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StreetcarZero t1_j9xva1d wrote

It is extremely extremely desolate. I personally love post apocalyptic, survival, prepper - ish stuff but everything I've read before 'The Road' was Sesame Street. Throw out all the cool plot building and factions. Colorful characters with deep back stories and character archs don't exist here. Its a man trying to keep his son alive. There is no real hope. It's prolly the closest I've read to a actual reality and that is what shook me the most. No speeches or grandstanding. No heroic last stands or helping others. Me being a parent, it's the absolute worst case scenario. Terrifying to be honest. I'm glad I read it tho. What people can do and become is more terrifying than anything that can be put in paper. Man o man. Reader beware.

Truly dread. 10/10 would not do it again

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SnowdriftsOnLakes t1_j9y3rg6 wrote

If there is a better description of this book, I don't know it.

I personally think it's a masterpiece, but it's extremely bleak. Do not read it while depressed as I did. Would not recommend.

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starspangledxunzi t1_j9z9dvj wrote

I still find it hilarious that it was a Father’s Day selection for Oprah’s Book Club. I mean, the epitome of interns making a recommendation based on the synopsis, without reading the book. Conceptually I get it: it’s a father protecting his child. But I have to imagine an awkward gathering of book club ladies silently staring into their wine glasses, wondering how many others in the discussion group Did Not Finish.

That said, the novel contains magically lyrical passages about being a parent in a dangerous world. There’s no writer like McCarthy.

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terracottatilefish t1_j9yxrpd wrote

I am so glad I read this book before I had kids because I could appreciate it as the harrowing work of art that it is without really understanding how parenthood would affect my reading. I have kids now, and my oldest is approximately the same age as the boy in the book, and I will never read it again.

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