I have noticed that when I read a classic book I tend to have a small camp of friends that I will discuss and recommend it to. The reason is partly that I don’t want to seem too pretentious waggling my copy of Vanity Fair on the tube or that some people will draw attention to me and my inner geek will be bare for all to see.
I have been brought up to think that if you read classic novels you will therefore be classed as a ’well read’ individual. Perhaps I believe that by reading classic books I will elevate myself in some way and that should I ever be in a situation [a bit like Bridget Jones] when I am called to comment on something I might be able to hold my own.
I am not the only one, a friend of mine recently set about reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ as she was quite concerned that she might be the only person in our age group not to have been forced to read it at GCSE. My housemate has been reading ‘War and Peace’ as to which I have my suspicions he believes may be a talisman to attract intelligent London females [beware of man waggling his copy on tube]. Start telling people you read classics and it starts to become a sort of confessional for others, ‘I like to read them by alternating them with easy going books’ a work colleague whispers excitedly.
Why is that so many of us are hiding our love of Classics?
Whatever reason you read a Classic be assured that it is a Classic. If you can’t stand the thought of being bored to death by heaving bosoms do not despair, not all classics are defined as mandatory reading for school children or those trying to painfully educate themselves. Over the next couple of reviews I am going to look at the Classic in the hope of blowing the dust off this stigmatised word. I don’t guarantee that these books will help you with the opposite sex however!
This Friday saw the film release of ‘The Road’ starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smith-Mckee based on the book of the same name. Cormac McCarthy the American author and playwright has written ten novels including ‘No Country for Old Men’ which was a box office smash. McCarthy is acknowledged as a modern great and ‘The Road’ a modern classic – this book ticks all the boxes for our New Year Classic revival!
The post-apocalyptic story is set in a burned America where ash obscures the sun and nothing can grow and all animals and life are now extinct. A father and son make there way along the road towards to coast in search of ‘good people’ who are ‘carrying the fire’ like themselves. The road is treacherous as the world has sunk into an abyss of violence and cannabilism with humans stalking the landscape trying to survive. The hope for their survival and that of the world is bleak. The father is coughing blood and the boy is rake thin in danger of starving to death. The mother who was pregnant at the time of the unknown cataclysm which caused the devastation and chaos has killed herself unable to cope with the future life she would have to endure. As the father and son move along the road what becomes apparent is this is the last outpost of humanity in a dying race.
The book is slow moving and beautifully written, the silence between the father and son often speaks more that words can and this is artfully evoked in the book. The father is giving everything to help his son survive so that he may have a chance at another day in the world. One of my favourite moments is when the father finds a can of coke, he wants his son to drink all the Coke as he has never tasted one. The things we once took for granted the boy will never see and experience. The father is trying to give his son normality in the harshest conditions.
The pair wear masks to cover their faces from the ash which covers them and the landscape and they are filthy moving from place to place looking for anything to scavange and haul onto their cart. They carry a pistol in order to make the ultimate sacrifice should the need arise. The father has already taught his son how to place the gun in his mouth and fire. The constant fear of being attacked, killed or worse by the the other humans patrol the road keeps the reader gripped.
In a world transfixed with climate change this novel is even more poignant, it pushes the reader to question whether this is our fate. The book is broken down and written in small fragments, the writing style adding to the dramatic effect of the book. Essentially the book is a short read and seems to end far too quickly. The lasting phrases leave a great deal to imagination, what becomes of the boy? Do we survive as humans? Perhaps the answer is in us, this snapshot of their lives is a lesson for all to learn.
Revolutionary Road
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
The Rowing Lesson by Anne Landsman
