Steven Brown từ Daploken, Liberia

stevenbrown

11/01/2024

Dữ liệu người dùng, đánh giá và đề xuất cho sách

Steven Brown Sách lại (10)

2018-06-24 00:31

Cho Tôi Xin Một Nửa Cuộc Đời Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi: Nguyễn Phước Huy

http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2... I've had this one on my reading list for a long time. I kept thinking that I needed to be in the right mood to read post-apocalyptic writing, but sometimes you just have to take the plunge. I don't know why I was somewhat reluctant; I used to devour futuristic and apocalyptic novels. I think perhaps having young children discourages one from reading too many depressing works. At any rate, I loved this novel by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is in some ways a Hemingway-esque writer. His prose is sparse and sometimes gruff, but beautifully moving and poetic. The setting permeates the book: something horrible has happened to the earth, although we're not told what exactly happened. Life has been nearly wiped out, except for those few survivors, most of whom are "bad guys." The man and his son are "good guys," holding onto a tiny shred of hope that there are more of their kind left. They head south for the winter, constantly battling starvation, hiding from cannibalistic marauders, choosing to survive. Suicide is never far from the father's mind, but his fierce love for his son keeps him going. It's a savage, brutal, depressing book. This is the kind of fierce writing that hooked me on apocalyptic literature many decades ago. On one level, this is Dr. Suess's "The Lorax" turned from gently admonishing to brutal realism: this is what could happen if we don't straighten up. On another level, it is a novel about the fierce love of a parent for his child despite hellish circumstances. And above all, it is a terrifying picture of what Someday might look like. McCarthy's writing is exquisite. He is a master of language, a poet wrapped up in minimalist. The images are stark but explosive, as palpable as is possible through the written word. I am looking forward to the movie but would be terribly sad for anyone who watched the movie without first savoring McCarthy's writing.

2018-06-24 03:31

Pi Tạp Chí Toán Học - Tháng 2/2017 Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi:

Some books pummel you with complexity, the intricacies of their narrative turns, the loose cannons of their language firing a grapeshot of overwrought descriptions and ideas at the white of the page. To contrast, McCarthy's words are like single bullets, fired accurately in quick succession. At it's heart, The Road is the simplest of novels, the story of a man and his son walking from one place to another. Like most road stories, it uses the act of traveling as a microcosm for life itself, and in McCarthy's case life, at it's core, is tantamount to sheer survival. The America of The Road has been scoured, laid waste by some undisclosed act of Man or God. The fields have been blighted, cities now husks, a silken ash darkening the sky and dusting everything. The play is human decency in the face of overwhelming decay. While bands of cannibals scour the roadways and suburbs, leaving piles of bones and charred remains, the father must perpetually convince his son that they are the "good guys," that they are the ones left "carrying the fire." Like everything in the novel, this conviction too is grey. Providing for his son means stealing from others, abandoning those in need. Survival requires wariness and cynicism. Yet the hope in the novel is in the boy, for whom altruism can and does exist, even if it's propped up by naivety. If McCarthy's post-industrial, post-technology vision of America is frightening, it's because it feels like all too certain of a possibility. Much has been made about the nature of the disaster (my money's on meteors), but this isn't really important. Like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, The Road subjects its characters to the worst nature (human or otherwise) can throw at them, just to see what would happen, to see if humanity truly is a farce, as one old begger on "The Road" suggests when he claims, "God does not exist and we are his prophets."

Người đọc Steven Brown từ Daploken, Liberia

Người dùng coi những cuốn sách này là thú vị nhất trong năm 2017-2018, ban biên tập của cổng thông tin "Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn" khuyến cáo rằng tất cả các độc giả sẽ làm quen với văn học này.