I'm currently reading "The Crossing" after having finished "All the Pretty Horses" and I am about to give up halfway into the book because figuring out the meaning of all those Spanish passages is such a huge pain in the behind. Am I missing something? Is it intentional, a stylistic device? Am I meant to puzzle out the meaning without help? Was speaking Spanish so natural to McCarthy that he couldnt conceive of people being unable to understand it?
There are ready translations of every Spanish sentence in his books on the website of the cormacmccarthysociety.com but looking it up there is almost as cumbersome as using google translate.
by wheelienonstop7
1 Comment
Just read through and get what you can, and save looking more into it for when you’re done or for a reread, if you like it enough. Reading Cormac McCarthy or really any literature as if you need to completely understand it the first time is self-defeating, as you’re experiencing.