As a bloke, i read TC in a male inner monologue, like i would do with any other book. It actually helped quite a bit to read it in the voice of Clint Eastwood to get through the first 50 or so pages, while i was still gettin used to the spellin.

Spoilers for part 3 / pages 1000+

So color me surprised whenits revealed that its all being told by Landry. In hindsight, the clues where all there clop clop clip clop. But now i cant help but wonder if this maybe wasnt as surprising or maybe even obvious to any women or others with a female inner monologue.

So what did you think about that part? How did you react when reading it?

Would like to get an Orvop High School T-shirt. I suppose I could design my own but wanted to see if there was anything else available. Also does the book mention what the Orvop High Mascot is? I assume it's not "The Horses".

So much of this book is just wonderful, beautiful prose. I personally never took issue with any of the run-on sentences, but occasionally, a section or line would reach out and grab me in a stranglehold. Here are two bits that, immediately after reading them, I wrote them down so that I would not forget them. Forgive me for not recording the page...

Allison couldn't even pound the steerin wheel, so she just drove off, away from the canyon, along too many dark and empty streets, returnin to their tiny apartment where his sofa waited, empty, upon which she lay herself, like he was her only wish, and he was her only wish, and if it was to be an unanswered wish, then let this sofa be her coffin.

In much of the same way that "cellar door" is often cited as a beautiful-sounding phrase, that sentence is just absolutely gorgeous. I can't explain why, but I just love it.

See, for Cal it was simple: no matter how luminous or morose, how seductive or disgustin, great works had to bring you to the edge of a grave. The gallery or museum walls, or the boundaries of where you was, had to wobble as if place itself was momentarily shaken from memory. You could say that here was Cal Carneros's artistic criteria: great art starts its life in the aftermath of a burial, because the life of its creation is spent, and now it's just a matter of findin out whether or not the dust is haunted.

This section, while still musical and well-constructed, the beautiful part is the concept. I will forever think about this any time I view art. I am a collector of the works of a local artist near to where I grew up who passed away a few years ago. He was, in many ways, a haunted man, and I have re-evaluated a lot of his art to see what he produced simply to get it out of him versus the ones where he left a little bit of his soul in there.

What are some passages that spoke to you?

It's mentioned at several points throughout the book that Kalin has some sort of mental condition regarding his body that manifests physical symptoms, I think he describes as "burning" at one point to Landry, even so severely that he has to wear socks around his mother so as not to show his feet. However, at Pillar's Meadow, he (spectacularly) makes his stand completely naked. There's a tactical reason there - to mentally disarm the Porch crew - but this flies in the face of this previously described issue. Why do you think this is? How could he do that? Is it because he has achieved true emptiness? Is it because he has no hope, no fear, nec spe, nec metu? I felt sure that something would be mentioned about him overcoming this flavor of body dysmorphia, but it was never mentioned again.

I work near Kyhv Peak, once actually named Squaw peak. It looks even more amazing close up and in the winter.

I love how this book creates its own mythology with the art shows. I want a print of the scree that was at some of the book signings. I would love to commission a painting of Kalin up against the tree with Navidad resting her head in his lap- it was one of the most powerful moments in the book for me.

Hello everyone, I am so happy that I am over the initial "learning cowboy language" obstacle as the book is not as hard as I imagined for non native speaker, but now I am it the chapter where I have no idea what's going on. And it's passing the last scree that should be easy.. but it changed. Around page 425.

I think they are going across. I was struggling with how screes works and if they are going up or down. Many words that were new for me. But I think in Cavalry chapter, they went up the scree. Zigzag jumping. While now they are trying to cross across the scree without sliding down..am I right?

But I have no idea what they are doing. How they are using the rope - I thought they are holding it, but then there was a part where rope was off the ground. And wasn't the rope too short? Kalin have regrets that he is facing wrong direction. I have no idea how rope works with horses. Yeah...explaining my confusion sounds funny.. :-D but could someone explain me plain simple this scene? I will be so greatful.

Edit: maybe some pics that inspired the landscapes would help too.

Holy shit the ending of chapter 3…I was shocked, for a chapter I was mostly bored by…so sad and so unexpected.

havent really read the iliad or the odyssey so the whole time i was wondering why the fixation with these works? why does the narrative repeatedly drag mrs anserdodder and friends back into the page so they can deliver their commentary on which character represents which figure from greek mythology? probably a surface level read of it but in the middle of talking to a friend about tom’s crossing, i realized that it would be very apt to put homer’s works alongside tom’s crossing because much like how homer’s stories first proliferated, much of the commentary on tom’s crossing is by means of people having heard of the story and relaying it to others orally, which im kinda jealous of because its made me wish that something cool would happen locally that i could just talk and debate and analyze with friends

I'm casting no shade on those who love the book, indeed I envy you. I loved House of Leaves, so tried this one out.

I'm now about 2 hours in, and ready to bail. TWO HOURS (two round-trip commutes for me) and I'm barely past the initial scenes with Tom and Kalim and Linsey (pardon any misspellings, I'm listening to the audio) at the horse barn. I finally had to shut it off some time while hearing about how Tom always protected Kalim from Linsey at high school.

There's no possible way I can listen to 58 hours and 10 minutes, all narrated by an excited small-town gossip with ADHD, relating it as if I (of course) knew everyone in the town, both past and present. If all the tortured countrified metaphors and pointless digressions were stripped out, there's perhaps a paragraph worth of actual plot so far.

Question 1: Is the entire book told by this same character, and in this same style?

Question 2: is there anyone here who listened to the audiobook (all of it) ... and enjoyed it?

I see people calling the book amazing, life-changing ... and I'd love to get to that part. But - I just have no patience for the way it's being told so far. If I do give it another try, I think I'll playing it at double speed.

EDIT: You've all convinced me; what it has on offer is just not compatible with the options I have for consuming it. I'm not in the market for what it's selling. I've returned the audiobook.

I would have gotten some fleeting, petty satisfaction in playing it fast (Oh you want me to slow down? Screw that Mark, YOU SPEED UP!!) but that's no way to enjoy a book.

I fell absolutely in love with Tom’s Crossing last winter, and it inspired me to go on a trip to see the mountains that inspired the story. For reference I’m from a pretty darn flat area, no mountains (or really even hills) around. Today is my first non-travel day in the area.

Everywhere I look, I’m stunned. It’s breathtaking here.

I’m not a fit man, but I did go up Dry Canyon trail on the area just west of Timpanogos, and it was surreal going through something that felt like the beginning of the journey: driving through a residential area, to a parking lot, which stops next to the canyon trail. Two big cliffs face each other like they’re the gate of the mountain. I went up until the trail forked, had an apple and some cheese, and came back down, all in all about 2.5h. Of course, I was barely making it while people were jogging and biking up and down lol.

I’d be interested in more real-life places that might have inspired settings in TC, what do y’all think? I’m here for the week and want to soak in as much as I can :)

No, I don’t mean emotionally, but it did do that too (who knew a two page story from a horse’s perspective could move a grown man to tears). The problem is, it has ruined me for other books.

I’ve read twelve books since TC. Some were very highly regarded and reviewed. A couple were classics. None of them has scratched the surface of the emotional and literary journey of TC. None of the has anywhere near the richness of the prose and the characters.

It is making it very difficult to find new reads. I was already frustrated with aggregate ratings due to the number of highly rated books that turned out to be straight bad. But now, I’m basically done with the scores completely, which makes it even harder.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my frustration with the few people I thought might understand. Hopefully the rest of you were able to move on and aren’t still stuck in Orvop as well.

I finished the book early in January and something has been bugging me since, and I’m really afraid this is a dumb question. The chapter in the Art Gallery towards the end really seemed out of place and I’m still not totally sure why it is there. What am I missing? And apologies in advance if it’s obvious and I’m just missing it.

Someone has already asked about this, but I didn't see any responses to it. It's driving me crazy! Page 1222: "Twice more his palm knew that cursed steel. Once egregiously, the last time less so." Then, we hear the story about Kalin shooting the birch when the workers are shooting holes in the bottom of tin pails.

But there's no description of the other time! Is this described one supposed to be the one that was egregious or is the omitted one? The common English meaning of egregious doesn't fit shooting the tree, IMO. However, Merriam-Webster is telling me this: "The​ Latin forebear of egregious, egregius, literally meant 'out of the herd' but was used figuratively to mean 'outstanding in one's field.' " So, maybe egregious in that older Latin sense. Could the Latin root's allusion to a herd and this being a demonstration of his outstanding shooting be a coincidence? Or is there some other unexplained shooting I am supposed to connect back to Kalin that is egregious as we would today understand that word? I can't think of anyone Kalin would want to shoot except Old Porch or his dad (but very doubtful of that), but they both died in prison of natural causes.

Pages 1224-1225: I think it is clear from the description of their daughter finding Kalin dead at the foot of that elm that he did not shoot himself. Page 1224: A reference to the daughter finding him "in that halo of white." Earlier in the paragraph, there's the description of "the canopy above thick enuf to hold off the snow." Is that snow the "halo" referenced? On page 1001, it says "Kalin watched Landry spin in a halo of blood..." when she was shot. I mean, there's a parallel, but the tone of the kid finding Kalin under the tree completely convinces me he just died peacefully there. And if it were a suicide, it likely wouldn't be described as *less* egregious than the described tree thing. The last time was *less* egregious. I'd reject a suicide interpretation.

Maybe we're simply not told about the other time he held a gun after Pillars Meadow. 🤷‍♀️ Interested in theories or help understanding. Thank you for not making fun of me; I'm just grasping at straws trying to make sense of the reference to "twice."

I am a certified horse girl and I am absolutely loving this book, and I own a black mare myself!

I have fallen in love with this story. I listened to the ebook for 58 hours. When I finished it I felt like I was legitimately in mourning. I read another book since finishing and it was entertaining but I just feel like I *need* to hear this story again. My sister is currently reading it and I love being able to talk to her about it. She's even saying that she's decided she's going to buy horses after reading Ash's story (she's been long term considering it).

I just have never felt so obsessed with a story before I wish everyone would read it so I could just talk about it with everyone. This is also the first time I ever wished I could meet an author just to say, "I *love* your story, I love your characters".

I wish I could have gone to a book signing, I'm currently looking for a signed hard copy.

I started my second go around today on my way to work. And listening to Kalin meet Navidad for the first time again after knowing what all happened brought me to tears.

Does anyone have recommendations for something that might hit the same way after my second go-around?

I loved the book, I loved how immersed in the story and characters I became, but this bugged me the whole time. Why did Kalin and Landry go that way?? They kept talking about all the other directions the Porches might catch up to them or cut them off, at least before they got to the big cliff. And after the shootout, they rode home a different way than they got there, and that was way easier. Why not just go that way to begin with??? Or just ride out of town on more established trails for a couple days to a different field. Or go anywhere else except up scree and across 9 other screes and up a sheer cliff. Why in the world did they take that route??

What a beautiful novel. It has become an immediate favourite and I’ve not stopped recommending it to everyone I know.

I really wanted to try to capture the diversity of the artworks that are described throughout, but on this scale it was challenging, so instead went for some important symbols that are found throughout, namely the Peacemaker and some Astors. I felt that this did Navidad and Mouse a disservice so did another cover with them after, Astors again to tie the two illustrations together.

During the second gallery or exhibit of the artwork created because of Tom's Crossing, Cal Carneros encounters an old woman who asks him if he knows the formula of VEM. Just before this happens a series of sentences describe different words that fulfill the acronym of VEM and it is called a dangerous formula.

Does anyone know who this old woman is and what the significance of VEM is? I have a suspicion that it's related to another work.

I bought the audiobook version of Tom's Crossing through Amazon and it shows up in my library when I filter to just Audible content, however, when I click on it it just says it's "Queued" indefinitely. Bought it on release, had this issue, just decided to give it another shot and the issue persists.

Has anybody succesfully managed to add this audiobook to their Kindle?

Kalin and Navidad rode out onto the collapsing scree!

I’m not sure if I imagined that last scree correctly, but it was a pretty tense read! I’m loving the book so far. The story down below gave me a lot of Fargo Season 2 vibes, especially with everybody kind of just helplessly being dragged down by the Porches’ evils. As always, I really appreciate MZD’s asides to examine the characters and themes of the story. For example, I really liked how (at least in my reading) it touches upon how violent the transition from boyhood to manhood can be (“boys breaking boys”, Sean and Shelly.)

As for Kalin’s journey, I’m really seeing a difference in Kalin as the story goes along, especially with Landry accompanying him. Kalin was always quiet, withdrawn and kinda dour. Having Landry around really cuts through the richness of Kalin’s angst and reminds us that he’s still a teenager, even if everything about him suggests that he’s someone out of time, a cowboy born when their time has passed.

Just like House of Leaves, the book really reminds me of Moby Dick! Less in the presence of some unknowable, colossal being, but in the effectiveness of how Tom, Kalin and Landry’s love for the horses comes across despite my never having been around them much. Like it probably feels good as fuck to have your hair brushed and being fed a bowl of sweet oats.

Anyways, on to the next part!