Cormac McCarthy - The Road (2006)

The theme and story is very easily compressed in to two words post-apocalyptic and survival. The world we meet is covered by an ever grey sky with an acidic atmosphere, a result of an untold disaster, one that left very little life left on our beloved planet. Cannibalic tribes roam the world and our narrator and his son sets off to seek the warmth of the southern coast of what once was America. escaping the coming winter.

The language is written in a very straightforward way. The book isn't divided in tochapters and the story is told in dialogue and describing texts. However simple it may seem the story is a gripping and moving one. The son on one side is not aware of the world before the catastrophe and only knows of that world from his fathers stories about those days. He doubts many of the things his father says. The narrator/father on the other hand is focused on one thing and one thing alone - to get to the Sea by all means necessary and to all ends.

The unconditional love between the father and son is a central theme, as is the ever present question wether life is worth living and how much of a life they live. With the constant hunt for food and the need to feed we are of course made aware of our fragile lifestyle. Where we as humans have domesticised ourselves and removed what was once instinct in us - to find food and survive. Something the inhabitants in this place has gone back to. Set as another theme is the doubt in God and the disbelief in prophets. More symbolically I'd say personally that his disbelief is aimed at the religious system and that faith itself should be brought back on the agenda instead of customs and traditions

Det finns ingen Gud och vi är hans profeter.
There is no God, and we are his prophets

And of course some existentialism to fuel the fire

Varje dag är en lögn, sa han.
Men du är på väg att dö. Det är ingen lögn
Every day is a lie, he said. But you are dying / about to die That's no lie

To sum the book up I can say that it is a book that will stay on mine and in your mind for a time. A book that might get you thinking and not taking things for granted and with a little luck it might even get you to appreciate day-to-day marvels and luxuries that you have been taking for granted. If not for anything else - take this as a week's resort in to a Pulitzer Prize awarded work. Escape in to a world with such rich language that it sometimes stuns me with in it's descriptions

Världen skulle snart befolkas av människor som åt barn inför ögonen på deras föräldrar och städerna behärskas av ligor av svärtade plundrare som plöjde genom ruinerna och krälade fram ur spillrorna med vitlysande tänder och ögon, bärande på brända och anonyma konservburkar i nätkassar som shoppare i helvetets lagerhus.
Det mjuka svarta pudret blåste fram över gatorna likt bläckfiskbläck som ringlade ut sig över en havsbotten och kölden smög sig ner och mörkret föll tiidigt och roffarna som drog fram genom de branta skrevornamed sina facklor trampade silkeslena hål i drivorna av aska som slöt sig bakom dem tyst som ögon.
(A translation of my own back in to the original language wouldn't make it justice. And I find it quite a shame that I didn't read it in English right from the start.)

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First things ... last.
The reason I got in to reading McCarthy at all was because of the splendid filmatization of his work No Country for Old Men which was rewarded rightfully with four Academy Award wins. The same destiny is apparantly set for this book and it's a work in progress. interestingly indeed, Viggo Mortensen Is the narrator from what I can read. Screen date is set as late November this year.


And if I were to rate it on the standardized 1-10 scale. It's a 9. The times I have resorted to tears are, unfortunately, easily counted on one hand's fingers. But if I would, I would have shed one after parting with these two characters that kept me company for the time our journey together lasted. But that's ok. Or as the narrator says in his own created creed that he repeats to his son.

We're going to be okay, arent we Papa? (son)
Yes. We are.
And nothing bad is going to happen to us. (son)
That's right.
Because we're carrying the fire. (son)
Yes. Because we're carrying the fire.