There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
I didn't care for the book (quotes here). Too unrelentingly, intentionally sad. Strangely, I did not feel the same way about The Road.
The Road was the most emotionally evocative book I've read in years (before that, -Dostoevsky). It gave me vivid dreams and nightmares on multiple nights (I only read it before bed for the most part). The best were the nightmares that contained scenes preceding the book...stumbling down a highway, looking back over my shoulder to see a mushroom cloud in the distance...
When they speak of the great Russian psyological novel authors, it isn't just a convenient label. In Crime & Punishment, the internal unravelling of the protagonist was rendered with such realism, it was almost to the point where I could understand him and his skewed point of view. It was that well written. This was profoundly disturbing and depressing while reading it, since the protagonist committed a grisly murder. It's one thing to make a character come alive, but another to tease out the threads of his mind and gently lead you to the same place he is going. Just made me feel like I understood the mechanics of a broken mind far more than I wanted to. The Road was emotionally impactful to a similar degree but in a more benign way as I had a relationship with the victims in that case.
I agree with your assessment of Crime and Punishment, it was disturbing how much I could "relate" to his way of thinking. I felt similarly after reading Albert Camus' the Stranger.
I could not get into The Stranger. Camus is one of my favorite authors but I much prefer his political essays to his fiction. I started The Stranger after reading Letters to a German Friend and it was too much of a departure in style at the time I think.
Ha, I have read them both as well. As for The Kite Runner, it's a first novel and shows it in places. I wasn't that fond of it and it didn't break my world open. The Road I found more readily engrossing though I think that is also a result of McCarthy's writing style.
I couldn't help being affected by The Kite Runner, it just felt manipulative. It is perhaps a poor criticism, since there must be many true stories that would be even more heartbreaking. I did not see either movie, but have The Road on my list. Can you recommend for or against it?
I have not seen the movie for The Road. I may have seen the Kite Runner movie (the first time I read it was for an English class) but I don't remember it. To be honest, I have been watching a lot of documentaries lately, and things on Netflix. I am not good at catching movies in theaters or shows when they're on TV.