Nothing says, “Hey, let’s make you depressed!” like Cormac McCarthy killing off characters.

This Cannonball has been really odd, because it feels like I’m switching between Cormac McCarthy and Barbara Pym–two authors who could not be more different from one another. I decided to switch back to McCarthy, because apparently I HATE MYSELF. Good lord, somebody has issues with animals. In all fairness, my sister warned me about the bad things that happen in The Crossing, so it wasn’t like I wasn’t prepared. I believe someone here on CBR (I want to say narfna) warned me, too. But yeah, every time bad things happen to an animal, a little part of my soul curls up and starts crying. Good times.

The Crossing is the second book in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy and is far less romantic than its predecessor, All the Pretty Horses. The novel is named for the three crossings between the United States and Mexico that take place. Billy Parham, our protagonist, undertakes each of the crossings. In the first, he has trapped a she-wolf that has been eating his family’s sick and miscarried calves. Instead of killing this wolf, he decides to take her back to Mexico where she has originated from, and thus begins the intriguing bond between humankind and beast. In the second and third crossings, Billy and his younger brother Boyd seek to retrieve family horses as a way to regain family honor. And if I say anymore, I give it away. But let’s just say the ending left me utterly desolate. The end.

Of course I’m going to read Cities of the Plain. But McCarthy is on NOTICE. NOTICE, I tell you. I need not-bad things to happen to dogs and dog-like creatures.