Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Road by Cormac McCarthy


Summary

A father and his little son, walk across burning America, slowly toward seashore. None there, nothing move in the dead landscape. There are only flying dust and gray sky. Sun is shinning no more, and the weather is cold, more than everyone in earth have imagined. Trees have no leaves, animal is all dead. Rain and snow is falling every day. The Man and his Boy have nothing, besides a gun with two bullets, for defending themselves from evils in street, who sometimes able to kill and eat them, clothes wore in their body, a cart of used foods, and one another.

Heartbreaking, haunting, and emotionally shattering. I never regret my decision to read this book. A drama, which is full of love and humanity. Actually, I've just watched The Book of Eli, an epic movie which shares us a post-apocalyptic tale after great war happened. And, when I read synopsis of The Road, I thought it might be another apocalyptic story, and because Eli is good, maybe this one would be great too. So, I was interested to bought and the read it.

The book tells two unnamed human, they are called The Man and The Boy. Setting is in U.S, which has destroyed by unexplained cataclysm. Civilization and almost all life in Earth has lost, there are only falling ash, and the weather is extremely cold. The Man brings her son to the south, with hope of finding warmth and more "good men". What makes me so emotionally involved is father-son relationship. They only have each other, and with many cannibalism around them, they repeatedly assure one another that they are good people.

Some interesting things told here. Example, when The Man find a can of Coca Cola. He gives it to his son, who never able to taste it before. It's bubbling, he comments. Touched! It's very easy to get any soda drinks that we want now. And, sometimes we forget to thank of it.

Lack of food become main problem for them. You'll read how hard they search every abandoned house to find leftovers, and it's really hard to find clean water! Clean water, which is simply used by us every day. And, sometimes, in some houses, they find scary stock room, where the cannibals save "their meat". Freaky.

Many things make me think. A lot. Something made this happen. I don't know what. Maybe human's greedy. Or, their careless act to environment? In this modern life, people sometimes think only about themselves. We're selfish. We can't love our earth. We sometimes love to be grateful. We are greedy, and always wanting more. There's nothing bad to have a better life, but we must not forget to keep our environment good. We live with other people, we live with Earth. If we can make peaceful life with them, well, maybe someday what happen in this book, will happen to all of us. And I believe, it is happening now in some countries in this world.


People who declare war, should read this book. People who sill hurt the Earth, should read this book. Recommend this book to all your friend, as many as you can!! :)


PS. You don't like reading a book? Oh, okay, I'll recommend the movie. It's pretty good, with Viggo Mortensen there. Remember Aragorn? Go get the movie too! ;)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Five Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom



It's not new book, but i just read it about a weeks ago. Well, actually, i got reference from Cassey, one of my favorite blogger to read it, and then it goes.

First chapter has captured me. The story is told beautifully, with careful selection if words. We're brought to watch last life part of Eddie, Head of Maintenance at Ruby Pier, an amusement park. There Mitch goes, he tells sixty minutes to Eddie's death, fifty minutes, thirty.. til we snooped what will occur next. And when finally Eddie approach to his death, we'll taken to Heaven that we'll never recognize before.

What do you imagine of Heaven before? Lovely spacious garden, with colossal palace, where we can dance along the day, have tasty foods, and angels everywhere maybe?
Eddie found that Heaven is not like he was believing earlier. There's no palace, there's no garden, even angels. He just meet five persons, in different but familiar locations. Five persons, who have correlation with his life, whether he aware or not. He learns many precious things, and find what life means for him. And, at last, he'll do similar job, sitting in somebody queue to tell her/his meaning of life.

what makes the book awesome is, Albom puts fresh idea of Heaven. People never imagine it before, they never look Heaven in such of different view. Some fanatics maybe won't agree with it, but i don't think it must be argued. Albom only have unique opinion, and what he believe isn't wrong.

My favorite quote is "That's what heaven is. You got to make senses of your yesterdays".