tral character, and his brother Boyd, orrnbetween some of the older men, are vintagernAmerican Rural. An example ofrnthis occurs early in the novel in a conversationrnbetween Billy and an old manrndriving a Model A pickup. Billy has beenrnout setting traps for a female wolf, butrndoesn’t particularly want to say so to thernold man who has stopped him in thernroad. Billy instead remarks that he hasrnseen a lot of coyote sign. The old man:rn”I aint surprised. They done everthingrndown at our place but come in and set atrnthe table.” Then the old man whips outrna big lighter and in the big flame lightsrnhis cigarette.rn1 had to quit using the hightest, hernsaid.rnYessir.rnYou married?rnNo sir. I aint but sixteen.rnDont get married. Women arerncrazy.rnYessir.rnYou’ll think you’ve found one thatrnaint but guess what?rnWhat.rnShe will be too.rnBefore they part, the old man tells a talernabout the New Mexico mountain lionrntalking to the Texas mountain lion, arnfine example of Southwestern yarnspinning.rnThe Texas lion was gaunt andrnstarving. When he explained he hadrnbeen hunting Texans in the traditionalrnway, screaming and then jumping onrnthem, the New Mexico lion said, “it’srna wonder you aint dead. Said that’s allrnwrong for your Texans and I dont seernhow you got through the winter atall.rnSaid look here. First of all when yournholler thataway it scares the sh-t out ofrnem. Then when you jump on top of emrnthataway it knocks the wind out of em.rnHell, son. You aint got nothin left butrnbuckles and boots.”rnSuch tough, high laughter serves onlyrnto heighten the more serious sections ofrnthe story. For The Crossing is a fully realizedrnBildungsroman, a story of passage.rnThe “crossing” first denotes Billy’s crossingrnthe Texas-Mexican border and enteringrnanother country. He must oftenrnspeak a language other than his own, forrnhe is leaving the known domain andrnpassing to a new, unknown one. At thernsame time, he is crossing into manhood.rnThough only 16 he already has manyrnskills, not having been reared in a pamperedrnsuburb of the American 90’s, butrnin the rural southwest of the 20’s andrn30’s, Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Thernnovel reminded me that my relative,rnJesse James, was only 14 or 15 at the beginningrnof the War Between the States.rnLike Billy Parham, he developed skills ofrnsurvival, of horsemanship and of arms, inrnhis teens.rnAppropriately, during this passagernfrom innocence to experience, Billy hasrnmany teachers. Early in the story, his fatherrnteaches him to trap wolves, to conservernhis horse’s strength in deep snow,rnwhile his mother instructs him to keeprnthe Sabbath and to offer thanks for theirrnfood. In the bravura performance of PartrnI, in which Billy learns to catch the wolfrnand then returns it to its home in thernMexican mountains, he seeks the ancientrnknowledge of trapping from an oldrnman, Don Arnulfo. Don Arnulfo is onernof the numerous sages the boy listens tornthroughout the narrative. Billy asks himrnabout a wolf scent. Number Seven Matrix,rnthat he has obtained and receives instructionrnnot only about wolves butrnabout the matrix of the world, uponrnwhich he is invited to meditate. “Hernsaid that the matrix was not so easily defined.rnEach hunter must have his ownrnformula.” Further, “El lobo es una cosarnincognoscible.”rnBilly Parham’s journeys are filled withrnsigns of the world that he must interpretrnin order to live. He must weigh therndifferent words, the different perspectivesrnof the sages, whether of Don Arnulfo,rnthe church caretaker, the blindrnman, the prima donna, or the gypsy. Hernis confronted with what every humanrnbeing confronts: how to separate appearancernfrom reality. He is instructedrnby the blind man that the visible world isrna distraction, that one must listen: thatrnthe world hides more than it reveals. Inrna moving scene (reminiscent of StephenrnDedalus’s epiphany at seeing the girlrnwading in the water), Billy watches thernprima donna bathing naked in the river:rn”He saw that the world which had alwaysrnbeen before him everywhere had beenrnveiled from his sight. Nothing wouldrnever be the same.” Counterposed to thisrnis the observation by the prima donna’srnco-worker that only the mask is real. Shernadds, “Perhaps it is true that nothing isrnhidden. Yet many do not wish to seernwhat lies before them in plain sight. Yournwill see.”rnRiding through the wilderness ofrnsigns, this vaquero-knight encountersrnevil, always realized in believable villains:rnthe horse thieves, those who took thernwolf, those who stabbed his horse. Likernany knight, he protects women and thernweak, and tries not to lie. The poor arernthe quickest to recognize him for whatrnhe is and together they share and takerntheir food as sacrament, the tortilla “therngreat secular host of the Mexicans.” Arnpart of his chivalric Quest is the return ofrnhis father’s horse and the return of hisrnbrother’s body. Throughout this story,rnthe protagonist and his sage-teachersrnmeditate on evil and justice. Thoughtsrnand words about God saturate the entirernnovel. Perhaps The Crossing is above allrna theodicy, or at the very least, a theodicrninvestigation. I have not come uponrnany such endeavor of this magnitude inrnrecent fiction.rnMcCarthy has an immense capacityrnfor what Keats described as negative capability.rnLike Hamlet turning a skull inrnhis hand, McCarthy turns the world ofrnThe Crossing this way, now that, askingrnus to consider the matter with him. Hisrnbook is not a religious tract. During arntime when one begins to des]3air aboutrnfiction being reduced to political statementsrnby one victim group or another, itrnis gratifying to come upon the real thing.rnWilliam Mills is the editor of JohnrnCorrington: Southern Man of Lettersrn(UCA Press, Conway, Arkansas).rnLIBERAL ARTSrnLIKE, I’M A CHRIS riANrnJiilif Sterlitig, 1’^. the heterosexualrnsopliomore prosiilcnt of the Cav JtidrnLesbian iMIiancc at Central Colle^,rna church-afhliated, libeial arts schoolrnin Des Moines, Iowa:rn”•I’ln Christian and I’m tired of feelins;rnthat you have to believe a certainrnway to be a Chnstian.”rn—from the Canneti News Service,rnSeptemhvr I,rnDECEMBER 1994/35rnrnrn