- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (Oct 6 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375411674
- ISBN-13: 978-0375411670
- Product Dimensions: 16.7 x 3.5 x 24.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #531,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“The enormous malevolence of Sept. 11, 2001, still squats upon the imagination, resisting our efforts to comprehend it. Writers as various as Jay McInerney (The Good Life), Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), John Updike (Terrorist) and Andre Dubus III (The Garden of Last Days) have tried working the events of 9/11 into their novels, but most of these ambitious books were doomed to at least partial failure because our memories of the actual events retain an emotional immediacy that even the most skillfully crafted fiction can't approximate. But Philip Caputo’s Crossers succeeds, in part because it’s about a man who recognizes that the imagination is inadequate to comprehend evil. For Gil Castle, Caputo’s protagonist, the enormity of 9/11 is ‘beyond grasp - an insane act perpetrated by sane minds.’”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“An ambitious, wonderful novel that illuminates the modern U.S.-Mexican border and its evolution during the 20th century.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A memorable, ambitious novel about a man haunted by his past and seeking to escape along the Arizona-Mexico border… [with] a conclusion that will change everyone.”
—Boston Globe
“At once a color-filled action tale; a generational saga with a moral; a touching love story; and a bold lesson in history and its inevitabilities.”
—Dallas News
“Readers of Caputo’s Acts of Faith will be hoping for the same measured, masterly storytelling, informed by sociopolitical concerns, and they won’t be disappointed. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal (Starred Review)
“Philip Caputo, who won a Pulitzer Prize for reportage, and wrote the seminal Vietnam memoir, A Rumor of War, has long focused his fiction on the moral ambiguities that have accompanied violent conflicts around the world—Vietnam, the Sudan, Iraq. With Crossers, he brings the war home, powerfully evoking an America marked by complexities, contradictions and an uncomfortable relationship with its own past.”
—BookPage
“A masterful tale about what comes of ‘trying to escape history’—from which, the author gives us to understand, there is no safe place to hide.”
—Kirkus (Starred)
“Gorgeously stark…. Caputo’s west supersedes elemental cowboys and lone justice with the malaise of post-9/11 America and the violence of the Mexican desert—as gruesome as in Iraq—frothing with moral ambiguity and fraught with complicity.”
— Publisher’s Weekly (Starred)
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Acts of Faith (“A miracle . . . You can hardly conceive of a more affecting reading experience”—Houston Chronicle), a blistering new novel about the brutality and beauty of life on the Arizona-Mexico border and about the unyielding power of the past to shape our lives. Taking us from the turn of the twentieth century to our present day, from the impoverished streets of rural Mexico to the manicured lawns of suburban Connecticut, from the hot and dusty air of an isolated ranch to New York City in the wake of 9/11, Caputo gives us an impeccably crafted story about three generations of an Arizona family forced to confront the violence and loss that have become its inheritance.
When Gil Castle loses his wife in the Twin Tower attacks, he retreats to his family’s sprawling homestead in a remote corner of the Southwest. Consumed by grief, he has to find a way to live with his loss in this strange, forsaken part of the country, where drug lords have more power than police and violence is a constant presence. But it is also a world of vast open spaces, where Castle begins to rebuild his belief in the potential for happiness—until he starts to uncover the dark truths about his fearsome grandfather, a legacy that has been tightly shrouded in mystery in the years since the old man’s death.
When Miguel Espinoza shows up at the ranch, terrified after two friends were murdered in a border-crossing drug deal gone bad, Castle agrees to take him in. Yet his act of generosity sets off a flood of violence and vengeance, a fierce reminder of the fact that while he may be able to reinvent himself, he may never escape his history.
Searingly dramatic, bold and timely, Crossers is Philip Caputo’s most ambitious and brilliantly realized novel yet.
When Gil Castle loses his wife in the Twin Tower attacks, he retreats to his family’s sprawling homestead in a remote corner of the Southwest. Consumed by grief, he has to find a way to live with his loss in this strange, forsaken part of the country, where drug lords have more power than police and violence is a constant presence. But it is also a world of vast open spaces, where Castle begins to rebuild his belief in the potential for happiness—until he starts to uncover the dark truths about his fearsome grandfather, a legacy that has been tightly shrouded in mystery in the years since the old man’s death.
When Miguel Espinoza shows up at the ranch, terrified after two friends were murdered in a border-crossing drug deal gone bad, Castle agrees to take him in. Yet his act of generosity sets off a flood of violence and vengeance, a fierce reminder of the fact that while he may be able to reinvent himself, he may never escape his history.
Searingly dramatic, bold and timely, Crossers is Philip Caputo’s most ambitious and brilliantly realized novel yet.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
The movie will be next,
By
This review is from: Crossers (Hardcover)
This was a disappointing book. The main character, attempting to get to grips with his wife's death in the 9/11 debacle, fails to convince and becomes a character from a very average movie. Indeed there is so much derring-do that the movie version can almost be casted as one reads. The flash-backs to a more "heroic" wild west are well drawn but do not provide much excuse for the actions of the contemporary characters. Lots of violence and a grim picture of the present US-Mexico frontier will make the reader very reluctant to visit that unhappy region of the world. I await the movie version with interest.....Also, this book could be unfavourably compared to "No Country for Old Men", a true lament for the America that once was.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews) 29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Border Epic,
By C. Wallace - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Crossers (Hardcover)
This book moved back and forth between two stories, much as several of its characters cross back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico. The primary story is that of Gil Castle, a highly successful Wall Street financial analyst (net worth: "low eight figures") whose wife was on the plane that smashed into the north tower on 9/11. In an attempt to recover from the grief that paralyzed him for two years after this disaster, he moves to his cousin's huge Arizona cattle ranch, which is right on the Mexican border.Life on the ranch offers many diversions, including a heated romance, but some of the diversions are less than idyllic. Drug smugglers and people smugglers (coyotes) use the ranch as an entrepôt to the U.S. Castle finds himself in the middle, literally. The other story is that of Ben Erskine, Castle's grandfather, and the grandfather of Blaine Erskine, the ranch owner. Through flashbacks, Ben's life unfolds from 1903-1951. Ben was a violent man, with a boiling temper. He worked on both sides of the law, once serving as a county sheriff. He played a role in the violence that characterized revolutionary Mexico in the early twentieth century. His grandson, Blaine, also has a very short fuse. I thought the first two thirds (total: 448 pages) dragged more than just a bit. I felt little empathy for Gil Castle and found his transformation from Wall Street rich guy to Arizona pistol-packing cowboy improbable. But it does pick up and builds to a spellbinding conclusion, which earns five stars. Veteran author Philip Caputo brings great insight into the human condition to this work. He develops fascinating portrayals of such characters as Yvonne Menéndez, vicious, vengeful drug queen, and The Professor, a cunning operative with a bizarre distortion of sight and smell. 21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Issues along our southern border,
By Cherie M. Mcginn - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Crossers (Hardcover)
My husband and I retired to southern New Mexico three years ago from the east coast. While on the east coast I told many of my friends that I intended to join a group that provided water for illegal immigrants crossing the border into NM. Seeing and reading about the problems caused by the "crossers" forced me to have second thoughts. Caputo's book finalized my concerns. He does an absolutely excellent job of presenting the multiple sides of the issue of crossers. A couple of characters sympathize with the illegal immigrants for all the reasons humanity presents: life is better here; they do the jobs no one else wants to do; the Statue of Liberty; etc. The characters who oppose illegal immigration are portrayed in many ways: those who just don't like immigrants; those who think there should be a "Great Wall" to keep them out; those who are concerned about the danger of the illegal crossings, etc. Caputo also extensively addresses the issue of the drug cartels and the mayhem and danger they have added to the issues. Where Caputo does an outstanding job is to bring all of these stories together, and to throw in some historical background with characters who originally worked and owned the land during the Mexican Revolution. Unless you live along the Borderlands you likely do not have a full picture of what is going on here -- newspapers on the east coast (and probably most of the US) tell isolated stories, some heart-wrenching, and some seriously overblown. Caputo, through his characters, presents an accurate view of the issues, forces the reader to consider good and bad aspects of the illegal crossings, and demonstrates how quickly things can turn bad even with the best of intentions. Folks -- the fence won't solve anything -- read this book, talk to your friends and contact your congressmen -- we need a better policy. Urge policy-makers to read this book.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrifically entertaining,
By AZ snowbird - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Crossers (Hardcover)
Crossers combines history, adventure, and romance with a message about howthe past haunts the present. Caputo skillfully interweaves Old West tales of mysterious renegade lawman Ben Erskine with the story of Ben's descendants, including Gil Castle, who tries to escape the pain of losing his wife in the 9/11 attacks by crossing from East to West, specifically to the family's ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border. There, he confronts a different kind of violence, as he copes with modern-day outlaws trafficking in drugs and human cargo--migrants crossing from south to north to make a new life. The characters really come to life, especially the unique Yvonne, a drug queenpin with major attitude, and The Professor, who works both sides of the border and the law. A richly rewarding read. |
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