There are a number of people that piss me off.
Racists. Homophobes. People who litter. Especially people who litter in our countryside. People who don't clean their bird feeders. People with a half-arsed approach to animal care in general. People who never consider that they might be the ones who are wrong . . .
And me. I really piss myself off sometimes.
As a remedy to these curmudgeonly feelings, I either immerse myself in the pages of a good book or I take off for a long walk along a public footpath, preferably in the countryside. In Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road, I was able to follow a father and son on their own long and solitary walk. Theirs fraught with more danger than any I have ever known.
In this novel, set in a post-apocalyptic world, the central theme explored is that of the bond between father and son. Indeed, the novel was inspired by a trip that the author took with his own son to Mexico. And he dedicates the novel to this son.
Being set in a post-apocalyptic world amplifies the fears and concerns that a parent might have for their child - the sort of world that is being passed onto them; how they might survive once they are left without the guiding hand of the parent; the parent's role as protector. McCarthy explores all of these with consideration and tenderness.
The pair, the father and son, must keep moving. In the world that they live in, there are those that would do them harm, and resources must be sought out. Food and clean water are no longer something that can be taken for granted, for example. They must be hunted out and rationed.
I enjoyed the author's style of writing, but this is not an easy novel to read, filled with haunting moments as it is. The father and young son of the book having to traipse along the road they are on, facing the adversities they have to face, really shone a light on the strength and purity of that bond that can exist between a parent and their child. As I say, the situation of the novel throws everything at this pair, challenges that could at any moment tear them apart, but they endure and take strength from their relationship.
Though it is not explicitly mentioned in the book, some have drawn the conclusion that the apocalypse of the story was an environmental crisis. And the lack of animal and plant life, and the sparseness of human life, certainly points towards a mass extinction event. Whereas mentions of unsettled weather in the book points towards climate crisis. However, the author does not explicitly tell the reader what has caused the dead world in which the characters live.
Reading books like this, pondering the story, can really force the reader to consider the circumstances of their own life. All those things that have us running around, concerned and convinced of their importance and urgency, are they really all that important? If you were to lose everything, if you were made to fight, what would you fight for? What is really important? And what can you let go of? Maybe it isn't worth letting all those people piss you off for a start . . .
To purchase a copy of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, follow the link here.
Thank you for reading. If you made it this far, you can support me by buying me a coffee on ko-fi - it keeps me caffeinated and writing!
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