I feel like I’m cheating. Don’t get me wrong, I love music as much as the next person, but when I’m settling in for a long solo drive the best way to pass the miles is with a good audio CD of a published book. Edward Hermann is one of my favorites and I’ve listened to him with much enjoyment as he perfectly delivers “John Adams” by David McCullough as well as “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. As I quickly scanned the shelves of my local public library for my next road trip I grabbed a work by an author I knew only by reputation. I had enjoyed “No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy, but then again the Coen Brothers could make an entertaining movie out of the dictionary. As I laid the copy of “The Road” on the check-out counter I really had no idea what was in store for me.
I was travelling from Wilkes-Barre, PA to a fishing trip I had planned in the north central part of the state. Within minutes I was totally immersed in this bleak yet tender vision of a post apocalyptic America. Bleak in that nuclear winter (maybe?) had settled in and around the characters of the story, and tender in that I couldn’t help but marvel at the great parenting job that “the man” had accomplished with his frail son. As they travelled on their hopeless quest I looked at the hills surrounding the interstate where I drove and was immediately drawn into what this nightmare would be like.
“The Road” doesn’t specifically state that America has suffered a nuclear disaster, but the makeshift masks the characters use to filter out the ash and the recollection of a conversation where the man and his wife talk about being survivors certainly points you in that direction. It is the simple story of a man and his young son travelling further south to escape the northern cold. The man tells his son that they are the “good guys” and that they are carrying the fire. The bad people inhabit a grey world devoid of anything resembling human compassion. Cannibalism is a way of life. In one especially horrific scene the man and his son stumble upon a house where humans have been locked up as they wait to be harvested.
Tom Stechschulte offers a stunning delivery of this brutal landscape. He effortlessly drifts back and forth between the role of father and son. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, an audio CD version of a good book has the ability to totally transport you into the world of the author. Reading is nice in that you can go at your own pace and go back and go over certain passages, but a quality audio delivery can be powerful and Stechschulte manages to delivery McCarthy’s words harrowingly.
It is a simple enough story. A man and his son make their way south and to the ocean in search of warmer weather and supposedly camps of “good guys.” As they journey the nameless father is conflicted between what was considered moral in his previous life and what it takes to survive in this new, desolate world inhabited by cannibals and thieves. The emaciated son is certainly one of the most likeable characters ever created. You want them to succeed so this small child will get his chance to glimpse a side of humanity that has been mostly shrouded from his world. The father did a great job in keeping his sickly son human in this future world, but you really want to see them make it in the end.
The final few minutes of “The Road” are flawless. I don’t want to give anything away here but I know I was left feeling totally satisfied. Check it out either in book form or audio form and you won’t be disappointed.
Afterthought:
“The Road” is scheduled for theatrical release sometime by the end of 2008. What is most interesting from my vantage point is that a large portion of the movie was filmed here in Pennsylvania. Again, I think back to those first few minutes of listening to the CD and I could envision the characters traipsing through the woods of Pennsylvania on their quest. The producers of the film obviously felt the same way as they selected Pennsylvania as the setting.