[BOOK] The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

"He told the boy that although he was huérfano still he must cease his wanderings and make for himself some place in the world because to wander in this way would become for him a passion and by this passion he would become estranged from men and so ultimately from himself. He said that the world could only be known as it existed in men's hearts. For while it seemed a place which contained men it was in reality a place contained within them and therefore to know it one myst look there and come to know those hearts and to do this one must live with men and not simply pass among them" (page 137).

In deserts and among mountains only the toughtest plants and animals can thrive, same goes for the people who live off this land, doing their hardest to maintain a independent life. That goes for the cowboys Cormac McCarthy writes about. Wandering, their bed the ground wherever their urge has driven them. Harassed by the law and those who want to be the law, fed by the other poor no questions asked.

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Cormac McCarthy somehow feeds me hope through the harshness and sometimes bleakness in his literature. As in his The Road where everything that ever meant anything is ashes and the child still beliefs one shouldn't hurt other people.
The main character of The Crossing is closer, both physically and mentally, to the land then civilization. His heart is bound to the wolf he is hunting, more than the people who want her dead. For good reasons, we learn. As I have written before, McCarthy's novels need to be read closely because his text is rich and his words carry a lot of weight.

"In the courtyard an old man who sat weaving baskets told him that they were gone. He asked the old man if he knew where they had gone but the old man seemed not to have a clear understanding of the idea of destination. He gestured widely at the world" (page 380). [Alfred A. Knopf]
- Sigurður Harðarson

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[Book] All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

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