What is missing from this post-apocalyptic world in the road so far

This is such a broad question, I'm not quite sure how to answer. I think, that in those first one-hundered pages of the novel, the most important missing element is that of information. We are completely uninformed as to the "why." Why has civilization collapsed, why the rituals, why communes? So my thoughts on what's missing go back to something as simple as information. We're still in the dark, but that's part of what makes its so interesting.