The Crossing
by Cormac McCarthy

List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $6.65
You Save: $8.30 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.24 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of The Crossing

Book Review: Great writing. Depressing story. Need Spanish lessons.
Summary: 3 Stars

Summary of The Crossing

This is a McCarthy novel, not Old Yeller, and so Billy's trek inevitably becomes more ominous than sweet. It boasts some chilling meditations on the simple ferocity McCarthy sees as necessary for all creatures who aim to continue living. But Billy is McCarthy's most loving--and therefore damageable--character, and his story has its own haunted melancholy.

Billy eventually returns to his ranch. Then, finding himself and his world changed, he returns to Mexico with his younger brother, and the book begins meandering. Though full of hypnotically barren landscapes and McCarthy's trademark western-gothic imagery (like the soldier who sucks eyes from sockets), these latter stages become tedious at times, thanks partly to the female characters, who exist solely as ghosts to haunt the men.

But that opening is glorious, and the whole book finally transcends its shortcomings to achieve a grim and poignant grandeur. --Glen Hirshberg

McCarthy, Cormac Books

• Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( M )
• Genre Fiction > Historical
• Contemporary
• Literary
• General
• Mystery & Thrillers > General