book review--the road

finding the words to describe the experience of reading Cormac McCarthy's the road is challenging, to say the least. because i find myself wanting to get into the same kind of rhythmic/hypnotic movement that captures you on the first page of the book and takes you through the story. you're a willing traveler, because it's more than a story; it's a vision. an astonishing vision of a world that is potentially and dangerously close. when the earth has died, when the few remaining people are scavengers with no taboos. when everything is grey and black. bleakness, smoke, decay for as far as the eye can see. and the characters--the man and the boy--are unnamed. it is only 'the man' and 'the boy.' they walk, trying desperately to walk faster than the oppression of death and surrender that pursues them. the love that is felt between the man and the boy is the purest of loves. they speak simply. so much of what they say is left unsaid, but understood nevertheless. there are no quotation marks throughout the book. and yet the reader always knows who is talking. 'okay.' 'okay.' and you know who said it first.