Friday, December 3, 2010

Open Letter to Cormac McCarthy

Dear Cormac,

I recently finished reading your novel, “The Road”, and I must say that I am quite impressed with your work. A father and son in a post apocalyptic setting is a curious topic to say the least, however, I think you made it work quite well. I was drawn in to the characters as a reader. It was almost as if I cared for them personally. I was also impressed with the journey you chose to show. Their experiences of often not having enough food, and constantly worrying for their lived on the road are strong pieces to have in the story.
            That said, I think what I enjoyed most about the book was your writing style. Your lack of quotation marks, your many uses of fragments, the words that you made up to use in the story, etc… I read your novel for a senior year philosophy class, so we analyzed all of these things. It made for a highly enjoyable class reading experience. Each of us in our class had our own ideas about why we thought you chose to do this, but if I may ask, what prompted you to write in such a peculiar style? More so, what inspiration did you have for writing such a sad story about two people living in the post-apocalyptic world? I think that knowing the answers to these questions will provide a little bit of closure on a wonderful reading experience.

Sincerely,

Sam Thompson
Whitney Young Magnet High School

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