Stay off "The Road"

I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly and I have done so now for about five years. For some reason, when people find this out, they are somewhat surprised that I would be interested in the entertainment world (like it's gay or something). I mean, it's not like I subscribe to US magazine. Anyway, Stephen King has been writing for EW for a couple of years now, and at the end of each year he does a top ten list of his favorite books. Last year he picked "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth, so I decided to read it. It was an interesting concept.

"The Plot Against America explores a wholly imagined thesis and sees it through to the end: Charles A. Lindbergh defeats FDR for the Presidency in 1940. Lindbergh, the "Lone Eagle," captured the country's imagination by his solo Atlantic crossing in 1927 in the monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, then had the country's sympathy upon the kidnapping and murder of his young son. He was a true American hero: brave, modest, handsome, a patriot. According to some reliable sources, he was also a rabid isolationist, Nazi sympathizer, and a crypto-fascist. It is these latter attributes of Lindbergh that inform the novel."

I read it, but I thought it was just ok. This year, Mr. King picked "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (Oprah subsequently picked it for her book club pick, but let's ignore that). Well, I decided to read it and sitting here in bed all day gave me the opportunity to devote some time to it.

Here's the description of the book: "A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food-—and each other."

Sounds interesting, right? Well, it really wasn't. In fact, it was pretty boring. And I'm still not really sure what the whole point of the book was. The book is about 250 pages long, but it's written in blue-hair font, so it's really only about 150 pages in a normal font size. I think this was the first time that I have ever read a book where I thought the movie version would probably be a lot more interesting.

My definition of a good book is a book that I think about long after I have finished reading it. Recent examples of "good" books include "The Prestige" by Christopher Priest (don't see the movie) and "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry (tv miniseries was great). Examples of "bad" books include "Tuesdays with Morrie" (way too cheesy and boring) and "Hannibal Rising" (probably the worst book I have ever read). I haven't thought about "The Road" at all. So...two guys walk around looking for food. Zzzzzz.

I'm well-aware that many media outlets have called "The Road" the best book of the year. Fine. Maybe I have bad tastes in books. Instead of hopping on the bandwagon and professing my love for this "literary masterpiece" I will disagree and say "The Road" is poorly-written and ultimately pointless (much like this review). If a dystopian view of the future is what you are after, I would recommend "Farenheit 451" or "1984."