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spookypete 's review for:
The Crossing
by Cormac McCarthy
I'm sad to say I'm very mixed on this book, after I absolutely loved 'All the Pretty Horses'.
There are moments of absolute brilliance. The existential, pessimistic themes and melancholic atmosphere grabbed me and kept me reading. The ending is brutally heartbreaking. McCarthy's unique command of the english language is so good it's unreal.
But I really wish this frontier tale wasn't so laborious to read. I'm not a master like McCarthy so maybe I didn't get it, but the wonderful character moments from 'All the Pretty Horses' is replaced here by constant descriptions of the landscape and characters moving through the landscape. It was great the first few scenes, but it just got too much. The experience of reading this is oppressively slow. This matches the thematic and literal journey of Billy, our protagonist, which I totally get - but it made for an overall unengaging read.
If if were a shorter book with less of the fat, I'd consider this the masterpiece it's already been labelled. Maybe if I reread it when I'm older I'll probably think different, but for now I'm considering this a flawed work of art.
There are moments of absolute brilliance. The existential, pessimistic themes and melancholic atmosphere grabbed me and kept me reading. The ending is brutally heartbreaking. McCarthy's unique command of the english language is so good it's unreal.
But I really wish this frontier tale wasn't so laborious to read. I'm not a master like McCarthy so maybe I didn't get it, but the wonderful character moments from 'All the Pretty Horses' is replaced here by constant descriptions of the landscape and characters moving through the landscape. It was great the first few scenes, but it just got too much. The experience of reading this is oppressively slow. This matches the thematic and literal journey of Billy, our protagonist, which I totally get - but it made for an overall unengaging read.
If if were a shorter book with less of the fat, I'd consider this the masterpiece it's already been labelled. Maybe if I reread it when I'm older I'll probably think different, but for now I'm considering this a flawed work of art.