So I know this is a bit late as most of you have read this but...
I found this book to be powerful so I figured I'd write a quick little blurb. I figure it can't hurt.
So I am sitting at the dinner table tonight watching Dallin shove an over-sized hamburger into his face, as I sip some generic root beer and munch on salt and vinegar chips. And it hits me...wow what a feast. How fortunate we are and don't even know it. How beautiful this world, how much we have.
Most Post-apocalyptic stories are of surviving and rebuilding. Beating the odds and living to see a brighter day. Not so with this book. The world is dead, the environment ruined, and man clings to the dregs of our present, eking out a few more miserable years all the while feeding off other men, and not only figuratively.
I guess the powerful part was being faced with utter hopelessness, what is the point in going on? To perpetuate the species? That will end soon in such a world. For the first time ever in a book I found myself thinking that those that gave up had the right idea. The wife was right. Was it wrong of the group with the pregnant woman to do what they did? Was there another option?
Now this was from an outside perspective from a person who could see what it meant if all the plants were dead and all the fish in the sea were too, the sun blotted out with ash. I suppose, put in the middle of the situation I would fight on as the Man did. At least I would hope to. And who knows maybe some lived to see a brighter day after even such a catastrophe.
Anyways, from my limited knowledge of the subject I feel that this is one of the best books of American literature. The prose is spartan but poetic and so profound at times that I did could not fathom it. Read it if you have not.
6 comments:
Yes, very good book and I loved his writing style. So much so that I read his other books. The boarder series was worth reading...
All the Pretty Horses
The Crossing
Cities of the Plain
I've started this one, about 1/2 way done, its a good read, confusing at times though.
Let us know what you thing of the ending when you get there.
So, that man and woman that found him?? Where did they come from, are they real? Good book, some of the writing near the ned was beautiful.
So the man and woman that found him bugged me. I didn't question that they were real. I thought either they were ignorant that the earth was dead and/or perhaps decided that death comes to everyone anyway so there was no reason to get all worked up about it. But it did bug me how dismissive they were of the boys trauma. Please explain how they might be un-real...perhaps I'll like that ending better.
It was just odd to me that they happened to show up just as the boy needed them, that they had weaponry, other kids he could play with, didn't eat other humans, so I questioned their reality. Also that they knew there was a man with him. Where they following them for a while? It was confusing.
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