The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I wasn't really sure, when I picked this book up, what it was really about.  All I knew is that it is a pretty popular book and that they made a movie out of it due out Nov 26th starring Viggo Mortensen.  At first I didn't really know what was going on in the book.  The main characters are a father and son which the book refers to as "the man" and "the boy".  It doesn't say how old they are or what their names are.  After a while you realize what the circumstances are and as the story unfolds it gets pretty interesting.  The book is based in post-apocalyptic times when the world seems to be covered in ash.  The man and the boy follow a road of uncertainty and scavenge for food along the way.  Everything around them is dead.  They are cold, starving and dressed in rags.  Along the road they encounter dangerous people who have resorted to cannibalism since there is a lack of food.  This book is suspenseful, scary at parts, and sad at the end (I cried).  What the book doesn't say is how the world got to be the way it was and how long it had been that way.  War?  An act of nature?  It does mention firestorms and people that had been burned long ago.  It makes you wonder how you would survive if anything like that ever happened or if you would have the strength to go on or just give up.  You find out in the book that the man's wife had given up and had decided to kill herself because she didn't want to be raped and eaten by the "bad guys" that were out there.  This has become one of my favorite books and I can't wait for the movie.  I only hope they don't ruin it!