Today, 1/1/18 is the first of what will be a series of Monday Book Reviews, expressing my personal opinions on works of fiction. Today, I will be looking upon a piece called 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy.
I originally read The Road when I was still studying at college. As a fan of post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, my teacher gushed over how I, in particular would enjoy reading this book and would probably find a great volume of things from within it that I could use for points of analysis. However, when it actually came to reading the book, I found it hard to get through. I found that the lack of punctuation and minimalist dialogue made the story harder to follow than many other books I had read before.
However, I recently reread this book and began to look into the piece as a writer ought to explore other works already published instead of just looking into them at face value or to analyse as a lit student. I believe that the reason I found The Road harder to read the first time around, was because it was very much a piece of "Dirty Realism" in reference to the reality of how surviving in an apocalypse would be - especially when in such a small group; a very repetitive cycle of travelling with very little to offer in terms of conversation. The term "Dirty Realism" refers to something that is mundane and would otherwise have the potential to be dismissed as a unnecessary and irrelevant, but where many amazing stories can be held; in essence it is a term used to describe stories that are based in the here and now.
When reading this book "like a writer" should do, I found that there were many things that could be learned about control; particularly with dialogue - despite how I felt when I originally read the piece's dialogue when I initially read it, I found myself enthralled by how sharp and controlled the monotonous dialogue was; complimenting the character's bleak outlook on the dying world around them. McCarthy demonstrated that by keeping the dialogue minimal you could evoke an entirely new level of internal conversation that derived predominantly from the question "why?". Why are they not talking about anything but the now? Because there is no guarantee of a future and it's easier to accept that when nobody discusses what they wanted of the world before it was plagued by the apocalypse. It was very clever and I commend McCarthy for that!
I found the character of 'The Man' interesting as despite the fact he was falling ill, he was desperate to preserve the life of his son, instead of attempting to get better to protect his son. I found this dynamic fascinating as the generalised assumption is that parents would rather have long lives with their children as opposed to giving teaching them how to survive and dying earlier as consequence. However, when the circumstances of an apocalypse were considered, the second option seemed to be reasonable. As someone who spent most mornings at secondary school back in 2012 ((when everyone believed the world would end)) conspiring of what my friends and I would do, it was very interesting to see how other people would react in an apocalyptic situation, particularly parents.
One of the scenes that stuck a chord with me as a reader and a writer alike was when The Man and The Boy found a can of Coca Cola and The Man gave it to his son to drink as it was unlikely that his son would happen across a commodity that his father was so accustomed to having access too that he would probably not appreciate it as much as his son would. The Man acknowledged in that scene that The Boy wouldn't get those opportunities and as he may never be able to drink a can of Coca Cola again, he gave it to him. I found this scene heart-warming and striking at the same time due to the fact that it reflected the sacrifices families make for their children to access things that their parents may not have been able to.
All in all, I feel that reading McCarthy's work less fascinating than the process of analysing it as both an lit student. However, regardless of how I struggled to engage with the piece, I would recommend it to any new writer that wants to learn about different styles of writing.
Thank you for reading! See you in two weeks for another instalment of Monday Book Reviews!
And remember:
Per Ardua Ad Astra
-Imogen. L. Smiley
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