The Road (Oprah's Book Club)

I couldnt get past page 15....but I love books, I read all the time and Oprah said she loved it, others did too. So what's a girl to do ? I FINALLY picked it up again (when I had no other book avail at the time) and continued on from page 15 (no need to re-read, the first time was agony enough). And guess what. It doesnt get ANY better! I have no idea what you guys find redeemable in this book. The language, sentance structure and choice of words make it like slogging through a thick, stinky, smelly swamp. The author gives no backstory, no history, and no future....it would not have been hard to add the rest that was lacking. I know it's hard not to at least try to stay with and finish a book, but this one don't bother - there are way better books out there!

If it's cloudy, cold and rainy... don't read this book. Wait for a weekend when it's warm and sunny and you can comfort yourself with the tangible evidences that God is still on His throne. Be prepared for a journey into the darkness of the animal known as 'man', because that is what the majority of people are - animals masquerading as 'human'. When you dry your tears, ask yourself, "Do I carry the fire?"

Philosophy A+
Punctuation C-
Curiosity B
Satisfaction B

Judging by current reviews on this novel, it seems that people either love it, or hate it. Consider this consumer to be in the latter.

The lack of punctuation has been covered already so I won't get into that. And that's not really the issue I have with this book. My interpretation for the lack of comma's, quotations or disregard to proper grammar is that the world is no longer what it once was. There is no structure or rules for the surviving inhabitants to abide by and it's reflected in the authors style of writing.

What I do have a problem with is the poetic style of writing he uses to describe nearly everything. Each page is more like a series of poems rather than constructive writing. At times the antagonist is speaking with his son, and at others he's waxing nostalgic over various observations or descriptions.

You will read dozens of pages before anything truly exciting happens in this story. The author merely uses the first quarter of the book to hammer home how dark the world is and how everything is full of ash. Seriously, by the time you get to page 50 you'll be tempted to stab out either eye every time the author even uses the word 'ash'. It's like listening to a broken record.

My advice to anyone who may be interested in this novel is to read the first two or three paragraphs. If you like what you've read, you'll probably like this book. But if you come away hesitant or shaking your head after the first couple of pages, stay away. It doesn't get any better.

I just don't get it.
What's that?
Don't get it. This book, that is. All they do is push a cart and look for shoes.
But it's the one they all love. Isn't it Papa?
Yes, because they are hungry for anything that sounds interesting.
But this?
Yes, this. Choppy sentences, over-hot language, no plot, no character. An isocline of nothing. No sense of place or meaning. No hope.
Why do they love it Papa?
Because empty barrels make the noise.

The man looked at his copy of The Road and thought, this all there is? And thought the book might be best as kindling for a fire. A fire to warm them against the unexplained ash.

The best that can be said is that such writing punctuated with hot flash of vocabulary like from a thesaurus glassed by a youngster can be read so fast that it don't matter what hours you use on it for they are not many hours and can be got back without much fuss thought the man.

Evidently Oprah is on a kick to recommend modern re-hashes of old themes. This is the second book this month off her list that I have read (the other being Edgar Sawtelle) and I will most likely steer clear of her picks in the future. This book is another tired regurgitation of the old theme that has been much better stated elsewhere and with more eloquence, of making an existential leap of faith toward meaning in a hostile world where even the word "meaning" becomes meaningless. Completely driven by dialogue reiterated time after time after time, the story fails to pull off its apparently metaphorical revelations and just dumps the whole tangled mess into a heap at the end. To me it was neither morally enlightening, thought provoking, nor revelational but was just plain boring.