Further Along, The Road
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.
