Official Review: The Road by William A Boyle

Standor5865 · Post by **Standor5865** » 15 Jan 2021, 11:25

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Road" by William A Boyle.]

3 out of 4 stars

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The Road by William A. Boyle is a historical fiction novel that revolves around Win Burns' journey through childhood, his life as an adult, and even his life as a parent. Growing up in Summerville, South Carolina, Win's experiences with understanding his family, making new friends, romantic relationships, and finding his place in the world are highlighted. Eventually, for the fear of being enlisted in the army during the Vietnam War, he joins the U.S. Air Force, and his journey towards self-discovery takes a different turn as he learns about love and responsibility.

The story is told in the first-person perspective through the eyes of a much older Win Burns. At the same time, we follow the story of this older Win as he tries to convince his love interest, Beth, to leave a long-term, unhappy relationship and focus on a happy relationship with him. There were quite a lot of highlights in this story for me, with my favorite aspect being the level of uncertainty that surrounded Win's life. Even when he made plans for how things were supposed to go, life happened. This created a level of suspense that I appreciated at certain points, and Win was always ready to embrace these changes and learn from them.

Another aspect of the book I enjoyed was the evident change in writing style as the story progressed. A simple style of writing is employed in narrating events during Win's childhood, and it becomes more sophisticated as he grows older. There is also a lot of humor in the dialogues between Win and other characters; humor that Win picked up from his mother's side and his hilarious, adventurous friends. I did not stop laughing throughout the read, even in some sad moments.

Furthermore, The Road is a fairly well-edited book. I found about five errors while reading, but they were few and far between and did not affect the flow of my reading. The major complaint I have about the book involves my confusion at certain points in the dialogues. At times, it was a struggle to know who was speaking, and I had to re-read some pages for clarity. Besides that, the book was well executed.

All things considered, Win's story was entertaining and explores different themes that I learned from, especially love and tolerance, as we see Win get married for the wrong reasons, tolerate his wife's negative sides, discover a different kind of love for his children, and experience loving Beth. Due to the complaint I mentioned above, I rate The Road 3 out of 4 stars. I couldn't rate it any lower because there are a lot of positive aspects to the book. Historical fiction lovers and fans of coming-of-age stories will enjoy this book.

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The Road
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GreatReviews · Post by **GreatReviews** » 24 Jan 2021, 18:54

I do love reading memoire novel. It interesting learning from people's experiences about life. welldone on your descriptive review

shreyagupta · Post by **shreyagupta** » 24 Jan 2021, 23:32

The story looks like an interesting read. Thanks for a well put together review.

Brenda Creech · Post by **Brenda Creech** » 27 Jan 2021, 12:01

I am a definite historical fiction fan! This sounds like an interesting story. I'm sure the writing changing from simple to more sophisticated was an interesting approach. Thanks for the insightful review!