MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI'S TOM'S CROSSING

It was difficult for me not to look at Mark Z. Danielewski's Tom's Crossing and not think of it as something created for critic and awards bait, something more targeted for people who write about books than those who read them. It contains many of the hallmarks- elements of the western that are in a twentieth century story, a protagonist coming of age and caught up in brutal violence, magical realism, and a page count over twelve-hundred. In a just few pages my skepticism dropped and and I was in for the ride.

The core story is simple. Kalin and Tom are two teens in the town of Orvop, Utah bound by their skill and love of the cowboy life. In 1982 Tom dies of cancer and makes Kalin promise to take two horses set to be slaughtered for the rendering plant and get them through the valley and mountains to a crossing where they will be safe and free. Tom assists Kalin on the trek in the form of a ghost, only he can see. Also, along for the ride, is Tom's tough sister Landry, who sometimes acts as narrator. The plant and horses belong to Orwin "O;d" Porch, whose family has been in he town for generations, When he sends one of his sons after them, it leads to a tragedy that puts Old Porch, the rest of his well armed brood, as well as the law, after Kalin and Landry.

Danielewski uses the event , portraying it and its effect on the community and beyond. We get to know, the lawmen, park rangers, and Orvop citizens, particularly a doomed pilot, who get pulled into the chase. We follow Tom and Kalin's mothers who carry the weight of letting their babies grow up to be cowboys. We get tales of the artists and writers who interpreted their story, with various accuracy He deftfy jumps and and forth between characters and even with Danielewski always directly linking it to Kalin's journey with Tom's ghost. Nothing feels like a tangent in all those pages.

He uses the the form of the form of the western without ever overtly analyzing it. Danielewski chooses a time right before MTV, where technology and entertainment forms brought current culture to places live Orvop existed in their own time, fading as it might be. Both protagonists and antagonist define themselves to the western wy, Old Porch due to to history and reputation and Kalin and Tom because it is all they got. It views the cowboy code as a double edge sword with it's values of self reliance and loyalty , but how those old ways fule a dark side of masculinity that triggers violence.

It also takes the element of the two cowboys buddies to another level by making one of them a ghost that is barely questioned by the characters or novel itself. Tom and the other spectres that pop up tie the book add more to the traditional western than making it the gothic or supernatural like one would expect. Kalin and Tom banter like two pards who have been in the saddle for years. Their last moment together has as much weight and pathos as the one Gus and Call hav in Lonesome Dove.

Mark Z Danielewski has created an immersive storytelling experience. As big as it is, it never forgets the friendship between its two young cowboys who may have been happier and thrived if they were born a hundred years earlier. It goes deep into their their lives and the lives their actions touch on. Hopefully, it will get some well deserved awards.