The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy is a melancholic and stark tale following the journey of Billy Parham, a young boy who captures a wolf and decides to take it back to Mexico. The story is filled with vivid imagery and detailed descriptions of the characters' experiences, set against the backdrop of the harsh landscapes of the Southwest and Mexico. Readers are taken on a journey through the wild and often violent land, where moments of beauty and brutality intertwine, leaving a lasting impact on the characters and the readers alike.

Characters:

The characters are richly detailed yet emotionally restrained, embodying complex dynamics and existential struggles.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is characterized by poetic language and detailed imagery, oscillating between straightforward and complex narrative forms.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot follows Billy Parham on a series of introspective and meandering journeys across the border, reflecting themes of loss and identity.

Setting:

The setting features the stark landscapes of the borderlands of the US and Mexico in the late 1930s, enhancing themes of desolation and journey.

Pacing:

The pacing is deliberate and slow, focusing on introspection and detailed observations, which can feel meandering at times.

WHEN THEY CAME SOUTH out of Grant County Boyd was not much more than a baby and the newly formed county they’d named Hidalgo was itself little older than the child. In the country they’d quit lay the ...

Notes:

The Crossing is the second novel in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy.

The story follows Billy Parham, a 16-year-old boy from New Mexico, who captures a she-wolf and decides to return it to Mexico.

Billy's journey is marked by aimlessness and emotional struggle, reflecting themes of loss and identity.

The narrative features both English and untranslated Spanish dialogue, which can be challenging for readers who don't speak Spanish.

The writing style alternates between detailed descriptions of mundane actions and poetic, abstract passages.

Billy's relationship with his younger brother Boyd is central to the story, highlighting themes of brotherhood and emotional disconnect.

The first section of the book, focusing on the wolf, is often praised as some of McCarthy's finest writing.

McCarthy addresses philosophical themes, including fate, morality, and the nature of existence, throughout the novel.

Many readers find the book emotionally heavy, often describing it as bleak and melancholic.

Some reviewers suggest that The Crossing requires multiple readings to fully appreciate its depth and themes.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

The Crossing features themes of animal cruelty, violence, death, and existential despair.

From The Publisher:

In The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy fulfills the promise of All the Pretty Horses and at the same time give us a work that is darker and more visionary, a novel with the unstoppable momentum of a classic western and the elegaic power of a lost American myth.

In the late 1930s, sixteen-year-old Billy Parham captures a she-wolf that has been marauding his family's ranch. But instead of killing it, he decides to take it back to the mountains of Mexico. With that crossing, he begins an arduous and often dreamlike journey into a country where men meet ghosts and violence strikes as suddenly as heat-lightning-a world where there is no order "save that which death has put there."

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.

Ratings (23)

Incredible (8)
Loved It (11)
Liked It (2)
It Was OK (1)
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Reader Stats (32):

Read It (23)
Currently Reading (1)
Want To Read (8)

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About the Author:

Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright who has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A number of his works have been adapted into films, including All the Pretty…

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The Crossing

Cormac McCarthy

Book 2 in the series:The Border Trilogy