Book Overview
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 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. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0394574753
ISBN13:9780394574752
Release Date:June 1994
Publisher:Knopf Publishing Group
Length:432 Pages
Weight:1.33 lbs.
Dimensions:1.7" x 6.0" x 8.6"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
McCarthy proves that he does humorous as well as grim - a review of "The Crossing"
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
Well what can I say. More brilliant writing by a master AND for the first time I found myself laughing -a lot- while reading a McCarthy book. I know you might not believe me, but truly there are some extremely funny bits in this story. [My husband kept looking at me wondering if perhaps I had slipped the dusk jack for "The Crossing" onto another book. ] And alas, lest you wonder, McCarthy was just leading me on. Up, up he took me. Wonderful story (expected). Humor (okay, not expected). But I was laughing and soaring and I was beginning to wonder if this book might be wildly different from the others. Certainly neither "The Road", nor "Blood Meridian" had me cackling: those were all grim fare. But rest assured. As high as McCarthy took me, that was where he dropped me from. It was a long plummet but finally I was back on familiar territory... heart torn out... feelings wrenched and twisted. Five Stars. "The Crossing" is a McCarthy story that should make you laugh and then cry. Simply a wonderful tale with characters to care about. Exquisite prose.
The Crossing Mentions in Our Blog
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Published by Ashly Moore Sheldon • June 22, 2023
Renowned author Cormac McCarthy passed away last week at the age of 89. As a writer, he was a bit like some of his characters—determined to play by his own rules. His bleak, often violent stories were tempered by lush prose and stark authenticity. Here we remember his life and legacy.
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