Going, Going. . .Gone?

March meeting. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. One of the less cheerful books we've read--a father and his son travel through a bleak, post apocalyptic world. They are the only "good guys" we encounter until the end of the book; the others are the "bad guys" or the dead guys. This is a bleak book, but a great book for discussion.

One of the major topics of our conversation: given this sort of scenario, would we choose to end it all immediately, given that the only life would be one of hopeless struggle? Or would we fight on, driven by hope and an innate will to live. Several in the group pictured themselves sitting outside, drinking good wine and waiting for extinction. Would the father have been kinder to kill himself and his son at the onset of disaster? Or was he training the next generation for a new world?

And what about the bad guys? Were their ruthless survival techniques--which included cannibalism--wrong, given the situation? They too were fighting for survival and for the continuation of humankind.

A few saw the ending as hopeful--mankind would carry on the race and perhaps find a new (if downgraded) Eden. Some (including yours truly) thought that, given the fact that there were NO resources available and the earth could no longer support life, the meeting with a small family of good guys at the book's conclusion would only end in more suffering and death--albeit with the companionship of a new family for the boy.

On the brighter side--Joanne brought a lamb shaped cake. Or was it the brighter side? After all, as the cake was consumed and only the head was left, the cake began to look like a sacrificial lamb.