarthy is a better author than Stephen King. Not a chance
I read The Road a few years ago and unfortunately there was not much I liked about it. That's of course fine, we all have different taste. But I personally think that the pages were far too repetitive and eventhough I have a theory about the repetition, I dont think it's a good way to write a book. To me, The Road seem like a short story that has been stretched out to the length of a novel because you can rip out more than half of the pages in the book and not miss anything.
Completely agree. One of the few instances where I enjoyed the movie more than the book. The book began to get tedious after a while, although it does have many beautiful lines
The author had me block out my world and I walked with the father and son, experiencing their desperation along their trek. I recall every time I put the book down it was as if I time traveled back to my life and remained a bit depressed from my travels with them. Calling McCarthy a gifted author is an understatement, he did so much more than tell a tale. And he knew how to sew it up at the end. Fantastic.
I read it in the winter of last year. Beautiful book, really. I remember being sat up in my dorm room and feeling beads of tears form in my eyes when they discover the fallout bunker full of peaches. Even, against the backdrop of all-consuming doom, the scene of the father offering the can of coca-cola to the son that they found in the old vending machine remains one of the most uniquely touching scenes in modern literature, in my opinion.
Great that 5 of your reviews have been published !! I don’t know Tim but he is the resident poet at Belvoir Castle & that’s literally 15 mins drive north from my house & the Book store “Fox’s” is in Leicester which is about 20 mins drive South from me !! Small world eh I must get a copy of that & congratulations again x
Thank you for your wonderful rewiev. There are places in this story that stay with me like they were my own experiences, like eternal afterthoughs. Espessially a place when they leave an old man to die on the road, and the boy is in pain for this.His father gets angry and says that he is the one who has to think about everything, the boy answers "no, I am the one who has to think about everything". I startet crying so hard, so sudden, and I still feel the pain of that. Good litterature is life, philosophy and religion experienced for us.It is magic.
The Road is one of the best novels I ever read, and I would read it again, if there weren't so many other books waiting. But I never could read Suttree, it did not speak to me at all, I even purchased a translation in my native language, it didn't help, I never went beyond a couple of pages before I gave up. - The movie The Road is excellent as well, you can even watch it first, it won't spoil reading the novel in this case, because the story as such isn't the point here.
This was the only book that I read from cover to cover last year. Unlike many very fine books that I started but did not finish, this book kept me interested enough to take the time to complete a full and careful reading of the text. Not certain what kept me coming back but, whatever it was, it worked well.
The description of the strange creature in the dream cave that only sways its head over the apocalyptic reflection pond and "lopes" off into the dark. I like to think of this thing as the last remnants of the "picturebook horses" from All the Pretty Horses, what the horse archetype has become in this deluded ruined world.
Hey Clifford. Your reviews are always worthwhile. I’ve had a hardback copy of The Road ever since it was first published, and I have never read it. The reason is, I have a phobia about reading it, I believe for good reason.
I love going back through your video catalog finding videos on books I've read since the last time I was here. I just finished The Road (also a long time coming!) and I wish I hadn't waited so long. As a single Dad, this McCarthy was especially moving. If I had read this when my son was younger, IDK... I might not have been able to get through it. If I'm ever stuck in anything more than a catastrophic inconvenience, I'm 100% positive I won't last as long as The Man. Great review, as always; Better Than Food is one of my favorite channels on TH-cam.
My English 12 teacher recommended me this book, and it is great. I remember feeling almost a desperation for them to meet anyone else, and then every time they seemed to be close to meet anyone, wanting for them to be as far away from anyone else. Solitude hits harder when there are actually people to meet, but they are all cannibal rapists.
I know the apocalypse is meant to be ambiguous, but all signs point to a huge asteroid impact event. Everything lines up: the sights and sounds described when it happened: the catastrophic firestorms and ash layer in the atmosphere, the loss of photosynthetic life, the ongoing firestorms - all of that would have happened if a chixculub-event sized asteroid hit a shallow sea or dry land. This apocalyptic setting is my favourite in all literature.
The Road is so slick and well written, but it feels like I have experienced this exact story a 100 times already. It’s so clean that it feels like I’m reading absurdly well written videogame fan fiction. It’s like watching one of the 100 movies or shows, playing one of the 100 post apocalyptic videogames, reading one of the 100 books, et cetera, with the same themes. It’s boiled down to the core and to its essentials and essence of the genre, but there isn’t anything left to get out of reading it other than how well it is executed.
I like your new cut. You look like a plucky Norman Rockwell character pushing boundaries in a 1949 working class neighborhood. Great review, as always! Love this book.
I’m about 1/2 through this book, not sure how I feel about it. It’s very choppy, scenes skip quickly. Glimpses of scenes. Characters are empty, hollow, impersonal. Probably deliberately so. “Boring in its hopelessness” sums up well. Very coldly written, like the landscape - no light, no warmth… But it’s strangely captivating. I am devouring quickly. Thanks, Cliff, your videos inspiring as always.
Water….tap water and food! After traveling abroad, I returned to US with appreciation for hot and cold water. I couldn’t get past the first 1/4 of the book when I was raising kids alone after their dad abandoned us and moved abroad. I was angry at him for leaving us when our kids were so vulnerable.
One of those moments it hits you on the day, in the right mood from the light sneaking its way into your room by a near-covered-up window. Your eyes peer down; suddenly you're totally consumed, and your mind stays with it until it's done. but is it ever done?
I will not sleep tonight, this book dried me inside, anyway I want to see a positive message in this story, not losing hope, carry the fire, law of attraction as magnet for good the important is to don't lose what makes us human
While most of the time, I cannot make it to buy physical copies of the books you talk about, I still love your honest and chatty reviews, Cliff. Following your channel for, almost 2 years now has introduced me to so many amazing books (As I Lay Dying, Venus in Furs, In Praise of Shadows, The Houseguest). Keep doing the great work!
I read this a while back when my daughter was very young. I would read cringing and squinting outta one eye til I couldn’t take it anymore. Then I would ache to go hold my daughter for dear life and bawl my eyes out. So freaking heavy.
If you liked Blood Meridian you will like Moby Dick, its influences are all over that book; very Biblical, Shakespearian, and Philosophical in temperament.
Honestly I could kinda relate with the whole West Coast collapsing of society especially now. Where I live in San Francisco I’ve been here for 16 years and the homeless crisis has never been this terrible it is now. Last week when I was walking by Van Ness next to City Hall I saw a homeless person whose leg was literally rotting off and his tibia was exposed and it reminded me of that scene in the road where the basement prisoner looked up from his cot and was missing his leg. Extreme social degeneracy is the first stage of societal collapse and coastal cities specifically blue cities are evident of that
I know I should probably just cough up some money and chuck it on the wishlist, but I would absolutely love to hear you talk about a Hubert Selby Jr novel. His entire catalogue ranges from good to amazing in my opinion, such a raw talent with a completely unique perspective. The Room, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Song of the Silent Snow are five star reads.
You aren't exaggerating. Everything is more precarious than we know (precarious or frail or at hazard or in jeopardy etc etc). It's a painful lesson. Many don't want to know about it and I don't blame them, but I'm not in that camp. Great review.
I wish I was in that "nothing to see here, folks" camp, but how do you unsee what one has seen? How do you put the brakes on your critical thinking skills? I can't do it. I think of it like this....the decay is moving rapidly for many reasons but one is that it's much easier to collapse a building than to build one. It also seems like there is a peak to happiness, joy etc but there is no bottom to evil and decay; it seems like a bottomless pit. But there absolutely seems to be a cap on the brighter side of life. I wish someone could explain to me why that is.
@@nikkivenable1856 The Gnostics had a good metaphorical expansive: "God" was not competent or particularly good or wise. As for a rational explanation, I haven't a clue.
I liked the movie adaptation for this and "No Country for Old Men". I should read the novels, but I really want to read "Blood Meridian". McCarthy just seems like such a badass author, who doesn't pull punches. I noticed he doesn't use dialog tags in his writing, which may be something that I dislike about his style, but his stories sound like they will be very compelling! Cheers! #LFLR "VBW"
Cormac McCarthy has said that this book was about a father's love for his son, inspired by his own son. I found the book to have a luminescence that belied the post-apocalyptic setting.
Yep. It's about the boy and man. I don't see how anyone can read the ending and not find it hopeful. It's about as hopeful as Cormac gets, in my opinion.
"The father knows all too well, only the world that is splayed out before them as a corpse the size of the earth" Holy fuck get outta here man, shit! I needed a second to breathe this sentence in.
This book was so difficult to get through. Besides Harry Potter, Wimpy kid, didn't really read much. Read this and Blood meridian back to back at the age 15-16. Because apocalyptic fiction duh and I was really into spaghetti westerns. Some images were cinematically burnt into my head from both books, especially BM, but I need to read both again now that I'm 18. There is so much in BM in the language, Metaphor, philosophy etc. I liked both but I need to read both again to appreciate it better.
It sure is bleak. It even bothered me for a while. When someone reviewing the movie said that the father had a bleak view of human nature and was actually indoctrinating the son, I realized the reader has no way of knowing any better because of the limited point of view. The family who adopts the son are even shocked by the son's bleak point of view at the end of the book.
I have literally done everything in terms of this book except buy the t shirt. I've seeen the movie, then read the book, the wrote a report on it. love it
I just read this book, and wow is it staying with me. Haunting me. I was surprised to hear you call it a dystopian book, but maybe I'm fuzzy on the term. When I hear dystopian, I think "disfunctional utopia" (or some other "dis-" word, stemming from Dis, the city in hell from Dante's Inferno), like Bladerunner, 1984, Hunger Games, The Handmaid's Tale, Maze Runner, etc. In these, there is still a society, but it is dominated by corrupt governments or corporations. The Road is after the extinction of society ... gray wastelands and burnt husks of the United States, with very few straggling survivors either as lone scavengers or very small gangs. Edit: The ending wasn't a Deus ex machina. The family had been following the father and son, but wouldn't approach because the father was too dangerous, and he often kept to the road, which was also too dangerous. Once the father died, then they felt it was safe enough to approach. That's why the family's mother gave the reaction that she did, she had been so worried about the boy. The book never explains or tells this, but McCarthy took "show don't tell" to the radical extreme (just like in your example of the father filling up the bathtub).
The boy sat tottering. The man watched him that he not topple into the flames. He kicked holes in the sand for the boy's hips and shoulders where he would sleep and he sat holding him while he tousled his hair before the fire to dry it. All of this like some ancient anointing. So be it. Evoke the forms. Where you've nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them. Probably one of the best excerpts from what has to be one of my Top 2 or 3 books of all time. I’m glad you were able to experience it. IT’S SO DAMN GOOD.
Good recommendation! Cormac really immerses you into a dark world with his beautiful vocabulary and terse, but rich dialogue. Had to look up a few obscure words, and will definitely try to use skein as much as possible from now on.
I would really love to see you review outer dark by Cormac as well. I need to hear you break the whole book down lol. I’m still going over it as we speak.
I love this book. It's not as great as Blood Meridian, but it's still a great book. I remember the first time I read it was in high school. It was different from what I'd read before. It taught me that if the world ended, people would be the scariest thing to encounter in the aftermath. People will do anything to stay alive.
I've had a hardcover copy of this on my shelf, along with a handful of other Cormac McCarthy ( all read ), for about 11 years & I still haven't read it. I've started a few times but then I see or hear my own son moving around the house & I just quietly put it away. When he's grown up & out on his own & living his life, I'll go back to it. And I'm still going to go numb, that much I already know.
If mom was pregnant when things started falling apart, she must have at least tried to stick out the first year or two after her son was born, because he would have needed to nurse from his mother to survive if they were traveling. If she hadn't done so, the boy would not be in the story at all.
There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. McCarthy...does it get any better than him? I pre-ordered his new set of books coming this December.
Please try to read Moby Dick. There's enough darkness and quirkiness to keep you enthralled, I promise. And I agree with you on the greatness of Blood Meridian. Thanks, Cliff.
I read "The Road" about a decade ago. I am still awestruck by the ending--one of the best I have ever read. (This is not the deus ex machina, which was so not memorable that I had totally forgotten about it until you reminded me.) The ending I'm talking about is of the image of the trout swimming in the rippling water. Masterful. I was in tears because that scene offered a tiny shred of hope, however obliquely, as well as an echo of the everyday beauty that had been lost. But, boy, did this book give me a short-term depression. The writing--muscular, declarative, terse--was perfect for painting such denuded landscapes and moral atrocities. Especially after two exceptionally horrific scenes that just...ewwww... This novel made me look up what a "catamite" was since it was the only time I've ever seen that word. Ummm...yeah...I still recall that all these years later.
I guess I have a very different view of this book. I didn't find it depressing, sad and emotional at times but not depressing. The world was bleak but not hopeless or meaningless because of the meaning people like the father and son found in eachother.
Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN OR THE EVENING REDNESS IN THE WEST is bleaker. I liked THE ROAD. I found it very compelling. McCarthy is a very gifted writer.
Just finished this a couple days ago, what a fantastic yet terrifying read. This is by far some of the most vivid imagery ever put to the page, even more gut-wrenching and visceral than Blood Meridian at times. The whole sequence with the man and his son needing to find their way back to camp in a pitch black ash-beach with only lightning to guide their way is more horrifyingly sensual than anything I’ve ever read before. You’re there with them the whole way.
"Everyday is a lie, but you are dying, that is not a lie." given what happened before and after the Father said that line, that was something that really stuck with me.
I read this book in high school and I recently have been thinking about re-reading it but I forgot the name until I came across you video, so thank you for helping me remember lol
Might have to order you a copy of Warlock off your wishlist and one for myself. Been dying to read that one. And I 100% don’t believe you’re exaggerating. The last two years have shown me how thin and fragile society truly is. We always believe we are separate or are an exception in some way from the jaws of history. But these last few years have truly showed me how that’s all bullshit. And how quickly it can all come down. It’s gonna be a fun ride in the next few.
Was on holiday in Tenerife when I read this book, so a bit of irony when the boat they discovered was from Tenerife. Can’t say I enjoyed the book, as it’s so dark and depressing. There’s no doubt in my mind this is how people would be in a post apocalyptic world. McCarthy was a genius. RIP
This was the first book that got me into reading when I was in middle school. I asked my dad “do you have a book that will make me feel?” He kind of smirked and said “yeah, sure.”
I tend to prefer his "southern" novels like Suttree and Outer Dark, but Blood Meridian and The Crossing, the "western", come in a close second. The Road is very different in style (as is No Country), but most writers cannot hold a candle to his prose..
The story is more than a year or two after the fall. And as far as the way it ends cormac in an interview strongly suggests that it is a meteor impact event and loss of atmosphere
I do agree that the ending felt a bit Deus ex but, having previously seen No Country for Old Men, it does feel perfectly in like for McCarthy to do. However them finding the bunker feels like the perfect type of deus ex to happen in the story, an extreme case of luck in the world. I think if the boy's fate was a bit more ambiguous like the Boy and the other Man just walking down the coast, it would be better imo
Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! > ridge.com/BETTERTHANFOOD
This book for me was the literary embodiment of the colour grey
Exactly. Ash grey.
As was the film
Fluorescent Grey.
Is this more of a negative opinion or just a description for the entire tone of the book? (I’ve just discovered McCarthy and am gonna dive into Blood Meridian so I’m not familiar with his work.)
@@CookiesNMilf Definitely a descriptor. McCarthy is mine and many other’s favourite author of all time.
When I was a young man, my father had passed away very unexpectedly. A few months after his passing I had watched the film, completely oblivious that Cormac McCarthy was the writer behind the story. By the end of the film I was weeping like a helpless child left alone in the apocalypse.
Fast forward ten years later, I read No Country for Old Men and McCarthy ends up being my favorite writer of all time. I consumed all of his books(Blood Meridian being the second, still one of my all time favorites) and I find out he is the writer of the road. I finish the Boarder trilogy and finally read The Road. More than ten years later, I am left weeping after I finish the story. I was at work when I finished it and had to go outside to the smoking area where I could grieve in private. I might be biased but this cemented the fact that Cormac McCarthy is my most favorite writer of all time.
He is carrying the fire.
Beautiful last line.
Charm, grief is horrible and unpredictable. A Welsh lady on a grief chatroom noted that we’re called “Survivors,” but are more accurate name would be “Existees.” Before this, we were carefree fools.
Amen brother
You must still be a young man because the film came out in 2009....not that long ago.
@@ericsierra-franco7802 27, yes I’m still pretty young ha ha.
Holy shit I never realized he was filling the tub for drinking water. That changes the entire dynamic of the father character. From the moment it all started, he completely submerged himself in survival mode, and had a refusal to give up.
I'm curious, what did you think he was filling the tub with water for?
@Ryetronics not op but I would assume he thought the man was filling it with water as he contemplated suicide. So, he was considering drowning himself in the water
@@Ryetronics Honestly I had no idea. Thought it was because he was preparing to put out a fire or something. For some reason that just never clicked
@@drea409 Nah, never had that thought haha
@@paratrooper8266I thought exactly the same as you. Didn’t click with me till I saw this.
There's this part where the father teaches the son to use the gun on himself. It reminded me of accounts from WWII where Japanese people kept grenades with them so they could commit suicide rather than be captured. One horrifying account where there were large groups that had run out of grenades so they started bludgeoning each other with sticks and rocks.
Yep, this was the but that did it for me. I couldn't cry. I just felt numb
It shocked me when I read it because the dad asks him wether or not he can do it I thought he meant if he could shoot the people not kill himself
Blood Meridian, Suttree, The Crossing, The Road - are the best books I’ve ever read. Thanks for this review.
Being from Ukraine, and with all the news of possible nuclear strikes, this hits hard. Thinking about rereading it. Why the hell not
The Crossing and Suttree are underrated gems!
I hope you are staying safe man
Let's hope it never comes to that.
I first tried reading this book in middle school and it almost made me wanna kill myself. Tried it again as an adult and it's still depressing as hell but I could appreciate the beauty of it more I think. Really cemented why McCarthy is my favorite author. Liked the movie too.
I read it in my first year of college and I was walking around campus in this depressed haze for the entirety of that year.
I have to read this for high school English.
did you complete understand the details then?
I heard that the creators of The Last of Us game were greatly inspired by this book. This was a game with the best story I ever experienced and the ending was haunting me for weeks so I definitely need to read the book as well
Ha that makes a lot of sense. The Road is a lot more hopeless, be prepared.
This is vastly superior (narrative and writing) compared to the Last of Us
I finished the book today and it was amazing. I loved it as much as the game, it was an experience to read and it left me feeling really hopeless in the end.
@drsoe08 Well yea, its a novel lol. If the road were a video game no one would play it since its just walking and surviving
@@Gruso57 i was only talking about the plot of the last of us. Where did I suggest that The Road could be a game? They are in a different genre but the game plot was inspired by the novel. I only commented on that fact and I’m not trying to judge which one is “superior”.
The scene with the underground cellar..... WHOOF. That scene is still burned in my memory
Ya for me the most memorable and disturbing part of the book
This book is the only book in my entire life to bring me to tears. It, more than any book I've ever read, gives such a resounding portrayal of a strong relationship between a father and son. This book is an absolute masterpiece and my favorite book of all time.
Before I read The Road I was talking to a co-worker who was reading it. He said "it's the most depressing book I have ever read and I can't put it down." After reading it, I concur.
When they get to the underground root cellar, I never wanted them to leave.
And why did they leave? To get to the Ocean?!!!! For WHAT?!! I am sorry, but this book was terrible in my opinion. I get it. Lots of symbolism and all that, but the kid was extremely annoying, and the book had no resolution. At all. i don't understand, and I read a lot of books
This is unreal. I literally finished this book last night and I immediately looked to see if you had a video on it, but didn't see anything. Thanks for the very timely video ;)
The band the Editors wrote a really beautiful song based on the book called ‘No Sound but The Wind’.
RIP Cormac - Thank you for the great books, you will always be my favorite author.
You nailed it when you said, "it's boring in its hopelessness." That absolutely encapsulates my personal feelings about the book, but you are also right when you said, "it does have some beautiful lines." Thanks for all your effort, I definetly enjoy hearing your opinions.
Whenever I think of Cormac McCarthy, I always think of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor record, F♯ A♯ ∞. "The car's on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides and a dark wind blows"
I love that song and this book. They both give you the same feeling
Holy shit, had the exact same thought first time I heard that song
Wow… I just finished the book and I didn’t make that connection (being a GY!BE fan). I gotta listen to the album now.
Hands down Cormac McCarthy is the best living US writer right now.
FACTS. After the passing of Philip Roth and Toni Morrison, this is true all the more.
@@erniereyes1994 He is/was better than them IMO.
@@erniereyes1994 Thomas Pynchon is better than McCarthy, due pretty much solely to Gravity's Rainbow. (Though Mason & Dixon is also great.) Philip Roth is second-rate at best, almost a dime-store novelist. Toni Morrison is utter garbage and not worth mentioning. Also, Robert Coover, John Barth, Don Delillo, and Joseph McElroy are still alive, so...
@@cometcourse381 Toni Morrison is garbage? Sure, son. You sound like a thoughtful reader.
@@cometcourse381 Blood Meridian is better than anything Pynchon has written by a wide margin. Suttree is a better "second-best" book than M&D as well.
Agree about Roth; Delillo is highly overrated imo. Barth, McElroy are hipster picks. Morrison is far from garbage. Theroux is an extremely talented stylist. And the best living American writer after McCarthy is Marilynn Robinson.
I read this book right after finishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so at first I wasn’t liking it, it was like sunny vs no sun, ashes and cold. I tried again later and omg it was so intense I had to stop at certain points because I would feel so stress and anxious haha. Needless to say, Cormac McCarthy became one of my favorite contemporary writers.
"Beat the hell out of The Stand" should be on the dust jacket of this book. 😄 Now we need to see a video where you give your best one-sentence reviews of different books you've read.
The Stand and The Road are two completely different reads. I thin k that The Road digs a lot deeper into the question of what is the human experience when stripped bare and The Stand is basically adventure story with a more obvious global apocalypse with themes. I liked The Stand for it's page turning entertainment but I liked The Road for it's deeper themes of the man and the boy in a dying world and bond between the two and the persistence to struggle onward in a world with only i't's own dying to show.
NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!! The stand wipes it's behind with this book! Stephen King's post apocalyptic world is so much better than this. This is bleak, depressing and pointless from page one to the end. The only reason I can see someone saying they like this better than the stand, is because they did not want to, or like to read over a 1000 pages. The road is what, less than 300? No way anyone will ever convince me this is a better book than The Stand, or Cormac Mccarthy is a better author than Stephen King. Not a chance
@@eddiemullins9212variety is the spice of life, they are both wonderful writers
This book is best enjoyed with a regular dose of antidepressants accompanied with good, hard liquor.
Which is funny because liquor is a depressant
Edge lord
I read The Road a few years ago and unfortunately there was not much I liked about it. That's of course fine, we all have different taste. But I personally think that the pages were far too repetitive and eventhough I have a theory about the repetition, I dont think it's a good way to write a book. To me, The Road seem like a short story that has been stretched out to the length of a novel because you can rip out more than half of the pages in the book and not miss anything.
Completely agree. One of the few instances where I enjoyed the movie more than the book. The book began to get tedious after a while, although it does have many beautiful lines
The author had me block out my world and I walked with the father and son, experiencing their desperation along their trek. I recall every time I put the book down it was as if I time traveled back to my life and remained a bit depressed from my travels with them. Calling McCarthy a gifted author is an understatement, he did so much more than tell a tale. And he knew how to sew it up at the end. Fantastic.
I read it in the winter of last year. Beautiful book, really. I remember being sat up in my dorm room and feeling beads of tears form in my eyes when they discover the fallout bunker full of peaches.
Even, against the backdrop of all-consuming doom, the scene of the father offering the can of coca-cola to the son that they found in the old vending machine remains one of the most uniquely touching scenes in modern literature, in my opinion.
Glad to see you do a review on this book!! It’s outstanding!!!!!
Great that 5 of your reviews have been published !! I don’t know Tim but he is the resident poet at Belvoir Castle & that’s literally 15 mins drive north from my house & the Book store “Fox’s” is in Leicester which is about 20 mins drive South from me !!
Small world eh I must get a copy of that & congratulations again x
Thank you for your wonderful rewiev. There are places in this story that stay with me like they were my own experiences, like eternal afterthoughs. Espessially a place when they leave an old man to die on the road, and the boy is in pain for this.His father gets angry and says that he is the one who has to think about everything, the boy answers "no, I am the one who has to think about everything". I startet crying so hard, so sudden, and I still feel the pain of that. Good litterature is life, philosophy and religion experienced for us.It is magic.
The Road is one of the best novels I ever read, and I would read it again, if there weren't so many other books waiting. But I never could read Suttree, it did not speak to me at all, I even purchased a translation in my native language, it didn't help, I never went beyond a couple of pages before I gave up. - The movie The Road is excellent as well, you can even watch it first, it won't spoil reading the novel in this case, because the story as such isn't the point here.
This was the only book that I read from cover to cover last year. Unlike many very fine books that I started but did not finish, this book kept me interested enough to take the time to complete a full and careful reading of the text. Not certain what kept me coming back but, whatever it was, it worked well.
Cool opening shot!
Yes I thought he was referencing the "Bird of Hope" boat at the ending.
I'd read this during breaks at work and afterwards I'd just drive in silence. Very thought provoking and made me realize all that I take for granted
The description of the strange creature in the dream cave that only sways its head over the apocalyptic reflection pond and "lopes" off into the dark.
I like to think of this thing as the last remnants of the "picturebook horses" from All the Pretty Horses, what the horse archetype has become in this deluded ruined world.
Hey Clifford. Your reviews are always worthwhile.
I’ve had a hardback copy of The Road ever since it was first published, and I have never read it. The reason is, I have a phobia about reading it, I believe for good reason.
Just finished this book about a month ago and I'm still thinking about it. This will be a book I will revisit often. Great review. Much appreciated.
Read this book about eight years ago, but That passage about the burnt man will live with me forever. Holy shit.
That part where they were in that house and realized there were others with them in the building was genuinely scary.
@@elbowjuice2627 that part gave me chills.
@@elbowjuice2627 with the man on the mattress?
@@MrPROJECTSyNci think so yeah
Congrats. The cover painting is from Italian baroque painter, Caravaggio. Check his life out sometime. It was interesting to say the least.
I love going back through your video catalog finding videos on books I've read since the last time I was here. I just finished The Road (also a long time coming!) and I wish I hadn't waited so long. As a single Dad, this McCarthy was especially moving. If I had read this when my son was younger, IDK... I might not have been able to get through it. If I'm ever stuck in anything more than a catastrophic inconvenience, I'm 100% positive I won't last as long as The Man. Great review, as always; Better Than Food is one of my favorite channels on TH-cam.
IT BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THE STAND 🎤
My English 12 teacher recommended me this book, and it is great. I remember feeling almost a desperation for them to meet anyone else, and then every time they seemed to be close to meet anyone, wanting for them to be as far away from anyone else. Solitude hits harder when there are actually people to meet, but they are all cannibal rapists.
I know the apocalypse is meant to be ambiguous, but all signs point to a huge asteroid impact event. Everything lines up: the sights and sounds described when it happened: the catastrophic firestorms and ash layer in the atmosphere, the loss of photosynthetic life, the ongoing firestorms - all of that would have happened if a chixculub-event sized asteroid hit a shallow sea or dry land. This apocalyptic setting is my favourite in all literature.
The Road is so slick and well written, but it feels like I have experienced this exact story a 100 times already. It’s so clean that it feels like I’m reading absurdly well written videogame fan fiction. It’s like watching one of the 100 movies or shows, playing one of the 100 post apocalyptic videogames, reading one of the 100 books, et cetera, with the same themes. It’s boiled down to the core and to its essentials and essence of the genre, but there isn’t anything left to get out of reading it other than how well it is executed.
It’s a parable. I think that’s part of the point. Their plight is the plight of all mortals.
Really looking forward to read this
I like your new cut. You look like a plucky Norman Rockwell character pushing boundaries in a 1949 working class neighborhood.
Great review, as always! Love this book.
I’m about 1/2 through this book, not sure how I feel about it. It’s very choppy, scenes skip quickly. Glimpses of scenes. Characters are empty, hollow, impersonal. Probably deliberately so. “Boring in its hopelessness” sums up well. Very coldly written, like the landscape - no light, no warmth… But it’s strangely captivating. I am devouring quickly. Thanks, Cliff, your videos inspiring as always.
Water….tap water and food! After traveling abroad, I returned to US with appreciation for hot and cold water.
I couldn’t get past the first 1/4 of the book when I was raising kids alone after their dad abandoned us and moved abroad. I was angry at him for leaving us when our kids were so vulnerable.
I loved the book's final paragraph. It's as beautiful, if not more so, than the conclusion of "The Great Gatsby".
I agree, the scene where he fills up the bathtub is one of the most memorable parts. It made a huge impact and deepened my immersion.
One of those moments it hits you on the day, in the right mood from the light sneaking its way into your room by a near-covered-up window.
Your eyes peer down; suddenly you're totally consumed, and your mind stays with it until it's done. but is it ever done?
Yes I have just finished it after watching this review and I just want to stare out of a window now
@@MrPROJECTSyNc take that moment, let it sink in, you'll only get it once
I’m stoked to see you published. Where do you publish your reviews?
I would love to watch you review a dark Dickens novel, such as “Bleak House” or “Tale of Two Cities.”
I will not sleep tonight, this book dried me inside, anyway I want to see a positive message in this story, not losing hope, carry the fire, law of attraction as magnet for good the important is to don't lose what makes us human
While most of the time, I cannot make it to buy physical copies of the books you talk about, I still love your honest and chatty reviews, Cliff. Following your channel for, almost 2 years now has introduced me to so many amazing books (As I Lay Dying, Venus in Furs, In Praise of Shadows, The Houseguest). Keep doing the great work!
That cover in the beginning is a Caravaggio painting. How does it even match the topic of the book?????
I read this a while back when my daughter was very young. I would read cringing and squinting outta one eye til I couldn’t take it anymore. Then I would ache to go hold my daughter for dear life and bawl my eyes out. So freaking heavy.
If you liked Blood Meridian you will like Moby Dick, its influences are all over that book; very Biblical, Shakespearian, and Philosophical in temperament.
Honestly I could kinda relate with the whole West Coast collapsing of society especially now. Where I live in San Francisco I’ve been here for 16 years and the homeless crisis has never been this terrible it is now. Last week when I was walking by Van Ness next to City Hall I saw a homeless person whose leg was literally rotting off and his tibia was exposed and it reminded me of that scene in the road where the basement prisoner looked up from his cot and was missing his leg. Extreme social degeneracy is the first stage of societal collapse and coastal cities specifically blue cities are evident of that
I know I should probably just cough up some money and chuck it on the wishlist, but I would absolutely love to hear you talk about a Hubert Selby Jr novel. His entire catalogue ranges from good to amazing in my opinion, such a raw talent with a completely unique perspective. The Room, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Song of the Silent Snow are five star reads.
You aren't exaggerating. Everything is more precarious than we know (precarious or frail or at hazard or in jeopardy etc etc). It's a painful lesson. Many don't want to know about it and I don't blame them, but I'm not in that camp. Great review.
I wish I was in that "nothing to see here, folks" camp, but how do you unsee what one has seen? How do you put the brakes on your critical thinking skills? I can't do it. I think of it like this....the decay is moving rapidly for many reasons but one is that it's much easier to collapse a building than to build one. It also seems like there is a peak to happiness, joy etc but there is no bottom to evil and decay; it seems like a bottomless pit. But there absolutely seems to be a cap on the brighter side of life. I wish someone could explain to me why that is.
@@nikkivenable1856 The Gnostics had a good metaphorical expansive: "God" was not competent or particularly good or wise. As for a rational explanation, I haven't a clue.
**"explanation" (I hate typos)
I liked the movie adaptation for this and "No Country for Old Men". I should read the novels, but I really want to read "Blood Meridian". McCarthy just seems like such a badass author, who doesn't pull punches. I noticed he doesn't use dialog tags in his writing, which may be something that I dislike about his style, but his stories sound like they will be very compelling!
Cheers!
#LFLR
"VBW"
Cormac McCarthy has said that this book was about a father's love for his son, inspired by his own son. I found the book to have a luminescence that belied the post-apocalyptic setting.
Yep. It's about the boy and man. I don't see how anyone can read the ending and not find it hopeful. It's about as hopeful as Cormac gets, in my opinion.
"The father knows all too well, only the world that is splayed out before them as a corpse the size of the earth"
Holy fuck get outta here man, shit! I needed a second to breathe this sentence in.
This book was so difficult to get through. Besides Harry Potter, Wimpy kid, didn't really read much. Read this and Blood meridian back to back at the age 15-16. Because apocalyptic fiction duh and I was really into spaghetti westerns. Some images were cinematically burnt into my head from both books, especially BM, but I need to read both again now that I'm 18. There is so much in BM in the language, Metaphor, philosophy etc. I liked both but I need to read both again to appreciate it better.
It sure is bleak. It even bothered me for a while. When someone reviewing the movie said that the father had a bleak view of human nature and was actually indoctrinating the son, I realized the reader has no way of knowing any better because of the limited point of view. The family who adopts the son are even shocked by the son's bleak point of view at the end of the book.
At the same time though, is he wrong considering some of the other people they meet on The Road?
I have literally done everything in terms of this book except buy the t shirt. I've seeen the movie, then read the book, the wrote a report on it. love it
I just read this book, and wow is it staying with me. Haunting me.
I was surprised to hear you call it a dystopian book, but maybe I'm fuzzy on the term. When I hear dystopian, I think "disfunctional utopia" (or some other "dis-" word, stemming from Dis, the city in hell from Dante's Inferno), like Bladerunner, 1984, Hunger Games, The Handmaid's Tale, Maze Runner, etc. In these, there is still a society, but it is dominated by corrupt governments or corporations. The Road is after the extinction of society ... gray wastelands and burnt husks of the United States, with very few straggling survivors either as lone scavengers or very small gangs.
Edit: The ending wasn't a Deus ex machina. The family had been following the father and son, but wouldn't approach because the father was too dangerous, and he often kept to the road, which was also too dangerous. Once the father died, then they felt it was safe enough to approach. That's why the family's mother gave the reaction that she did, she had been so worried about the boy. The book never explains or tells this, but McCarthy took "show don't tell" to the radical extreme (just like in your example of the father filling up the bathtub).
the way You're describing it reminds me of The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński. Also a very blunt and bleak book filled with terrible horrors
Such an incredible book! I will read it more than once, for sure!
The boy sat tottering.
The man watched him that he not topple into the flames. He kicked holes in the sand for the
boy's hips and shoulders where he would sleep and he sat holding him while he tousled his hair before the fire to dry it.
All of this like some ancient anointing.
So be it.
Evoke the forms.
Where you've nothing else
construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.
Probably one of the best excerpts from what has to be one of my Top 2 or 3 books of all time. I’m glad you were able to experience it. IT’S SO DAMN GOOD.
I found it very hard to read this book without picturing the roaming gangs looking like the villains in Mad Max Road Warrior.
Good recommendation! Cormac really immerses you into a dark world with his beautiful vocabulary and terse, but rich dialogue. Had to look up a few obscure words, and will definitely try to use skein as much as possible from now on.
I would really love to see you review outer dark by Cormac as well. I need to hear you break the whole book down lol. I’m still going over it as we speak.
hey im from Leicester, and i just read the road
4:17 to skip sponsor
Good timing I just read this book a couple of days ago. Enjoyed the review. Need to read Blood Meridian
I love this book. It's not as great as Blood Meridian, but it's still a great book. I remember the first time I read it was in high school. It was different from what I'd read before. It taught me that if the world ended, people would be the scariest thing to encounter in the aftermath. People will do anything to stay alive.
Loved the review and couldn't agree more! Lol mostly wanted to comment to tell you that the intro location was 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 perfection
I've had a hardcover copy of this on my shelf, along with a handful of other Cormac McCarthy ( all read ), for about 11 years & I still haven't read it. I've started a few times but then I see or hear my own son moving around the house & I just quietly put it away. When he's grown up & out on his own & living his life, I'll go back to it. And I'm still going to go numb, that much I already know.
If mom was pregnant when things started falling apart, she must have at least tried to stick out the first year or two after her son was born, because he would have needed to nurse from his mother to survive if they were traveling. If she hadn't done so, the boy would not be in the story at all.
There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. McCarthy...does it get any better than him? I pre-ordered his new set of books coming this December.
Please try to read Moby Dick. There's enough darkness and quirkiness to keep you enthralled, I promise. And I agree with you on the greatness of Blood Meridian. Thanks, Cliff.
Get me an abridged version without all the encyclopaedic sections about different breeds of whales and shit
I read "The Road" about a decade ago. I am still awestruck by the ending--one of the best I have ever read. (This is not the deus ex machina, which was so not memorable that I had totally forgotten about it until you reminded me.) The ending I'm talking about is of the image of the trout swimming in the rippling water. Masterful. I was in tears because that scene offered a tiny shred of hope, however obliquely, as well as an echo of the everyday beauty that had been lost. But, boy, did this book give me a short-term depression. The writing--muscular, declarative, terse--was perfect for painting such denuded landscapes and moral atrocities. Especially after two exceptionally horrific scenes that just...ewwww... This novel made me look up what a "catamite" was since it was the only time I've ever seen that word. Ummm...yeah...I still recall that all these years later.
I guess I have a very different view of this book. I didn't find it depressing, sad and emotional at times but not depressing. The world was bleak but not hopeless or meaningless because of the meaning people like the father and son found in eachother.
0:22 nice shot but wish the weather was grey
Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN OR THE EVENING REDNESS IN THE WEST is bleaker. I liked THE ROAD. I found it very compelling. McCarthy is a very gifted writer.
Just finished this a couple days ago, what a fantastic yet terrifying read.
This is by far some of the most vivid imagery ever put to the page, even more gut-wrenching and visceral than Blood Meridian at times.
The whole sequence with the man and his son needing to find their way back to camp in a pitch black ash-beach with only lightning to guide their way is more horrifyingly sensual than anything I’ve ever read before.
You’re there with them the whole way.
"Everyday is a lie, but you are dying, that is not a lie." given what happened before and after the Father said that line, that was something that really stuck with me.
I read this book in high school and I recently have been thinking about re-reading it but I forgot the name until I came across you video, so thank you for helping me remember lol
I love how McCarthy allowed me to join the dots in the first chapter …. Series of percussions…. Filling a bath….
Might have to order you a copy of Warlock off your wishlist and one for myself. Been dying to read that one. And I 100% don’t believe you’re exaggerating. The last two years have shown me how thin and fragile society truly is. We always believe we are separate or are an exception in some way from the jaws of history. But these last few years have truly showed me how that’s all bullshit. And how quickly it can all come down. It’s gonna be a fun ride in the next few.
Very curious on your thoughts (if any) on Peter Sotos
Not an easy read but one that hit me real hard.
I blubbed at the end, but it was bitter sweet...as I had hoped.
Was on holiday in Tenerife when I read this book, so a bit of irony when the boat they discovered was from Tenerife. Can’t say I enjoyed the book, as it’s so dark and depressing. There’s no doubt in my mind this is how people would be in a post apocalyptic world. McCarthy was a genius. RIP
I really like the jacket... is it demin?
This book is fantastic and is among my favorite!!!
This was the first book that got me into reading when I was in middle school. I asked my dad “do you have a book that will make me feel?” He kind of smirked and said “yeah, sure.”
"the father... hes dying" *cheerful ad music plays*
I didn't like this book when I read it in 2009, but perhaps I will give it another chance in the future.
I tend to prefer his "southern" novels like Suttree and Outer Dark, but Blood Meridian and The Crossing, the "western", come in a close second. The Road is very different in style (as is No Country), but most writers cannot hold a candle to his prose..
this is one of the best videos I have just watched today... thanks for sharing :.,/
The story is more than a year or two after the fall. And as far as the way it ends cormac in an interview strongly suggests that it is a meteor impact event and loss of atmosphere
I do agree that the ending felt a bit Deus ex but, having previously seen No Country for Old Men, it does feel perfectly in like for McCarthy to do. However them finding the bunker feels like the perfect type of deus ex to happen in the story, an extreme case of luck in the world. I think if the boy's fate was a bit more ambiguous like the Boy and the other Man just walking down the coast, it would be better imo