Following All the Pretty Horses in Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy is a novel whose force of language is matched only by its breadth of experience and depth of thought.In the bootheel of New Mexico hard on the frontier, Billy and Boyd Parham are just boys in the years before the Second World War, but on the cusp of unimaginable events. First comes a trespassing Indian and the dream of wolves … wolves running wild amongst the cattle lately brought onto the plain by settlers — this when all the wisdom of trappers has disappeared along with the trappers themselves. And so Billy sets forth at the age of sixteen on an unwitting journey into the souls of boys and animals and men. Having trapped a she-wolf he would restore to the mountains of Mexico, he is long gone and returns to find everything he left behind transformed utterly in his absence. Except his kid brother, Boyd, with whom he strikes out yet again to reclaim what is theirs thus crossing into “that antique gaze from whence there could be no way back forever.”
An essential novel by any measure, The Crossing is luminous and appalling, a book that touches, stops, and starts the heart and mind at once.
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I cannot praise Cormac McCarthy sufficiently. I lack the words to adequately characterize his writing. He is, quite simply, the greatest American writer of the second half of the twentieth century, and “The Crossing” is perhaps his most deeply realized and haunting book. The ending of this astounding novel is devastating. You will think about it for days, if not weeks.
The endeing of this wonderful story is so haunging and sad that the scene has stayed with me all these years. In my view, the ending exemplifies Mr. McCarthy’s prose: stark, spare, melodic. Great American writer as his best.
This one comes in third of the three for me, but it was still excellent. Felt like maybe 75 pages or so too long. One of the things I love about CM is you are never guaranteed a plot that will head where it “should” go. If you’re big on resolutions and everything tying up with a nice bow (or bows, even)…maybe keep looking. I love the way he lets his characters go wherever they need to go without feeling overly burdened that their stories follow predictable arcs. That said, I love the Borders Trilogy, but one volume has to come in last (I suppose). That would be this one.
Strong follow up to All the Pretty Horses. Very good but a little dense. Not the best bedtime reading. Make sure you have the time and patience for it
Read the entire trilogy; it’s memorable.
Had a little trouble following the point of some of the side stories, but still an enjoyable read by one of America’s finest authors.
Cormac McCarthy is simply one of the best writers of our time. Do yourself a favor, read this book!
This is not an easy book to read. But, it is well worth the effort.
The picture it paints of New Mexico, Mexico, Arizona and Texas appears to be historically accurate and very interesting.
Life in the late 1800’s and the beginning of the new century on the southwestern frontier is dramatically depicted.
I definitely recommend this book. But, you can’t as a quick beach read.
I really enjoyed the beginning. I enjoyed the translating. After a while it got tedious and the book got monotonous. Put it down near the end. May have missed the best part.
Thought provoking but very sad view of humanity. Some very giving people and some very vicious. Many portions in Spanish so sometimes frustrating as I don’t know the language. Interesting from a human interest and historical point of view.
One of the best American original writers
Remarkable. The trilogy ranks with my favorite books of all time. Real, powerful, full of heart.
Lyrical prose.
This is part of a trilogy. They’re all excelent.
A wild adventure into the souls of boys and animals and men…so unpredictable
Good book
The Crossing is the second novel in McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy . It charts the life-altering experiences of two brothers, Billy and Boyd Parham. After the older brother Billy traps a marauding she-wolf, instead of killing the animal, he seeks to restore it to its home in the remote Mexican mountains. Upon his return to his family’s ranch, Billy discovers an unspeakable tragedy has occurred. He reunites with Boyd, and the brothers head back across the border in search of answers to what happened. Their journey puts them in the path of wanderers, philosophers, bandits, and entertainers. Against the backdrop of America’s entrance into the Second World War, the story both drains and fills the heart. McCarthy’s remarkable language skills and his incredible narrative abilities explore the profoundest questions of human existence and the keenest of lessons regarding the human condition. In chronicling the plight of his young heroes, he brings great compassion and understanding to the notions of loss and redemption. The Crossing is a major achievement and one of McCarthy’s most impressive books. It can be read separately from All the Pretty Horses, which serves as volume one of the trilogy.
A poetic, mystical coming of age story as laden with philosophical turns as Dostoyevsky.
My favorite of McCarthy’s novels, The Crossing opens with a premise straight out of a classic boys’ adventure novel but that sense of naive wonder is soon crushed by land it’s protagonist was never meant to roam. This book details a painful loss of innocence rendered especially tragic by the contrasting beauty and hardness of McCarthy’s stark prose. Like Blood Meridian and the other novels in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, these trials are tied to the sins westerners have committed on the American continent.