Walking The Road – An Intimate Look at Oprah’s New Book Club Pick
Jamieson Villeneuve
May 01, 2007
I have been walking down the Road for a while now.
I’ll admit that I’ve had real problems with this novel. The grimness of it, the stark and sparse world that you inhabit as you read The Road left me feeling cold and in need of a fire to warm my bones. I put the book back on my shelf and am only now just picking it up again.
I’ve been looking at it sitting there on my shelf, its black spine winking at me like a secret in the shadows. Even though I was put off by the book, it still haunted me. Where were the boy and the man now? Who would they meet along the road? Did they survive? I felt a little guilty at leaving them in the middle of their journey. Though I was loathe to read the book again, I still thought about them.
Oddly enough, I was drawn back to The Road because of Oprah. I watched a video off of her web site where she described The Road as the greatest love story, ever. Love story? How could something so grim, so horrible, be a love story?
This idea stayed with me for a day or so until I thought that Oprah really did have the right end of it. I wasn’t looking at the story in that light when I started reading it. All that I was able to take away was that it was a grim world where the world had ended but life had gone on. The Road made me uncomfortable, incredibly so. It looked deep into the horrors of the human heart and I knew I didn’t want to read anymore of nightmares and shadows.
But looking at The Road as a love story didn’t occur to me. It should have. Here is a father who loves his boy so much, he is willing to do anything he can to protect him. Anything. The man lives for the boy, loves him and expects nothing in return. If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
And so I slid the book out of its place and read. Now that I am almost done The Road, I know it will be a book that will haunt me for years to come.
And I will live, and love, better because of it.
I’ll admit that I’ve had real problems with this novel. The grimness of it, the stark and sparse world that you inhabit as you read The Road left me feeling cold and in need of a fire to warm my bones. I put the book back on my shelf and am only now just picking it up again.
I’ve been looking at it sitting there on my shelf, its black spine winking at me like a secret in the shadows. Even though I was put off by the book, it still haunted me. Where were the boy and the man now? Who would they meet along the road? Did they survive? I felt a little guilty at leaving them in the middle of their journey. Though I was loathe to read the book again, I still thought about them.
Oddly enough, I was drawn back to The Road because of Oprah. I watched a video off of her web site where she described The Road as the greatest love story, ever. Love story? How could something so grim, so horrible, be a love story?
This idea stayed with me for a day or so until I thought that Oprah really did have the right end of it. I wasn’t looking at the story in that light when I started reading it. All that I was able to take away was that it was a grim world where the world had ended but life had gone on. The Road made me uncomfortable, incredibly so. It looked deep into the horrors of the human heart and I knew I didn’t want to read anymore of nightmares and shadows.
But looking at The Road as a love story didn’t occur to me. It should have. Here is a father who loves his boy so much, he is willing to do anything he can to protect him. Anything. The man lives for the boy, loves him and expects nothing in return. If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
And so I slid the book out of its place and read. Now that I am almost done The Road, I know it will be a book that will haunt me for years to come.
And I will live, and love, better because of it.
Print
Email
