This was last month's selection for my book group. I couldn't go to the book group meeting because it was on the same night as the Nursery Parent's Evening at Abigail's school.
This was a serious shame.
This was one of the most disturbing and fascinating books I have ever read. I can't even begin to tell you what it all meant. I was desperate to discuss it with someone else. Anyone else.
A father and son are trying to get from somewhere in the middle of the USA to a coastline, I presume the west coast after the world (or at least the USA) as been annihilated. We don't how or who or what has caused the destruction. Only that there might be hope.
It is a world of ash and bitter cold where cannibalistic marauders roam the countryside. In this dire place, a man and his son travel towards the sea armed only with a revolver and two bullets. Amid this desolation, a tin of canned pears is a treasure, and a broken wheel on their shopping cart can mean the difference between life and death. Their love for each other is fierce, but the son fears that his father has, in his desperation, become as savage and brutal as the world around him. Cormac McCarthy writes with a searing white heat, his images and language strike deep in the reader, and his vision of humanity is inexorable and haunting.
The book reads more like poetry than prose. The dialogue is painfully honest and lyrical.
Read this book. Don't forget it. Think about it. Perhaps read it again. And again.
When you figure it out, let me know.
NOTE: Since I wasn't there I'm not sure what the book group selection for next month is. Will keep y'all posted.
LATE EDIT: The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney is the choice for October.
2 comments:
This sounds fascinating - I'll be looking for it at my Libr.
My reading list is getting longer. I took TKR with me to the doctor's office today. It is the first time I hoped it would take awhile to get in to see a doctor.
Sue
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