Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

[fightingquaker13]

Eat, yes, squeal, not so much.
FQ13

[Badgersmilk]

Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" in review:

ARRRRGGGHHHHH!  I got to page 127 and couldnt take the freakin annoying little kid anymore!!!  In 127 pages NOTHING happened!!!!  I got fed up and went to the last five pages of the book...  WHY, WHY, WHY the F@#$ did this McCarthy turd write this horrible, horrible, go nowhere, do nothing book!?!?!?

Question 1: They never say, so I'm left wondering what possibly occured to "end the world".  The entire book talks of nothing but burnt out tree's, inches of ashes on EVERYTHING, even inside the untouched houses (that still have perfect wood shelves, furnature, and glass windows!  Volcanic ash?  I dont know, but wish the two main charcters would have shot themselves with their two remaining bullets in "papa's revolver!"

Question 2:  HOW do you push a shopping buggy hundreds of miles "through the woods"?!?!?!

Question 3:  How do you make a movie out of THIS?

Having read the ending chapter, it was VERY easy to see I missed NOTHING in skipping ahead!

I'm done!  Rant / review OVER.

Phwew!  Back to the Ian Fleming series for me!
 

[fightingquaker13]

So much for me taking that along with me as vacation reading. Long,slow, wordy, deppresing and vague. It sounds like one of my ex-girlfriends, I'll pass.
FQ13

[Hazcat]

I once interrupted a drug deal in Valdosta, right along the interstate, when my brother and I drove down to FL for Christmas with my Dad.

2AM, I was driving, tired, finishing my driving stint, saw florescents off the highway at an interchange. Pulled off and into the almost abandoned parking lot of a restaurant, closed for the night. One other car, by the front of the restuaraant, driver's door, hood and trunk open, a beater. I pulled into a corner of the parking lot under a light, and we got out (brother, his wife and mine, and I) and stretched our legs. At this point I noticed simultaneously 2 things - a car down the road to the west through the trees - lights on but not moving. And a scruffy looking scrawny-assed hairy dude coming from behind the restaurant who started moving very fast when he saw us.

I yelled at everyone to get into the car, and of course the girls are saying - not so fast, we're still stretching, etc. - at which point I am shoving people into the car. The scrawny-assed guy was faster - closed all open items and drove off at break-neck speed eastbound. The headlights down the road went after him - also at high speed, and a 3rd car I had NOT seen right outside the parking lot threw a louie and took off at high speed as well. My brother was driving, and at this point understood exactly what was going on and he was doing 80 when we hit the bottom of the on-ramp to the interstate.

I give FQ 30 minutes of life when he bugs out on foot across the GA border. Unless he knows how to squeel like a pig!!        (another film reference, anyone?)

Too easy!

[ratcatcher55]

So much for me taking that along with me as vacation reading. Long,slow, wordy, deppresing and vague. It sounds like one of my ex-girlfriends, I'll pass.
FQ13

Get Patient Zero, much better read.

[Sponsor]

[bestseller92]

There's no accounting for taste(s).

I thought it was an excellent book. 

The best I've ever read?  No, but still very good.

It's not a survivalist book so much as it is a book about relationships, the human condition and love.

Mainly it asks the question, "When all hope is lost, is it still worth it to go on, or should we just lay down and die?"

And the answer is, "Yes, it IS worth it to go on."

That's what I got out of it, anyway.

[tombogan03884]

There's no accounting for taste(s).

I thought it was an excellent book.  

The best I've ever read?  No, but still very good.

It's not a survivalist book so much as it is a book about relationships, the human condition and love.

Mainly it asks the question, "When all hope is lost, is it still worth it to go on, or should we just lay down and die?"

And the answer is, "Yes, it IS worth it to go on."

That's what I got out of it, anyway.

Dumb questions like this are asked by self impressed assholes sitting comfortably in a college town coffee shop, more interested in impressing the girls than actually learning about life by getting their hands dirty experiencing it. (generally they are French or liberal )
If you are still going on then hope is never lost.
A couple of examples from our own early years , Mountain MEN:
Hugh Glass, In a fight with a Grizzly that he killed with a knife, he was so badly mauled his companions left him for dead after taking his weapons and anything that might have been of value to Indians. He not only kept himself alive, but made it to a settlement to get reoutfitted and return to the mountains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass
Then there was John Colter, captured by the Indians, he was stripped and forced to run the Gauntlet, when he got to the end he kept on going, for 80 miles until he got to an Army post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Colter#Colter.27s_Run
REAL men know that being able to ask the question is it's own answer.

[Badgersmilk]

Tom's exactly right!  

Early on in the book the wife starts freaking out.  "What are you going to do when they come for us?"  She basicly tell's her husband he's not man enough to protect her, then goes outside and kills herself for fear of somebody rapeing her one day!?!?!  That's a story of love?  

If I hadent thrown the book in the bathroom garbage with dirty Q-tips and such (on purpose.  It didnt deserve kitchen garbage) I'd directly quote it.  But this is an example of ANY page in the book.

Pappa, I'm very hungry.

We'll eat soon.

Pappa, I'm very hungry

I'm sorry, we dont have any food.

Pappa, what if we dont eat soon?

We'll be alright.

Pappa, what if we dont eat for a long time?

That won't happen.

Pappa, what if it did?

We'd eventually die.

Pappa, would we just fall over dead?

Yes, something like that.  But we'll find food.

And EVERY TIME they just happen to wonder accross an abandon house with something to eat.

All the while PUSHING A SHOPPING BUGGY FULL OF THE KIDS TOYS THROUGH THE WOODS!!!!  AAAARRRRGGGHHH!

They kept a tarp and blankets in backpacks, but never left the freaking buggy!

Somebody please tell me what burns all tree's, leaves houses untouched, kill's most all life (fish, animals, people), covers EVERYTHING with inches of ash, yet doesnt contaminate water, harm roads, and allow's you to easily hide in a completely burnt out woods?  Aliens?  Why else did all the tree's burn, but houses didnt?  Water is still safe to drink, but no fish to eat?  It's been like 10 years since this happened and the guy's "gas fueled" lighter still works to make a camp fire every night (with pre-burnt wood presumably).  Nothing in this book makes sense.  

But yes, I'll agree.  There's no accounting for taste.