Having seen film adaptation of The Road, I had some idea of what the writing in the novel would be like. My previous notions about the world in Cormac McCarthy's novel have rung true. The world McCarthy creates in just the first 20 pages is staggeringly empty. Besides the man and the boy, there is simply no life in the introductory pages of the book. He utilizes many of what I would call depressing adjectives to describe the post-apocalyptic setting, such as "silent", "gray", and "cold". This really drives home the message that the man and the boy are very much alone in this world. Nothing is alive, no fish in a lake, birds in the sky, or trees on the horizon. I have a feeling the rest of the novel will maintain the same tone set from the beginning. I'm ready to cry many times.
The structure of the novel, while at first a bit off-putting, fits it well. There are no chapters, simply a linear description of happenings (or rather, the lack of happenings) from third person omniscient point of view. Each paragraph is like an entry in a diary, separated from every other paragraph. Rarely is a paragraph longer than a page. The result is a bunch of loosely connected descriptions of the world around the man and the boy. At least so far, there is not a huge amount of action happening, allowing this structure to work. The novel focuses on the world and setting, but the other big focus is on the relationship of the boy and the man. Their dialogue is simplistic and concise. Even quotations marks are not used. It is reminiscent of a Kafka work, because the wording is very simple but it requires analysis and represents something larger than what is originally apparent.
The first few sections of the novel provide some interesting dialogue and set up. McCarthy's style is simple and tasteful. Fragmented, short paragraphs help the novel flow well over what is long period of time, and the tone is established very quick. I am ready to see what the rest of the novel will bring, as well as its differences from the film version.
