The Road
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed." Francis Bacon (d. 1626)
Book Review
By Darold Morgan
The Road
By Cormac McCarthy Book Reviewed By Michael Moorhead, Eastfield College, Dallas TX
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Cormac McCarthy has never been considered a Christian writer-and with good reason. His early novels, while critically acclaimed, were violent and bloody and completely absent of any Christian message of love and grace and forgiveness. But with the publication of National Book Award winner All The Pretty Horses (1992), McCarthy`s message began to change. While his novels continued to be riddled with violence, McCarthy also began to include messages of hope and grace. In All The Pretty Horses, the two central characters, Cole and Rawlins, discuss their respective theologies around the campfire, and in No Country For Old Men (2005), Sheriff Bell laments the conditions he sees in his job and expresses to his wife and to Ellis, his mentor and friend, his concerns for the world as it has become a meaner, less graceful place and his belief it does not have to be that way.
So it is no surprise to a reader of the works of Cormac McCarthy to see an even more pronounced leaning toward the Christian ethic in his most recent novel, The Road (2006). When asked about his theology by Oprah Winfrey in a recent rare interview, McCarthy responded by saying he was religious but not regularly or consistently so. Most regular or consistent Christians have doubts, so this assertion by McCarthy seems an honest, genuine one, one many Christians understand.
In The Road a reader is thrust into a post-apocalyptic world of death and destruction; he follows a father and son, two survivors of an unnamed horror visited upon mankind as they make their way through the ruins of a once-civilized world, staying alive and together one day at a time. This on first glance does not seem to be a scenario of hope and grace, but it is. Gradually and consistently, McCarthy in this grandly epic novel leads us to his Christian message, a message straight from the New Testament, a message of grace and love and courage for the battles each day brings. McCarthy tells us love will win over all obstacles, God will never abandon us, and at the end of life`s journey God awaits each of us with open, welcoming arms.
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