THE BOOK REPORT: On Relocating and Famous Writers
Recently, I boxed up my belongings, packed them into a truck, tossed the dogs into the hitched car, and drove away from McAllen. It was not an easy move for either myself or my wife. She had lived in the Valley her entire life, only leaving it for brief visits elsewhere. I, on the other hand, moved constantly throughout my childhood and only settled down after arriving in McAllen some 12 years ago. We, after marrying three years ago, had settled into a routine that made the RGV a backdrop for all our scenes. However, a job offer I could not refuse was passed to me and we found ourselves driving up 281 to the far off destination of El Paso. Before you ask, no, this is not my last article. My editor and I happily communicate through email, so distance matters not.
El Paso is a beautiful town, nestled into the mountains that sweep down through New Mexico, past the tip of Texas, and rush across the border into the Mexican state of Chihuahua and the bustling town of Juarez. Its arid and, compared to the Valley, desolate. There is little vegetation and trees are hard to find outside of the parks that dot neighborhoods. But the people are no different from those that have circled me for the last decade of my life. There is a vibrant blending of cultures and races within all border towns. Many poets and writers have published works that feed off this contrasting flow of information from two sides of the border. One of my favorites is Cormac McCarthy.
I’ve written multiple pieces on McCarthy’s books, including Suttree, The Road and Blood Meridian, so I won’t write too much background material about the man. To sum it up, I consider him to be the best of all the living authors, his work is inspired and deep, flowing with poetic language and a strong sense of what life is: depressing, beautiful, and short. His famous Border Trilogy focuses on the life of a young man who crosses back and forth across the Texas and Mexico border. And, as a lover of his work, I am amazed to say that I now live in a town he used to haunt. He recently relocated to Sante Fe, but for many years this was his hometown. I’ve heard that he often drives down this way to relax and eat lunch at one of his favorite restaurants. As I drive to work each day, I wonder what I would say if I passed him in that restaurant. How could I express how much I’ve enjoyed and been inspired by his work?
I imagine I would be just another person on his list of life’s annoyances (I’ve heard he is a bit grouchy in his old age. But for me, meeting a literary hero would be the gift of a lifetime. I would shake the hand that penned so many of the works I love, then probably blurt out that I loved him. Yeah, it’s probably a good thing he moved to Sante Fe.
