A Depressing Journey

One of the most heralded books of the 21st century was a short 2006 post-apocalyptic novel about a man and his son. There are few commas, barely any apostrophes, and no quotation marks to signal dialogue. There are no chapters. The protagonists are never named. But Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Road. It was chosen by the Oprah Book Club, and The Road came out on top in a 2008 Entertainment Weekly list of the best 100 books of the past 25 years. The movie adaptation is planned on being released later this year.

The Road is about a man (known simply as "the man") and a boy (known simply as "the boy") trying to survive in a barren America. While their main challenge is trying to find enough food and water to survive, they also struggle with the intense cold that had come from the unnamed apocalypse, the search for shelter, and the bands of cannibals that roam the earth, marauding any weak travelers to rob, kill, and often eat them.

McCarthy's writing style may be one of the main reasons The Road has been so acclaimed. His creative and unconventional nonuse of commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, names, and chapters marks the writing style as very unique. The depressing tone of the novel makes the reader care about the characters more than most other books. Here is one of the many conversations between the man and the boy:

He was a long time going to sleep. After a while he turned and looked at the man. His face in the small light streaked with black from the rain like some old world thespian. Can I ask you something? he said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now.
And we're still going south.
Yes.
So we'll be warm.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay what?
Nothing. Just okay.
Go to sleep.
Okay.
I'm going to blow out the lamp. Is that okay?
Yes. That's okay.
And then later in the darkness: Can I ask you something?
Yes. Of course you can.
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay.

The character of the man is pitiful. He is living out a harsh punishment for no crime at all. He does not care at all about himself; every move he makes is for the well-being of his son or the safety of himself in order to protect his son. The boy is, if possible, an even more depressing character. While he is generally more optimistic than his father, most readers will find themselves halfway to tears reading about a child at his age surviving sights and events that nobody should ever have to endure. Cormac McCarthy describes the love of the man and the loss of innocence of the boy with vivid and realistic dialogue and actions. As the novel says, the man and the boy are "each the other's world entire."

While The Road is an excellent addition to literature and should become a classic in future years, many children and weak readers will find this book to hard to bear. Throughout the novel, the depressing tone and some events may not be pleasant to some readers.

Cormac McCarthy wrote an excellent story with The Road. This book has brought him more renown than he has ever had with his previous books. The austere book should continue to enchant readers for many years to come.

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Movie-Tie-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307472124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241288865&sr=8-1

Grade: 9

The Underland Chronicles

Young adult literature can often be very inane. An author does not need to work very hard to write a story that appeals to teenagers--shallow humor, constant action (or teenage drama, in the case of females), and a simple plot seem to be the elements of a bestselling young adult novel. Take Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan, for instance. The series, while appealing to many young adults I know, failed in appealing to me.

One young adult series, though, that seems to go against the norm is Suzanne Collins's The Underland Chronicles. While it does have its occasional stabs at humor and quite a bit of action, The Underland Chronicles has a good story and is much better than most other novels in youth literature.

The first book in the series is Gregor the Overlander. Gregor is an eleven-year-old boy living in an apartment in New York City with his grandmother, his mother, his seven-year-old sister Lizzie, and his two-year-old sister Boots. They had been very impoverished ever since Gregor's father disappeared. One day, Gregor and his sister Boots are in the laundry room of their apartment, and Gregor follows his sister through a grate in the floor. They realize that it leads to the Underland, a world that exists underneath New York City. The Underland has humans, giant bats (fliers), giant spiders (spinners), giant cockroaches (crawlers), and giant rats (gnawers). The humans live in a city called Regalia. The Regalians realize that Gregor is the warrior mentioned in "The Prophecy of Gray", a prophecy that says that a warrior from the Overland will save Regalia from the gnawers by going on a quest.

Gregor the Overlander is an excellent piece of children's literature. The plot, including the characters, the quest, and especially the prophecy marks this as a great series beginner. Readers will enjoy following Gregor and the others as they fulfill the prophecy, even if not the way they originally anticipated.

http://www.amazon.com/Overlander-Underland-Chronicles-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439678137/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238866992&sr=8-5

Grade: 9

The second installation in the series, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, brings Gregor back to the Underland to fulfill the Prophecy of Bane. The Underlanders kidnap Boots in order to lure Gregor down, because the Prophecy of Bane calls for the warrior again. This time, the Regalians want Gregor to go on another quest to kill a white gnawer called the Bane. If the gnawers get hold of the Bane, they will be able to rule the Underland.

Collins achieves every author's aspiration: to write a sequel as good as or better than its predecessor. She uses the same formula as the first: Gregor's quest through the Underland as a segway for the development of the prophecy, as well as the surprising actual meanings of many of its ambiguous lines. Another great story in the Underland Chronicles.

http://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Prophecy-Bane-Underland-Chronicles/dp/0439650763/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239233487&sr=8-1

Grade: 9

Gregor returns to the Underland for yet another prophecy in Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods. A plague has struck Regalia and the rest of the Underland. It only affects warm-blooded creatures, thus affecting all humans, gnawers, and fliers. The Prophecy of Blood states that the warrior must go on a quest to find the cure for the terrible plague. At first, Gregor's mother insists that he will not go on another quest, but when she gets the plague, Gregor decides to go so that he can save her life and the lives of every warmblood in the Underland.

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods is not as good as the first two. The main events of the third novel seem to be much less intricate, as well as much fewer, than those of the first two books. The Prophecy of Blood is much more straightforward than both the Prophecy of Gray and the Prophecy of Bane, which provides for much less room for misinterpretation, the element that truly made Gregor the Overlander and Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane stand out from other young adult fantasy novels. Although it was not a bad book, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods did not live up to its wonderful predecessors.

http://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Curse-Warmbloods-Underland-Chronicles/dp/0439656249/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239234541&sr=1-1

Grade: 7.5

The penultimate Underland Chronicle is Gregor and the Marks of Secret. Gregor returns to Regalia one day for a birthday party, and while with one of his Underland friends, gets a distress call from the mice (nibblers). The nibblers had been forced from their homes by the gnawers for many years. Finally, it seemed, the nibblers needed help from the humans. Gregor must go on another quest if he wants to save a whole species of Underland animals.

This fourth episode in Gregor's life is another disappointment. It, like Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, does not have the same intricate plot as the first two. Furthermore, there is not even a prophecy that Gregor and the others must fulfill, which makes the book almost like any other action/adventure children's book. It is good, but again, does not capture one's attention as much as could be hoped for. While Gregor and the Marks of Secret is above average, it does not show Collins's full writing prowess.

http://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Marks-Secret-Underland-Chronicles/dp/0439791464/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_title

Grade: 7.5

Gregor and the Code of Claw completes the story of Gregor and his adventures in the Underland. A war between the humans and the gnawers is coming into full swing, and Gregor is needed to help Regalia as well as fulfill the Prophecy of Time, perhaps the most enigmatic and ominous prophecy of all.

This novel is the longest of the Underland Chronicles by far. With 412 pages of writing, Collins can expand on every facet of the war, as well as the characters that serve as Regalia's protection against the gnawers. Even without a quest, the novel has enough physical action as well as psychological suspense to keep the reader hooked on its events. Regardless, Collins must not realize the importance of having a prophecy that at first is misinterpreted by the Regalians, and then the true meaning of which is startlingly revealed to the reader. Although the Prophecy of Time may be one of the best of the entire series, it is not a main focus in the novel. The formula that made the first two stand out so well is not followed. Although Gregor and the Code of Claw is very good and exceeds the quality of the preceding two by far, it lacks the element that made Gregor the Overlander and Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane stand out. Readers will find this a very fun read, while not as fun as Collins could have made it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_6_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=gregor+and+the+code+of+the+claw&sprefix=gregor+and+the

Grade: 8

Collins turned a good idea for a story into a superb series. While she had a few flaws in a couple books, this is still one of the best selections of young adult literature.