Further Along, The Road

Legend Of The Purple Valley - Hiromi

I stated in my yesterday's post that The Road's first 100 pages didn't leave a good impression to me.

Well, because I do not jump to another novel without finishing what I'm currently reading, I forced myself through The Road. And because I was bored in scanning the book verbatim, I skimmed through it instead. I finished it, and in retrospect, the book did become better towards the middle. Although the same routine happened in the latter half of the book, the drama grew a little more intense (although it's still subdued, which was the intended tone of the book). Amidst the post-apocalyptic world's despair, the 2 protagonists (the man and the boy) did share a few happy moments, moments where all hope may not be lost. I believe that good times and hard times both reveal different dimensions of a character, and Cormac handled this pretty well in the book.

In my opinion, a reason the first half of the book was boring was because of the stagnancy. The book was expected to be depressing, and I do have high tolerance (and I actually like) reading depressing novels, but the mood was a steady state signal – without ups or downs. I didn't enjoy much of the dialogues because they repeated: the boy asked if they're going to die, the man said no, the boy asked if daddy's sure, the man said yes, and the boy ended with okay.

The latter half of the book was more refreshing, because good things happened to both leads. These happy moments became precious and cherish-worthy because they were so sparse. And like I said before, they showed different side of the leads' characters. I was moved by the heart-wrenching ending. The characters grew with the trials they face, and they learned to accept the things they cannot change. Without going to spoilers, I can say I was very satisfied with how the book ended.

Despite my praises, I still maintain that this book is flawed. The goal of going south was a red herring and I grew angry about that. I'm sure the book was rife with metaphors that require mulling, but I do not understand what going south was supposed to symbolize. And since the book's first half was a bore, I say approach the book with caution. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel went a long way. The Road may not hold up with other Pulitzer Prize winners (that I have read), but it does have its moments.