The title, at least on the surface, refers to Billy's crossing into Mexico, which he makes a few times with different sidekicks. The Crossing may also refer to metaphorical journeys, such as from boyhood to manhood, from tame to wild, wild to tame. I won't say anything else and ruin the story, as other reviewers are wont to do.
A thoroughly engaging and gripping book. At times McCarthy has Billy meet up with strangers who opine for pages on end about the mysteries of life. These intermissions I find excessive and unnecessary to the story, and I almost didn't make it past the first one, though I'm glad I did. By the end of The Crossing your brain will be full of the book, images of horses and guns and senoritas and the Mexican countryside implanted in your head, ideas of mortality, friendship, honor, and duty stuck in your imagination for days.
A few notes to the other reviewers: McCarthy has constructed the Spanish dialogue so that we can figure out what people are saying in context. All you have to do is pay attention. Also, if you aren't used to the lack of punctuation by the third page you might as well pick up the classic comics edition instead. The spare dialogue without quotations draw us into the spare, harsh scenery of New Mexico and Mexico.
On to The Cities of the Plain!
We could easily call The Crossing a coming of age story, an adventure story, a quest or an epic poem, but it is all that and much more. As with any coming of age story, Billy Parham loss of innocence comes with a price of great consequence. Like an adventure story The Crossing is filled with action and unexpected situations. As with tales of quests as the Iliad and Gulliver's Travels we meet strange and interesting creatures along Billy's path. Like an epic poem The Crossing is filled with lyrical prose, both in Spanish and English.
Cormac McCarthy is one of the great American authors of the twentieth century and he proves it in once again in the Crossing the second book of his border trilogy. His prose is beautiful to read, with dialogue devoid of quotation marks and contractions missing apostrophes. He shifts from English to Spanish can be challenging to the non-Spanish reader. His scenes rich with descriptors can be stark and ruthless. The reader should be prepared to be shocked and moved.
Reading McCarthy comes with a price. After reading one of his books the reader feels changed, drained and at a loss. I, like Billy cannot retrieve my innocence. It disappeared when I went south of the border with him. As the Spanish Gypsy tells him
"We think we are the victims of time. In reality, the way of the world isn't fixed anywhere. How could that be possible? We are our own journey. And therefore we are time as well. We are the same. Fugitive. Inscrutable. Ruthless."
I cannot helped but be moved by Cormac McCarthy's work and The Crossing was perhaps the favorite, which I have read.