{"id":68,"date":"2015-01-22T09:48:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=68"},"modified":"2015-01-22T09:48:30","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:48:30","slug":"review-of-cormac-mccarthys-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/22\/review-of-cormac-mccarthys-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

If nothing else, THE ROAD will change the way you look at canned food forever.<\/p>\n

This is the book that I go back to when I’m having a hard time writing tension that isn’t grandiose. And that’s because basic human needs–food, water, shelter–are the cogs that drive this book forward. These readily accepted facets of American life become infused with drama. When the two nameless characters are starving in a desolate countryside and find a can of peaches, those peaches are suddenly *the best thing ever*! Better than defeating Sauron or the Galactic Emperor, or finding the Ark of the Covenant.<\/p>\n

And that’s what I love about this book. The small things–the really personal struggles–become epic triumphs.<\/p>\n

There’s also the monotony. Usually, monotony and repetition kill a book for me. But more than the cannibalistic killers roaming the countryside, the characters’ needs become the antagonists. Their hunger is palpable, and the repetitious patterns undertaken to meet these needs only drives home the quality of the struggle.<\/p>\n

It would have been very easy for McCarthy to write a bleak text about a post-apocalyptic world, but, remarkably, this novel is actually infused with strength. Through the novel’s hardship, the brilliance of the persevering human spirit is portrayed time and time again.<\/p>\n

THE ROAD could have been big and flashy–the post-apocalyptic concept\/genre lends itself to this–but instead is intimately personal, and is decidedly better off as such.<\/p>\n

If you liked the review, like me on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. \u00a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And that’s what I love about this book. The small things–the personal–become epic triumphs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[107,161],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/16\/rantasy-or-hi-fantasy-im-zach\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"\"Rantasy\" or; Hi, Fantasy, I'm Zach","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Place yourself in a writer's shoes, and you find yourself in an interesting situation. First of all, why'd you steal those shoes? Do they even fit you? Secondly, a person asks you \"what's your book about?\" the primary modus used to explain books is by genre. And that's where I\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Fantasy\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/02\/19\/review-of-steven-eriksons-gardens-of-the-moon\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":1},"title":"Review of Steven Erikson's GARDENS OF THE MOON","date":"February 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a tricky review for me because I absolutely love this series (books 2, 3 and 4, specifically). But I didn't love it at first. In fact, I had a pretty hard time getting through it. So here's the deal: if you read this, you need to treat it\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Book Reviews\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1551,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2017\/04\/17\/writing-challenge-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Writing Challenge #1","date":"April 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Ahoy, folksies. I have a new idea! And it stems from my perceived inability to write tension without a threat of violence. But before I get all ahead of myself, let's take a breath and explain. Athletes need to warm up (well, not according to Tallahassee from\u00a0Zombieland, but whatever) and\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Exercise\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}