pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog

London: 11/10/06 06:34am

There’s something about not sleeping that sharpens the mind. I read Cormac McCarthy’s new novel, The Road, in two nights flat; as one reviewer put it - “Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it’s not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner.” Maybe those mid-term elections back home have staved off the inevitable a little longer.
In all fairness it must be pointed out that McCarthy’s novel owes much to the groundbreaking work by Russell Hoban, a book called Riddley Walker. Same post-apocalyptic scenario but narrated by Riddley as if language had been destroyed too; here’s the opening line, “On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen…”
Both books are worth your reading time.