The Road

In a previous post, ‘Books and Beaches’, I announced my intention to read one book every week over the course of the summer. The book I was reading at the time was Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a collection of interconnected tales inspired by his experience as a foot soldier in the Vietnam War, and I promised that I would update you on my thoughts once I had finished it.

It was excellent. You should read it.

O’Brien masterfully uses the English language to paint a powerful and vivid portrait of the human experience of the war; he is not interested in the ideologies or political machinations that fueled the conflict but instead the emotional turmoil of the young men forced to fight it. And this results in a work that goes far beyond the war itself to grapple meaningfully with universal themes of truth, courage, memory, death and love, to name but a few.

It may well be a masterpiece.

Whether you’re fascinated by this senseless chapter in American history (as I am myself) or couldn’t care less about it, I would highly recommend The Things They Carried.

I’ve now moved on to reading Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road. I’m only a third of the way through at the moment, but, from what I’ve read so far, it’s looking to be another brilliant book. Inspired by McCarthy’s writing, I thought I’d edit the above photo from today’s walk to vaguely depict the post-apocalyptic landscape of The Road (i.e. I made it greyer). I was secretly hoping I might stumble upon an overturned grocery cart at the side of the path to get the perfect image, but alas it was not to be.

(But, of course, I am immensely grateful to the Forestry Commission for preventing the abandonment of grocery carts in the forest.)