THE ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) - May 7/07

I'm conflicted on this one. On the one hand, the book is packed with tremendously moving and vivid sequences (including a scene in which the heroes stumble on survivors who are being kept for food) and the relationship between the central man and his son is genuinely moving. But McCarthy's bizarre writing style makes it impossible to really get into the story; there's no momentum here. McCarthy bogs things down with long paragraphs that sometimes don't even make sense (see page 52 of the paperback for an example). Yet the novel remains worthwhile, if only for the relentlessly bleak atmosphere... (This will hopefully make a great movie.) *** out of ****