Nov 14 2007
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
The next NY Salon book discussion will be on Wednesday, November 14 at 7pm.
The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth.
Stealing across this horrific landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief. McCarthy’s impressions of mankind have left very little place for love.
The entire world is, quite literally, dying so the final affirmation of hope in the novel’s closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father’s rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith.
These discussions are open to NY Salon members only. If you are a non-member you may join now or attend one session as a non-member. Please contact jean@nysalon.org for more information.The New York Salon aims to raise the level of discussion of our culture – from politics and business to science and the arts. We seek to provide environments in which ideas can be robustly debated among critically-minded people from a variety of backgrounds. Whatever the forum – discussing a novel, arguing the merits of a museum exhibition, or organizing a public debate – our goal is the same: to ensure that the assumptions underlying the pressing issues of the day are thoroughly examined.
Jean SmithDirector NY Salon
