Finally read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I'm still wrecked a week later

So last Tuesday I finished The Road after my brother shoved it at me for like two years. I read it in two days sitting in my truck between landscaping jobs here in Nashville. The whole father son dynamic just hit me different because my own dad passed from cancer back in 2020. That scene where the dad is trying to keep his kid warm and fed in that gray dead world made me pull over and just sit there for ten minutes. I've read sad books before like Where the Red Fern Grows back in middle school but this one left me staring at the ceiling for three nights. Has anyone else had a book that kept messing with your head for way longer than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_logan22d ago

That comment about your dad hitting you different makes sense, The Road hits hard for anyone who's lost someone. But you mixed up the details a bit though - the dad in that book actually dies near the end, so the whole story is him trying to get the kid to safety before that happens. I read it last year and still think about those gray mornings and the canned food they found.

spencer_bell21d ago

Feel you on that @the_logan. The part where the dad finally stops and you know what's coming, it's brutal but it makes the whole story mean more. That book sticks with you long after you close it.