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kpickens512 's review for:
The Crossing
by Cormac McCarthy
This book is the second part of The Border Trilogy, and continues the adventures in Mexico for the young cowboy Billy Parham. This story did not have the commercial appeal of All The Pretty Horses, but is more philosophical and allegorical. I gave myself help understanding the underlying themes by reading Books Are Made Out of Books: A Guide to Cormac McCarthy’s Literary Influences by Michael Lynn Crews. In The Crossing, Billy traps a pregnant Mexican wolf near his home in New Mexico, and impulsively decides to return the wolf to Mexico. There are no longer wolves in New Mexico and Texas, and the wolves that appear have crossed the border from Mexico. Billy feels respect for this she wolf as a hunter and a higher spiritual being. This viewpoint is influenced by Billy’s conversation with the mystic Don Arnulfo who Billy asks how to trap the wolf that is killing livestock. Arnulfo tells Billy that the wolf is a spiritual creature that “is made of breath only” and has knowledge of the divine matrix (the womb of creation). Billy takes the wolf to Mexico for his crossing into Mexico, and the rest of the book is a road trip of his travels into the world of good and evil. Billy meets extremely nonsensical violence,but he also meets many Good Samaritans including a colorful band of Gypsies who offer assistance to him with no doubt as to who he is, only that it is the right thing to do. McCormac’s influences in writing this book were Aldo Leopoldo’s A Sand County Almanac in which the main character is hunting wolves and realizes that wolves have a “fierce green fire” in their eyes. The author had initially felt that fewer wolves were a good thing, but realizes his error which is echoed in Billy Parham’s sudden decision to return the wolf to Mexico.