'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy is the new Oprah Book club selection

[Adrenaline]

Get those unstickered copies while you still can.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sa=t...007/03/28/AR2007032801104.html&cid=1114871748

By Michael Conlon
Reuters
Wednesday, March 28, 2007; 12:54 PM

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday picked Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" as her next book club selection, a nod bound to launch a sales boom for the American writer's dark tale of a post-apocalyptic father-son journey.

Winfrey called the book "haunting and inspiring" with a lasting affect on the reader. "It is a quick read and a journey well worth taking," she added.

For several years Winfrey has been selecting books for her worldwide television audience to read. The publicity has pulled some obscure works onto best-seller lists.

McCarthy however already has a large body of fiction, and Winfrey said, is "considered one of the great authors of our time." She also announced that he had agreed to do what she said would be his first-ever TV interview with her, to be shown at a later date.

The 73-year-old McCarthy is the author of 10 novels, one published screenplay and one play. His works include "Suttree" in 1979, "Blood Meridian" in 1985 and "All the Pretty Horses" in 1992.

Cha ching!

 

[Queersetti]

Hoo boy. This one isn't gonna make them feel all warm and cozy.

 

[Adrenaline]

Oh, I thought her books tended towards the melodramatically depressing. Or do they always end the journey through the "valley of shadow and death" in bolstering triumph?

I'm just looking forward to more of his books being stocked by local stores. Yippee!

 

[KRCummings]

Oh, I thought her books tended towards the melodramatically depressing. Or do they always end the journey through the "valley of shadow and death" in bolstering triumph?

I'm just looking forward to more of his books being stocked by local stores. Yippee!

She endorses good books but people have to shit on them because it's Oprah.
Some are melodramatic, some are not. None are like this though. This is a first.

 

[Expertise]

Hoo boy. This one isn't gonna make them feel all warm and cozy.

Really!

Surprising choice, based on what I know of the book.

I suppose i'll be arm wrestling soccer moms to get it now

 

[rosco rathbone]

It's good to see our finest living writer actually hit the big-time. That's how it ought to be.

 

[tortoise]

Right on.

He deserves every accolade ever invented.

There is no other writer alive that can give me that McCarthy frisson. And it happens on virtually every page.

I said this just last night to a friend, but I'll say it again: you can pick up a book of his, open to a random page, and be dumbstruck by the music.

Bring on the Nobel.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I started re-reading it Saturday night and had to stop when I got to the supposedly deserted house scene....too scary.

PIcked up Sundy morning and was done by lunch. It's a very fast book.

 

[tortoise]

I started re-reading it Saturday night and had to stop when I got to the supposedly deserted house scene....too scary.

PIcked up Sundy morning and was done by lunch. It's a very fast book.

Yeah, that scene induced actual terror in me, which hasn't happened from a book in recent memory.

The pacing is perfect. I love that it's imparted in little sips.

 

[rosco rathbone]

You have to wonder: why didn't any serious novelist ever attempt the definitive nuclear winter book before? Seems so obvious in retrospect.....


Not many authors have multiple books in the running for " the great american novel".

 

[MonaLittle]

How shocking that Miz O chose a story that is depressing, heh

 

[MonaLittle]

You have to wonder: why didn't any serious novelist ever attempt the definitive nuclear winter book before? Seems so obvious in retrospect.....


Not many authors have multiple books in the running for " the great american novel".

That's the beauty and frustration of hindsight. If only, If only, If only..............

 

[rosco rathbone]

How shocking that Miz O chose a story that is depressing, heh

Is it depressing? I can't decide. Not like Elementary Particles is depressing, anyway. It feels like McCarthy's meditation on death. I had various flashes while reading it, one of which was that the prophetic old man "Ely" was McCarthy himself, that he'd imagined that while writing that scene.

 

[MonaLittle]

Is it depressing? I can't decide. Not like Elementary Particles is depressing, anyway. It feels like McCarthy's meditation on death. I had various flashes while reading it, one of which was that the prophetic old man "Ely" was McCarthy himself, that he'd imagined that while writing that scene.

I don't know, I thought the ambiguous situation added to the mystery of the novel and that it was a page turner. Hard to put down. But it was reminiscent of other O books Ive read, not in content, but in the emotions it pulls out of you. McCarthy is a brilliant and gifted author.