Cormac McCarthy (1994)
This is the second (and so far, my favorite) book in McCarthy’s “Border Trilogy”; the first, All The Pretty Horses was on last Best Books of the Year’s list. Some I’ve talked with have mentioned that McCarthy’s style takes a little getting used to–he doesn’t use quotation marks when writing dialogue–but I really like the uniqueness of his prose. This story follows the adventures and fates of two brothers living in New Mexico before WWII, focusing primarily on the solitary struggle of the eldest, Billy. The sixteen-year-old travels back and forth on horseback along the border, encountering situations and persons both dangerous and spiritual. I particularly loved the opening third of the book in which Billy tries to return to her wilderness home a she-wolf accidentally caught in a trap.
2 Things @ Once 