The Road Not Watched

Wow.  I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road a couple of nights ago.  The novel was awarded the Pulitzer prize, and was extremely well written and readable.  It was also an undoubtedly haunting read, perhaps made even more so to me by the fact that I am the father of a boy who is not too much younger than the boy in the book.  One of the 'good guys'.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, it follows the journey of a father and his young son through a post apocalyptic landscape as they travel towards the coast in desperate hopes of finding some sort of salvation there.  It is winter, they are under clothed, under sheltered, and have to scavenge mightily for the precious little they find to eat.

The lack of available food throughout this dark landscape leads to bodily dangers beyond simple starvation, and adds notable suspense to the storyline.

But it's the choices which had to be made by the father and his young son which will stick with me for a long, long time to come.  Especially the Father's final choice as the story came to a close.  It was a gut-wrenching ending and one which has left me speculating on how exactly I would handle such a situation myself.

Thankfully, I will never have to.

Throughout it all, it was the boy who stood out as the brightest spot in an otherwise dark tale.  That really resonated with me because during my journey through fatherhood, Lukas has always been such a bright spot in each and every day.

Mrs. LIAYF preceded me in reading the book, and before I had carved out time read it too, I put the movie in our Netflix Queue.  The movie has sat on top of our television for a few weeks now.  She has maintained that, although she felt the book was a good read, she had no desire to watch the movie.  I haven't yet sent the movie back, because I didn't really understand.

I do now. 

I'll be putting the disc back into it's envelope tonight and mailing it back to Netflix.  Although I'm sure it's a great film adaptation of the novel, I really don't need to watch it too.  The book was enough.

What about you readers?  Have you read the book, and what did you think?  Did you also watch the movie, and which came first?  And finally, what type of event do you think caused the destruction?