Our club in Portland read 'The Road' last month and everyone called it hopeful. I found it completely bleak.

The whole group kept talking about the 'carrying the fire' line and the ending as proof of hope. I read it three times. The father dies, the world is dead, and the boy joins strangers who might just want to eat him. That's not hope, that's just less awful for a minute. It made me realize sometimes a group can agree on a reading just because it feels better. Has anyone else had a book where the club's positive spin felt totally forced?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_ryan1mo ago

Was your group reading a different book? I get the 'carrying the fire' thing, but to me that's just the dad's way of saying don't become a monster. The world is literally ash and the only other people are cannibals. The boy finding another group feels less like hope and more like a temporary pause. It's okay to call a sad book sad. Groups totally do that forced positive spin thing to avoid sitting with a bleak story.

jesse7731mo ago

Man, you nailed it. My book club did the exact same thing with that ending. I mean, the dad is literally dying in the dirt and people were calling it "bittersweet." It felt like we were all trying so hard to find a happy takeaway that we missed the point. Sometimes a story is just grim, and that's okay. I actually liked the book more once I admitted how sad it was, instead of pretending it was hopeful.