McCarthy certainly knows how to construct a plot! He is a very gifted storyteller that requires you as the reader to use your imagination and active perception to fill in the blanks. The Road is not only the title of the novel but also the mysterious and underlying major character of the book. The one thing that is slightly annoying in this novel is McCarthy's narrative, although it is clearly a style that he is trying to portray as uniquely his (this is also displayed in No Country for Old Men). I mean since when was it acceptable practice to omit quotation marks, inverted commas, or even apostrophes from contractions? If you have the opportunity, read this book before the movie is released and ruins the experience for you.