The Road less traveled (thank goodness)

I listened to this from start to finish on Saturday. It was a bit intense and fairly disturbing. Long ago I read The Running Man, by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. The Road brought back memories of Running Man, probably because of the sense of hopelessness that the author creates around his character. I was glad that this book had a happier ending than Running Man.

Thoughts, in no particular order:

• The thought that went through my head as I read about the bomb shelter with the food storage and other emergency supplies was, "I wonder if they were Mormon?" I look back and laugh that I actually thought that.
  
• When the father and son visited the childhood home of the father, the father mentions a Christmas passed. I expected the son to ask, "What's Christmas?" but he doesn't. Did that surprise anyone else? I can't envision them having had celebrated a post-apocalyptic Christmas.
• Speaking of religion, the topic comes up a few times in the book, especially towards the end. The man seems to have had some religious upbringing, but it didn't seem like he had passed on much in the way of doctrine to the boy, though his son certainly had a solid moral compass.
• Like Alvin, I pictured the boy being about 8 years old. I'm not sure how long it look them to get to the coast, but the boy seemed to mature during the coarse (intentionally misspelled) of their journey. He started getting uncomfortable with his did staring at him. He would be irritable or uncommunicative at times. To me this indicates either maturity accellerated by scenes and experiences that children shouldn't have to endure, or the approach of adolescence (10-12). This role has to potential to launch the career of the next Haley Joel Osmet. I just did an imdb search on the movie; I hadn't heard of Kodi Smit-McPhee, but I'm guessing Hollywood will see more of him int he future.
• The saddest/scariest part of the book for me was when the dad was trying to explain when/how to commit suicide. That should NOT be part of a father to son talk.