The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My uncle likes Cormac McCarthy, and I remember talking with him about The Road years ago. I kind of forgot about McCarthy for a while, but after he passed away in 2023, I saw the news and felt like it was time to pick up one of his books. I started with a few of his westerns before finally diving into The Road.

In an ash-covered America, a father and his young son push everything they own in a beat-up cart, trying to make their way to the coast. Starvation looms, and the threat of cannibalism is never far away, but the father keeps reminding his son that they’re “carrying the fire,” holding onto goodness even when the world gives them every reason to give up.

As the father’s health declines and the world grows colder and more dangerous, the journey is no longer just about surviving together; it’s about preparing his son to survive on his own. In the end, the father must trust that the values he’s taught will be enough, and that somewhere out there, the “good guys” still exist.

It’s ironic that McCarthy is generally known as a Western writer, but his most popular book is The Road, which is dystopian (a branch of science fiction). In 2007, it won the Pulitzer Prize, arguably the most prestigious award in American literature. McCarthy was inspired to write it after a visit to El Paso with his young son (whom the book is dedicated to), where he had a post-apocalyptic vision of the city and imagined how his child might survive in such a world.

The book shows just how much humans depend on each other to survive, not only physically but emotionally. Even with the world destroyed, it keeps asking whether being a good person still matters when there’s no one left to judge you. At the center of everything is the relationship between the father and son. Because we see just how harsh this world can go (cannibalism and worse), the high stakes make you deeply invested, wanting them to “succeed” — whatever success even means in a world like this.

McCarthy’s style is really unique. I once heard a famous author give advice: “Breaking the traditional rules of writing rarely works, but if you do it successfully, those become the books that generate a cult following.” That’s basically McCarthy; you read his work not just for the story, but for the way he tells it.

His writing has a flowy, almost oral quality. He uses no quotation marks, few commas or apostrophes, and mixes long, flowing sentences with stark, punchy ones. I like it, but you have to be fully immersed for it to work. Settle into the rhythm and let yourself imagine it as if someone were telling the story aloud. If you’re reading in short bursts or aren’t fully focusing, you might keep getting kicked out of the narrative.

I read several of his westerns before moving on to The Road. He describes landscapes and environments so well that, even though I knew it was post-apocalyptic, the setting still surprised me. I’ve seen plenty of movies in similar worlds (The Book of Eli, Mad Max), but I was happy to experience that backdrop through literature. The world feels real and lived-in, and even though the environment is different from his other works, it carries the same dark tone.

It’s definitely violent, with scenes like cannibalism, so it’s not kid-friendly. The constant fear the father and son live with seeps into the reader; I was tense almost the whole time. There’s a push and pull: you want to believe they’ll make it, but you’re genuinely worried. Some writers always give you a happy ending, but with McCarthy, you’re never sure, and that makes his books feel more honest.

I’d definitely recommend trying The Road. If dystopias aren’t your type, I’d still recommend checking out one of McCarthy’s other books. I’ve put together a list of his most popular works HERE, and I’ll probably do a full review of one of his westerns at some point.

EDIT: After writing this review, I finished the last of his most famous novels I hadn’t read yet — No Country for Old Men — and it confirmed him as one of my favorite authors. He hasn’t missed in anything I’ve read so far.