(father and daughter enjoying a road in Bermuda)

While traveling with Akshra alone this past fortnight I was often reminded of McCarthy's haunting post-apocalyptic novel called 'The Road'. 'The Road' is the story of a journey of a father and son across the American wilderness in a world without life. There are no living things, plants or animals, left anymore except a few humans who have resorted to the only means of food available.

It is the kind of book that fills you up, at least for the moment, with intense gratitude for every material comfort that you lay your eyes on. Canned food appears almost divine.

As far as the post-apocalyptic novel goes they have clearly been overdone. It is almost a genre in itself. McCarthy's book is certainly one of the best post-apocalyptic book written in the USA within the last 10 years by an American featuring a fruitless world where a single parent and a child are desperately trying to reach some place uncertain confronting scarcity of food and the possibility of becoming food. Yes, within these constraints in the overwhelmingly populous genre -- The Road is certainly very impressive. McCarthy also decided to take the concept to full boil. The book is punctuation free, largely emotion free and dark and soggy with an infinite night that seems to take over everything. And yet, the very plot device of a child is clearly an attempt, albeit a cheap one, to keep the flame of hope alive amidst everything.
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'The Road' happened to incidentally be the first book I read on the Kindle. A device that I started by loving but the scales have fallen off my eyes since then I cannot wait for Apple's tablet to come around next year and blow everything away.