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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
I'm not sure what I expected going into this read, but I certainly didn't expect such a radiant, brutal, multi-faceted experience. For me, it succeeded on so many levels. Often spartan with his language, McCarthy is exacting with its impact. A spur-of-the-moment decision sends young Billy into Mexico and creates a kind of Bildungsroman-as-lamentation. Every stranger he encounters is like an oracle in disguise. Some deliver advice. Some wish to deliver death. A world where hospitality and danger intermingle continuously.
And the prose floats between stark reality and the sublime:
Grounded in reality, it's like a Western elevated to allegory. An ode to lost ways, lost lives, and the perpetual grind of history. The characters resonate with an abundance of depth by way of a few short lines breathing life through facial expression, postures, terse dialogue.
Damn.
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THIS IS PROBABLY 2/3 OF THE WORDS I DIDN'T KNOW IN THIS BOOK
fumarole | vaqueros | la almohada | siéntate | contumacious | alcahest | ocotillo | bosal | lechuguilla | arrieros | kiacks | esclarajo | serranos | pozole | bier | mozo | alguacil | cobarde | agárrala | chozas | wickiups | huérfano | majoneras | celadon | terremoto | vigas | moren | consanguinity | quoined | jinete | canebrake | remuda | scaup | selvedge | demiculverin | ciborium | indenominate | ejiditarios | latifundio | gorgios | caliche | preterite
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HANDY READING RESOURCE
Translations of all the Spanish in this book: http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/wp-content/uploads/CrossingTrans.pdf
And the prose floats between stark reality and the sublime:
“The movement of figures in the room slowed, the low mutterings of the condolent died to a whisper. The mourners wished one another that they profit from their meal and then all of it ground away in the history of its own repetition and he could hear those antecedent ceremonies dropping somewhere like wooden blocks into their slots. Like tumblers in a lock or like the wooden gearteeth in old machinery slipping one by one into the mortices cut in the cogwheel rolling up to meet them.”
Grounded in reality, it's like a Western elevated to allegory. An ode to lost ways, lost lives, and the perpetual grind of history. The characters resonate with an abundance of depth by way of a few short lines breathing life through facial expression, postures, terse dialogue.
Damn.
---------------------------------
THIS IS PROBABLY 2/3 OF THE WORDS I DIDN'T KNOW IN THIS BOOK
fumarole | vaqueros | la almohada | siéntate | contumacious | alcahest | ocotillo | bosal | lechuguilla | arrieros | kiacks | esclarajo | serranos | pozole | bier | mozo | alguacil | cobarde | agárrala | chozas | wickiups | huérfano | majoneras | celadon | terremoto | vigas | moren | consanguinity | quoined | jinete | canebrake | remuda | scaup | selvedge | demiculverin | ciborium | indenominate | ejiditarios | latifundio | gorgios | caliche | preterite
---------------------------------
HANDY READING RESOURCE
Translations of all the Spanish in this book: http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/wp-content/uploads/CrossingTrans.pdf
Might just be the single best book I’ve ever read.
A beautifully written tale of life in the southwest during the 1930’s. Teens Billy & Boyd Parham traverse the unforgiving landscape of Texas and Mexico, witnessing death and despair at every turn. Despite their resiliency, does their commitment to doing what’s right put them at a disadvantage to the harsh realities of the world?
Onhan nämä Cormacit viihdyttäviä, mutta ihan täysin miehisiä mukaviisaita cowboyfantasioita ja mitään järkeä ei ole lukea suomeksi, kun kielipeli katoaa ihan kokonaan. Jos Tasangon höpinät kokeilisin alkukielellä, tai sitten pelaan vain Red Dead Redemptionia.
This is a heartbreaking, coming-of-age story of a young man who loses everything that he’s ever loved. Along his journey he meets interesting characters who help him learn more about the type of man he wants to become.
For me personally, the journey lasted a little too long. I found my mind wandering while listening at times throughout the book, but then the writing wrapped me back into the story.
McCarthy’s writing is absolutely beautiful and his characters are memorable. They make the long journey worth the time spent reading.
For me personally, the journey lasted a little too long. I found my mind wandering while listening at times throughout the book, but then the writing wrapped me back into the story.
McCarthy’s writing is absolutely beautiful and his characters are memorable. They make the long journey worth the time spent reading.
This was my least favorite of the trilogy. I enjoyed the first part of the book, and the later half of the book, but felt lost and confused in the middle. Perhaps I will read it again one day and it will make more sense to me.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Border Trilogy is CRIMINALLY underrated
The Crossing (1994) is the follow-up to All the Pretty Horses (1992) and the second part of Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed Border Trilogy, three novels focused on young American men coming of age in the early-to-mid-20th century on the border with Mexico.
Despite the singular title, it tells the story of young Billy Parham’s three crossings (or quests) into Mexico from New Mexico. So the book is somewhat three novellas in one. And while each story focuses on Billy, each story also focuses upon the beautiful, inconsolable landscapes of the New Mexico/Mexico border. The landscape is just as much a character as Billy is.
Like its predecessor, The Crossing concerns a young American rancher living near the Mexican border in the 1930s, a time when the old West is grudgingly entering the modern world while Mexico is being torn apart by revolution. And like volume one's memorable hero, John Cole Grady, 16-year-old Billy Pawson is drawn south in a nearly mythical journey to find himself. Billy initially crosses into Mexico to take a wolf he had trapped on his New Mexico ranch back to the animal's native mountains. When he returns, he finds that his home has been plundered, and he and his 14-year-old brother, Boyd, set off for Mexico to find their family's stolen horses. Traveling through the lawless ruins of the post-revolutionary Mexican countryside, they encounter Gypsy wanderers, carnival actors, horse-traders, horse thieves, revolutionary soldiers, and men of various religions.
The Crossing is a wandering tale. It is no tale of love or pure adventure. It is a novel about the harsh realities of the world. I will say I didn't find The Crossing to be as riveting as All The Pretty Horses was. The novel slumps in the middle, but the ending is quite superb and tragic as Billy's journey quickly turns into a quest for Boyd's remains as he was cut down in battle. In an interesting development, Boyd is remembered by ordinary Mexicans, somewhat erroneously, as a champion of the people.
For as beautifully written as The Crossing is, it is an obtuse book. All the Pretty Horses is a perfect novel of its kind - structurally and in terms of character development. The Crossing is a different beast of a book. More fatalistic, more violent, more bleak, with less character development. The Crossing is less Mark Twain and more Faulkner.
Perhaps The Crossing was meant to be the antithesis to All the Pretty Horses? And if that is the case, McCarthy succeeded.
Despite the singular title, it tells the story of young Billy Parham’s three crossings (or quests) into Mexico from New Mexico. So the book is somewhat three novellas in one. And while each story focuses on Billy, each story also focuses upon the beautiful, inconsolable landscapes of the New Mexico/Mexico border. The landscape is just as much a character as Billy is.
Like its predecessor, The Crossing concerns a young American rancher living near the Mexican border in the 1930s, a time when the old West is grudgingly entering the modern world while Mexico is being torn apart by revolution. And like volume one's memorable hero, John Cole Grady, 16-year-old Billy Pawson is drawn south in a nearly mythical journey to find himself. Billy initially crosses into Mexico to take a wolf he had trapped on his New Mexico ranch back to the animal's native mountains. When he returns, he finds that his home has been plundered, and he and his 14-year-old brother, Boyd, set off for Mexico to find their family's stolen horses. Traveling through the lawless ruins of the post-revolutionary Mexican countryside, they encounter Gypsy wanderers, carnival actors, horse-traders, horse thieves, revolutionary soldiers, and men of various religions.
The Crossing is a wandering tale. It is no tale of love or pure adventure. It is a novel about the harsh realities of the world. I will say I didn't find The Crossing to be as riveting as All The Pretty Horses was. The novel slumps in the middle, but the ending is quite superb and tragic as Billy's journey quickly turns into a quest for Boyd's remains as he was cut down in battle. In an interesting development, Boyd is remembered by ordinary Mexicans, somewhat erroneously, as a champion of the people.
For as beautifully written as The Crossing is, it is an obtuse book. All the Pretty Horses is a perfect novel of its kind - structurally and in terms of character development. The Crossing is a different beast of a book. More fatalistic, more violent, more bleak, with less character development. The Crossing is less Mark Twain and more Faulkner.
Perhaps The Crossing was meant to be the antithesis to All the Pretty Horses? And if that is the case, McCarthy succeeded.
"what act does not assume a future that is itself unknown? i quit this country once before, billy said. it wasn't the future that brought me back here."
favorite read of the year so far. maybe a top fiver for me and i've yet to peep blood meridian or the passenger. so much philosophy and poetry not only in how the book is written but how events fold over themselves again and again with references to seemingly unrelated peoples tales of their own personal experiences and takes on god, justice and the world at large. fav moments include the lobo and the priest that loses his faith. just found a used copy of all the pretty horses so that's gonna be my next cormac unless i can find an outer dark or something really early in his bibliography to chew on.
favorite read of the year so far. maybe a top fiver for me and i've yet to peep blood meridian or the passenger. so much philosophy and poetry not only in how the book is written but how events fold over themselves again and again with references to seemingly unrelated peoples tales of their own personal experiences and takes on god, justice and the world at large. fav moments include the lobo and the priest that loses his faith. just found a used copy of all the pretty horses so that's gonna be my next cormac unless i can find an outer dark or something really early in his bibliography to chew on.