What I learned over the weekend.

I learned that it's really, really stupid to read some dark apocalyptic quasi-horror fiction right before bedtime.

I know. I'm a real genius.

I finally got around to reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and geez, if you're looking for scary imagery, depression, and cannibalism, do I have the book for you. As when discussing True Crime, "enjoy" is not really the word that can be applied to reading a book like this. But I did read the whole thing, and then spent a couple of nights working it out in my subconscious with nightmares. Yikes:

"He wrapped their coats each in turn around the trunk of a small tree and twisted out the water. He had the boy take off his clothes and he wrapped him in one of the blankets and while he stood shivering he wrung the water out of his clothes and passed them back. The ground where they'd slept was dry and they sat there with the blankets draped over them and ate apples and drank water. Then they set out upon the road again, slumped and cowled and shivering in their rags like mendicant friars sent forth to find their keep." (p. 106.)

No, I'm not going to share any of the disturbing cannibal bits with you. I will not be held responsible for your nightmares. The story is simple: the end of the world is come, everything's destroyed and smoking, and a man and his son are out wandering the road, trying to make it to the coast, scavenging what they can to eat, and avoiding the few other humans still alive. And, if you want to know what the end of the world looks like, they're filming the movie: outside Pittsburgh.

In another interesting twist, Mr. CR spent the weekend reading The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman, a nonfiction account of what the world would look like, well, without us. Hm. I'm reading fiction and he's reading nonfiction? Up is down! Black is white! Maybe this is a sign of the end times. If it is, I can promise you I'm going to lay right down wherever I am and die. No walking to the coast with a grocery cart, avoiding other deranged and starving remnants of the human race, for this girl.

Comments

[J.S. Peyton]

You know, I'm not one to freely admit that I've been scared off by a book... but The Road scares me. I'm still waiting for the day when I think I have enough emotional armor to deal with it. I'm slowly working my way through other McCarthy books so maybe after I've read his other works, I'll feel better prepared.

Nick Hornby wrote the best review I've ever read of this book, calling it "the most miserable book" he'd ever read. And he liked it.

He writes, "Reading The Road is rather like attending the beautiful funeral of someone you love who has died young. You’re happy that the ceremony seems to be going so well, and you know you’ll remember the experience for the rest of your life, but the truth is that you’d rather not be there at all."

[Jessica]

I read both of these, and I'd advise that you don't read them back to back!

Or, hey, why not? Then you can watch "Requiem for a Dream" right afterward and make a weekend of it.

[Venta]

Is it just eerie or a coincidence that I read your post right after starting The Great Derangement? I'm just saying... AND I just finished a book that totally freaked me out - The Exception by Christian Jungerson. I'll never complain about my office mates again - or at least until this book wears off.

[Citizen Reader]

J.S.,
Yup, you've got to be in the right place for "The Road." I was in a very weird place this weekend and read all sorts of fiction I wouldn't have normally. Maybe just the story overload also contributed to my nightmares. Weird, I can read the darkest NF and sleep like a baby, but eerie fiction keeps me up. Hm.

I hear the other McCarthy books are DARK as well. Want to read them too but will have to wait a bit.

And thank you for the Hornby quote. I'm not huge on Hornby's fiction but I LOVE his book reviewing. And he's exactly right on this one. What a weird description from him, but right on.

Jessica,
Oomph, back to back, I couldn't have done that. I was so weirded out by the subways flooding the minute we're gone story in The World Without Us that I couldn't even read the whole thing. And "Requiem for a Dream," tough movie to watch. Pair that one up with Trainspotting and you've got a real upper of a weekend.

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
You may be in for some nightmares after The Great Derangement too. I hope you like it--it starts a bit slow but hang in there until he describes how politics really "works" in the capitol building (mainly after 4 a.m.). So sad.

Hm, this "The Exception" of which you speak. Sounds intriguing. Fiction? Nonfiction? I'll have to look into it...

[Venta]

The Exception: Think about your most awful office politics experience multiply it by a hundred and then add experts in the psychology of evil. I'd like to say that I'll never complain about my work again, but I can't.

[Sarah]

The Exception is set in Denmark - fiction. Victimization and the psychology of evil (per amazon).

Just another example of the sub-sub genre I call "bummer fiction".

[Brandon]

I loved The Road. It spooked me and sent me spiralling into depression for the two days it took me to read it, and for several days afterwards. Talk about a powerful book. You know on the first page that you're reading a true American classic. Not too many books can really claim that title, and few living authors can actually be said to be on the level of Hemingway, Faulkner, and the other giants of American literature. McCarthy can, and you damn well know it.

I'm going to pick up Blood Meridian tonight. It's supposed to be his masterpiece, and extremely violent. Awesome.

[Bookie]

Weirdly, that passage from the book makes me want to read it.

*Note to self - Must remember for therapy session*

[Citizen Reader]

Oh, Brandon,
What I love about you is that you can throw around phrases like "true American classic" and I still just find you adorable. I've read books that I thought were classic, and I like praising certain books, but I can never say anything like that ("giants of American literature") and keep a straight face. I don't know why, really.*

I'm so glad you loved it. It was something different, and for that I appreciated it. I think powerful is also a fair adjective. Sometimes I can handle the extremely violent, and sometimes I can't, so I may just leave Blood Meridian alone fer now. I must say The Road gave me a slight interest for looking into the Border Trilogy, and I'd never really had that before.

*Plus, my great American classics are, of course, largely nonfiction. And "Vengeance," by George Jonas, in my top ten, is by a Candian, so that throws everything off.

Bookie,
That's one of the least disturbing passages in the book. (Good oh if you want to read it; I think it was an interesting book, if scary.) I don't know why I chose it; I was looking for dark without having to retype the humans eating other humans stuff. Let me know what your therapist says. :)

[Brandon]

Are you calling me "adorably pretentious"? Ah, well. I take my compliments when I can. :) If I may be a bit more pretentious (or maybe "audacious" is a better word): I smell Nobel this year. Just watch. Forget Roth. The last few years have been all McCarthy's, what with his Pulitzer for The Road and the Best Picture Oscar for No Country for Old Men.

Admit it: I'm right. "The Road" = True. American. Classic. Ernest Faulkner WHO?

And yeah, Blood Meridian is violent as all hell. But it's not violence for the sake of violence. (-cough- Patterson. -cough- I'm not laughing. -ahem-) No, no. This isn't pop fiction, m'dear. McCarthy is more intriguing than that. I told a friend that McCarthy's characters redeem themselves through violence. Kinda like almost everyone in the Bible. It's weird, because the prose in Blood Meridian is different than in The Road. I mean, it's McCarthy (sans apostrophes and all), but it's western-style McCarthy, with a Texas twang and a few (intentional) grammar missteps. It perfectly fits the book, just as The Road's dry, bleak prose perfectly fit the story.