The Road by Cormac Mc Carthy wasn't an easy book to read. Not beacuase of the depressing characteristic of the story, no; and definitely not because of the supposed nightmare-inducing nature of what it describes. By the way it is often described, you may think The Road is the stuff horror writers think when they cry, some sort of uber play of dark storystelling. To a point, it is; or rather, it tries to be. Does it manage being so?
The novel is too long. Much too long. Yes, the plot is unimportant. Yes, the pacing is snail-slow. Yes, it skews over any type of deep characterization and basically says Fuck You to every idiot out there that believes in the Rule Of Cool. This is not a bad thing, and if anything this is what saves it from being a bad or an average book: it is not original in its story, but in its way of telling it. But what happens when you stripe out all the normal points of interest of a book and replace them with basicaly 200 pages of <Depressing Background Description>?
Boredom. And Oh Dear Jesus Christ has there ever been a more desperating, tedious, yawn-inducing piece of disguntingly bland matter than The Road. This is further deepened by the fact that, once you go down to it, it isn't even that terrifyng. Yes, Cormac, I know the world is dying. Yes Cormac, I know there are cannibals that eat babies. Yes Cormac, I knoooow that depressing depression rules uncontended. By page 30 i already guessed accurately what was the backstory, what the author won't tell me, more of less a basic outline of what will happen and how would the book end. I really don't know what happened here. Maybe Americans really are easily inpressed. Maybe Hype Backslash really is that poweerful. Or maybe This Troper is that fucked-up. But I didn't even find the book to be so melancholic, harsh or violent. Or maybe it is, sure, but there is no effect on the reader.
And you know what's sad? It could have had. If this book had been only half as long; heck, if the book had been a short story, I would consider it one of the prime pieces of art of the first 2000 decade. But it isn't. It just an overlong, tedious idea that goes nowhere and is dead predictable.
Original and atmospheric; yet overlong and overhyped
The Road by Cormac Mc Carthy wasn't an easy book to read. Not beacuase of the depressing characteristic of the story, no; and definitely not because of the supposed nightmare-inducing nature of what it describes. By the way it is often described, you may think The Road is the stuff horror writers think when they cry, some sort of uber play of dark storystelling. To a point, it is; or rather, it tries to be. Does it manage being so?
Not really.
Why doesn't it manage to be so? Some o the worst cases of Hype Overlash and Protection From Editors This Troper has seen in his life.
The novel is too long. Much too long. Yes, the plot is unimportant. Yes, the pacing is snail-slow. Yes, it skews over any type of deep characterization and basically says Fuck You to every idiot out there that believes in the Rule Of Cool. This is not a bad thing, and if anything this is what saves it from being a bad or an average book: it is not original in its story, but in its way of telling it. But what happens when you stripe out all the normal points of interest of a book and replace them with basicaly 200 pages of <Depressing Background Description>?
Boredom. And Oh Dear Jesus Christ has there ever been a more desperating, tedious, yawn-inducing piece of disguntingly bland matter than The Road. This is further deepened by the fact that, once you go down to it, it isn't even that terrifyng. Yes, Cormac, I know the world is dying. Yes Cormac, I know there are cannibals that eat babies. Yes Cormac, I knoooow that depressing depression rules uncontended. By page 30 i already guessed accurately what was the backstory, what the author won't tell me, more of less a basic outline of what will happen and how would the book end. I really don't know what happened here. Maybe Americans really are easily inpressed. Maybe Hype Backslash really is that poweerful. Or maybe This Troper is that fucked-up. But I didn't even find the book to be so melancholic, harsh or violent. Or maybe it is, sure, but there is no effect on the reader.
And you know what's sad? It could have had. If this book had been only half as long; heck, if the book had been a short story, I would consider it one of the prime pieces of art of the first 2000 decade. But it isn't. It just an overlong, tedious idea that goes nowhere and is dead predictable.