2023 #14: Horse (Brooks)

 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This really is a remarkable book for all it sets out to accomplish. A truly fine example of historical fiction, I enjoyed reading the Afterword and "Historical Connections" almost as much as the novel itself. There are a lot of threads to interweave, across centuries, and Brooks does an admirable job of it. It is a book about a horse, yes, but also a book about legacies of racism and how they are perpetuated in overt and subtle ways. The character of Jarret Lewis is the focal point, and Brooks gives him such vibrant courage and heart without resorting to sentimentality. His relationship with Mary Barr, in particular, is nuanced and reflective of much deeper dimensions of race relations than the surface rhetorical glosses found in many other fictional narratives of the antebellum period. The echoes in the relationship between Theo and Jess are thoughtfully considered.

Where the book falters a bit is in its rhythmic arc. The book is slow, and that is appropriate, given its focus on character development. Brooks carefully weaves together several characters and stories--sometimes the trajectory is obvious and other times less so, and this keeps the reader interested. However, the last fourth of the book moves from 0 to 60 in almost no time at all, and the shift in action is a bit jarring--enough to feel like a different book altogether. That said, however, this is a book that reveals the authors own curiosity in the best of ways. She wields the art of historical fiction without artifice and cliché and offers something for multiple readers--even those who may not be horse buffs.

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