Hi

I've not seen the film yet, but someone recommended reading the book instead. So I did. It has a very spare style which suits the bleak setting and desolate story. It's so bleak that the humanity that glimmers on occasion in the narrative, restrained though it is, builds into something quite affecting. It's very unsettling overall, and gross in a couple of places, but compelling throughout. I read it in a day and a night. It was depressing, but an interesting and original read. Now I want to see the film for a double dose of melancholy.

JB

You're a glutton for punishment, waxy!

Rubbish ending, though (IMHO).

I realy got into the visuals of a destroyed world, made better (for me) by the complete lack of explanation as to how the catastrophe had happened. The dream sequence in the first chapter is brilliant and the occasional bursts of absolute horror are well-judged. The overpowering sense of a father's unconditional love for his child is what propelled me through this story. I was hoping for more at the end, though. One of those strange books I'd give 9/10 for in some places, 0/10 in others.

One pedantic point: dont instead of don't and cant instead of can't is inexcusable. What next? No full stops? No captials at the start of a sentence? I enjoy seeing words and sentence structure palyed with, but some writers seem to want to take the p*ss.

Andy

JB, I don't know if one can love such a book but if so I did. It had me howling at the end and I 'm not sure if I want to watch the film. I want to read all of McCarthy's books now. S

I loved the book. One of those where the emotion subtly builds and builds so by the end it takes only the slightest gestures to bring me to tears. Don't want to see the film, though. If I really like a book I feel kind of scared the film will rob something from what I love about the book.

I don't know if one can love such a book but if so I did.

That's so true. I thought it was a great work, but I found it hard to have affection for. It did bring a tear to my eye at the end, it was all just so hopeless. To lighten my spirits, I had a good couple of hours this morning telling my friend (who loved the book) that I'd seen the film and how oddly, it was a musical. She totally believed me and was horrified. That cheered me up somewhat because after finishing the book this morning, my Saturday spark was a little dampened.

Yes. I did admit the truth in the end. And got a slap.

JB

I know my husband loved it - if that's the right word - so much, that he really couldn't bear to see the film version.

I loved that book. The prose is very unusual - there is very little punctuation and no speech marks, making the writing appear as sparse and grey and bleak as the scenes in the story. Brilliant.

I reviewed it here last year, gave it four stars.

Haven't seen the film yet.

Colin M

I have to read it - and see the film.

Oh God - Saturdays. Should be the best day of the week? If only...

Amazing book, distressing to read. The film sticks pretty close, and it's an outrage that Viggo didn't get an Oscar nomination for it.

As completely hopeless as it all turns out in the end, I still left with a deluded sense of hope. That maybe the boy would find a way to build something new somehow.

I loved it too, and like Shika, howled! I also felt there was some hope in the ending.

Glad you enjoyed it, waxy, although that's not exactly the right word, is it? That book affected me more powerfully than any other I've read in the last five years. And I nearly walked out of the film as I found it so unsettling. The book is a masterpiece.

Must admit I was half expecting a bigger clash with the baddies and I was braced for a twist at the end, but about halfway through I'd already picked up on the stripped back style so it wrapped up fine. It was also a great example of how the things you don't see - or only glimpse - can build into something terrifying.

JB

<Added>

I didn't draw any hope from the ending, but if I relate it to things now, then I draw hope from the fact that some people might take heed. One of the puffs said that The Road shows in stark detail what humanity has to lose, and I certainly got that. One of the most powerful post-apocalypse novels I've read - and I've read a fair few - because the focus of the horror was human and very real.

JB

I'm still laughing at the idea of it as a musical. What would be the big number?

"Don't eat my little boy, I beg you."