Horse by Geraldine Brooks

 

Amy  

historical fiction

-Theo is an art history PhD student in Georgetown in 2019 when he finds an intriguing painting of a horse in a donation heap on the street.
-Jess works at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center in 2019 and is helping a visiting horse expert study the bones of a horse stored at the Smithsonian.
-Jarret is a young slave in Lexington, KY, in the 1850s who has a natural ability with getting horses ready for the races and a special connection with a horse born on his farm.
-Thomas is an artist hired by Jarret’s owner to paint his horses.

The individual stories belonging to these people each include a relationship to Lexington, the greatest race horse of the nineteenth century.  Horse ties all of their stories together, painting a full picture of this particular horse as well as horse-racing history in general. 

Told from changing viewpoints of the four main characters mentioned above as well as a few other characters, Jarret’s story was my favorite and he was the heart of the novel. He was endearing and smart, benefited from his father’s love and guidance, and made the most of the opportunities he was given. This novel, while definitely about horses, was equally about American race issues from slavery in Kentucky through present-day Washington, DC.

Having read several other Geraldine Brooks novels and knowing that she is a fabulous researcher, this one felt clunkier than her others. With the multiple viewpoints, only one of the characters was well-known and several dropped off without closure. I also realized (after I’d finished reading) that this book happens to be personal for Brooks. She is a horse rider herself. Like Brooks, her character, Jess, is an Australian living in America who ends up returning to Australia. Brooks’ adopted son is black and has helped her understand the contemporary black experience. So I see where some of her writing choices in this novel came from. I also believe the timeline of events in Horse are the most recent of her novels I’ve read. So, maybe, this is the first novel where she’s had the chance to write about things that are more personal.

Having said all that, I enjoyed it. I learned a lot. And I liked the inclusion of art in the story as well as the research and technology that were used to tie the present to the past.

I both listened to the audiobook and read the novel on my Kindle.  The audiobook had five narrators. I couldn’t tell you who read which part(s) and none of them wowed me enough to make me feel like diving in to find out. Therefore, I won’t name them here. I do agree with the production’s decision to utilize several different narrators. Some were better than others. I’ll just give the entire production a B+.