From: noone@nowhere.com   
      
   On 29/01/26 16:14, Scott Dorsey wrote:   
   > In article <10lehob$104c2$1@dont-email.me>, Titus G     
   wrote:   
   >> McCarthy is one of my favourite authors but The Road was most   
   >> disappointing. I think of it as a horror and shaggy dog tale which would   
   >> have been better as a short story. The science aspect has been heavily   
   >> criticised here previously but that wasn't a problem for me as I just   
   >> accepted the situation as initially described.   
   >   
   > There is no science because there is no explanation about how things got   
   > this way.  Nothing at all, and that is part of the disturbing bit... I spent   
   > so much of my time trying to figure out what had happened and in the end   
   > I never did.   
      
   IIRC, the consensus of those knowledgeable enough to discuss it here,   
   was that nothing could cause such devastation and continuing after   
   effects. But that is beyond my pay grade.   
    >> I thought that the book   
   >> was dull, apart from the shaggy dog ending, and depressing. I shouldn't   
   >> have been surprised that Dimwire concluded something stupid or something   
   >> contrary to the author's intention but the statement that the father   
   >> saved his son is almost unbelievable. McCarthy doesn't do Enid Blyton   
   >> nor teenage adventure.   
   >   
   > I didn't find it dull at all, but I did find it extremely depressing.  I   
   > liked both of the characters and I liked their relationship and I wanted   
   > to know what would happen to them.  But then, I also liked Zen and the   
   > Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a lot too.   
      
   I was confused with my first reading of Zen.... but reread it a decade   
   or more ago and really appreciated it. Brilliant with the mixture of   
   home grown philosophy and relationship insights. I think you are lucky   
   that The Road gelled for you on that aspect but it didn't for me.   
   And I am not familiar with The Stand having read enough King (maybe 10)   
   to not read any more.   
   I hope you consider reading more McCarthy. Though he appears more   
   interested in a Vengeful God than relationships and offhand I think that   
   most of his characters are violent independent misfit loners more likely   
   to form relationships from lust or bond with an animal (eg horse..).   
   (I wasn't so keen on his plays.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)