The Road

So as you may have guessed from my previous posts i have given up on Brisingr. I have started a new book in the spirit of reading ATPH I started reading The Road. I got this book last winter but I didn't have the will to force myself to read this post apocolyptic novel, but now since we are already reading one Cormac McCarthy book I might as well read another. I started the book which is about a father and a son traveling to the west coast of america on what is left of a interstate highway. The destruction of the world is never explained but it is hinted at being cause by nuclear war. Since they often refer to the burned charred remains of buildings. The father and the son are never named in the book signifying that they could easily be anybody or they are a symbol of humans in general not specific people. Cormac describes them as "each others world entire" meaning that without each other neither of them would be able to survive and the only reason they still have the will to live is for the other person. Thus far in the book they have not encountered any other people but they have discussed the prospect of being attacked by "bloodcults". One mildly confusing aspect of the book is that it drifts between the past and the present describing the man's wife before the apocolypse there are no transitions to these aspects except that occasionally the flashbacks are preceded by the man or the boy falling asleep. The book is terrifying and sad somehow Cormac is able to make a boys nightmare about a toy penguin that when you would up it walked around, but the boy saw it moving around and the key in it's back wasn't moving send a shiver down my spine. The book is unbelievably sad as it describes the death of humanity and a father and son's fight to survive. They are trying to get to the west coast simply so they have a goal to go through even though they are forced to walk through the freezing cold rockey mountains with little provisions, this shows that people need a goal and aspirations in order to maintain their will to live.