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I have no need for a happy ending to enjoy a work. It's the literary journey, not the destination, that appeals to me. That said, The Road is a story of a son's inherent goodness even while his father despairs and distrusts all strangers even as the boy reaches out to others in empathy. The end of the book validates both the man's protection of his son as well as the goodness within the boy. The boy's goodness is the father's redemption. The man's inevitable death is not in vain.
The worst book I've read? Beats me. They are soon forgotten. It is the treasures - like The Road - that endure in memory.
To each his or her own. It was, hands down, the worst book I ever read.
Like I said, I kept reading it because I kept thinking it would get better - the writing style was good. But yuck.
Hey, don't feel bad though - I also hated a movie that so many people loved - The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Pretty much for the same reason.
I couldn't even tell you the name, but ages ago I was stuck somewhere, bus station, motel room, I don't even remember anymore but I had an old used paperback about a cannibal family who lived in a cave on an island and would sneak over to the mainland to steal victims and eat them. Weird book, so horribly written it was actually funny.
I couldn't even tell you the name, but ages ago I was stuck somewhere, bus station, motel room, I don't even remember anymore but I had an old used paperback about a cannibal family who lived in a cave on an island and would sneak over to the mainland to steal victims and eat them. Weird book, so horribly written it was actually funny.
Oh my gosh!
That sort of reminds me - I recently reread "Island of the Blue Dolphins" (NOT about cannibals) and it was absolutely as good as I remembered it being when I read it as a pre teen!
I wish you could remember the name of that horrible book! I found this, which makes for some entertaining reading anyway!
That sort of reminds me - I recently reread "Island of the Blue Dolphins" (NOT about cannibals) and it was absolutely as good as I remembered it being when I read it as a pre teen!
I wish you could remember the name of that horrible book! I found this, which makes for some entertaining reading anyway!
To each his or her own. It was, hands down, the worst book I ever read.
Like I said, I kept reading it because I kept thinking it would get better - the writing style was good. But yuck.
Hey, don't feel bad though - I also hated a movie that so many people loved - The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Pretty much for the same reason.
I wasn't responding to your subjective dislike, but rather to your specific assertion that the book had no positive ending or redemption. It did, as I laid out. All the horrific trials of the man were validated by the survival of his son. And the innate goodness of the boy was validated when he found others, a family, to join.
The world is full of horror stories. Some people have survived the annihilation of their families, their entire ethnic groups even, their entire existence shattered, and soldiered on and found lives worth living nonetheless. That is the story of The Road.
Hey, don't feel bad though - I also hated a movie that so many people loved - The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Pretty much for the same reason.
One of my daughters had to read that in school a few years ago. She hated it; the whole class hated it. For one thing, they thought the little boy who was the main character was so impossibly idiotic that the whole thing became ridiculous. I think one problem was that the teacher did not explain that it was meant to be a sort of fable, not a "true-to-life" story.
Books I was required to read (school assignments) but didn't find rewarding or enjoyable still probably had some redeeming qualities so the descriptor "worst" was simply my opinion. One that does stick out was Making of the President 1960. Required by a social studies class. I have minimal interest in political history, US bipartisan political history in particular. The book was tedious, uninspiring, and almost slavishly reverent of that past campaign. Happen to hate slavish reverence.
There was some outside context influencing (maybe bolstering) my opinion of the book. The class took place in the fall of a national election year. On top of the book, we were also supposed to pick one of the candidates and follow their campaign; collect newspaper clippings, articles, speeches, and discuss them. None of the candidates seemed worth the attention that would require so I made the conscious decision not to, and was dutifully handed the only D in my entire educational career. The worst part was sitting around the family dining table after report cards arrived trying to justify the grade to my parents. Surprisingly, because I actually did have an explanation they halfway accepted it. Maybe they didn't happen to like the candidates followed in the book or current campaign either.
I can't recall ever sticking out a "worst" book to the bitter end if reading it was voluntary. Like anyone else, I've started reading a number of books and found them terrible. Either the writing itself, plot, characters, whatever. Usually I'll start flipping through the remaining pages to see whether things improve. Usually not. The book is a lost cause. Life's too short to indulge in self torture and there are lots of palate cleansers sitting on my bookshelves.
That sort of reminds me - I recently reread "Island of the Blue Dolphins" (NOT about cannibals) and it was absolutely as good as I remembered it being when I read it as a pre teen!
Some years ago I made a list of memorable books from childhood/adolescence and decided to find copies of the printings I would have read at that time. For most of them, the memory wasn't just the content, but the book itself; illustrations, cover art, overall design, typeface, even the scent of the paper. So evocative.
My mother was a serious book lover who brought home wonderful quality hardbacks for her kids to discover on a regular basis. She also took several to author/illustrator book signings and had them inscribed to the kid who would most likely love that book. I still have mine. Found more "children's books" when the family house belongings were broken up after both parents were gone. My sisters and I picked out the ones that had been "ours" and donated the rest.
Reading these rediscovered editions has been a surprising pleasure. Island of the Blue Dolphins was one of them. They now live in a glass-fronted heirloom bookcase that always used to hold our few small family antiques: great grandparent books, inscribed bibles with birth and death notations, trinkets, coins, medals, framed photos. We always had to ask permission to open that bookcase with its little key to touch those objects. I don't have a lot of family heirlooms besides that bookcase, those few books; a crazy quilt, a few small mementos. The bookcase isn't locked these days, but their new home seems to carry on the family tradition. Very fitting.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-21-2021 at 05:48 PM..
I wasn't responding to your subjective dislike, but rather to your specific assertion that the book had no positive ending or redemption. It did, as I laid out. All the horrific trials of the man were validated by the survival of his son. And the innate goodness of the boy was validated when he found others, a family, to join.
Sure. But the ending is still rather bleak.
McCarthy does a great job of showing the realities of what a global nuclear winter would look like, even if he never outright states it. Throughout the story, the ONLY forms of life left are a few scattered humans (surviving largely on leftover preserves they can scavenge or by cannibalism) and lice (living off the humans). That's it. Everything else is dead. It hardly paints an optimistic future for the boy. He survived, yes, but for how long?
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