A father and son are heading south on foot. An unnamed cataclysmic event has left the earth ravaged. Charred landscape and drifts of soot seem to be all that's left. No life anywhere except the demented and dangerous survivors they encounter on their journey.
Obstacles are aplenty, like finding fresh water and food. Along the way the man and boy come across abandoned and burned houses and buildings. Sometimes they get lucky and find something they can use or eat, but most of the time the structures have been plundered completely and all they find is a corpse or some other fresh horror. Battling the elements, starvation, and the man's wracking cough they make their way slowly to a warmer climate. Encounters with thieves and deranged humans along the way make for a dangerous journey.
McCarthy's depiction of the father-son relationship is gut wrenching in its tenderness. The father is relentless in his quest for survival. He spends much of his time soothing the boy even as he contemplates the possibility of needing to take his own child's life to save him from the cannibals left hunting the earth.
At one point the man loses patience with the unnamed boy and tells him "You're not the one who has to worry about everything". The boy responds, "Yes I am. I am the one". This statement proves to be prophetic probably in more ways than can be addressed here.
Beautiful in its depiction, this novel leads the reader to contemplate such an apocalyptic fate and what lengths humankind would go to survive. The fierce love of a parent for a child is a key theme even when the man has the thought that there are few nights lying in the dark that he does not envy the dead. When asked by his son to tell of a time when he had to be the bravest, he replies that it was just getting up that morning.
This searing story slips in glimmers of hope amongst the bleakness like when the boy is worrying over another little boy they see on the road. The father assures his son that "goodness will find him. It always has and it will again". And finally, the ending hints at the integrity and generosity of the human spirit - life goes on.
I devoured this novel in two days. Although it was published in 2006 and won the Pulitzer Prize, I envy anyone who hasn't read it yet.
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