A bleak tale of a man and his son's struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. They walk along 'the road', but there doesn't seem to be any end destination in mind, besides finding food and avoiding the cannibals. As you can imagine from that brief description, it's a pretty darn harrowing read. Food supplies are limited or contaminated, and at several points in the book they are forced to abandon the majority of their measly possessions, and are on the brink of starvation before things conveniently work out at the last minute (this happened one too many times for it to be believable, for me anyway).
I found it very easy to read, partially because of the 'surely they can't escape death yet again?' angle, and because I really couldn't see how it could end, other than them both just dying, but partially because of the style of writing. Very short, simplistic sentences - but it really worked because that way the choice and use of words was so measured, so deliberate that it was really powerful and very emotive. I read it cover to cover in 2, maybe 3 sittings at most, over less that 36 hours, which allowed me to get fully drawn into the haunting world and the misery of it all.
Again, it's not really a fun book, but it is undeniably beautiful, and really outstandingly written. I thought it was pretty brill frankly, so I give it a 8.5/10.
I know it was made in to a film a year or two back, but I'm not sure how keen I am to watch it. What I liked about it was the way the story was told, rather than the story itself. Have you seen it? Let me know if you think it's worth a watch!
I thought the movie was good, but not anywhere near as good as the book, but I could only watch it if I was in a particular mood so it sat on my shelf for a while waiting.
ReplyDeleteI always find film adaptions really disappointing if they're not absolutely perfect, so maybe I'll give this one a miss :) Thanks though!
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