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128 reviews for:
The Sport of Kings: Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017
C.E. Morgan
3.52 AVERAGE
128 reviews for:
The Sport of Kings: Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017
C.E. Morgan
3.52 AVERAGE
I thought I could stomach reading about even the worst social taboos fairly easily but it turns out that an incestuous father-daughter relationship is where I draw the line.
The Sport of Kings is clever, obviously ambitious, at times awkwardly earnest, but very skilfully and artfully put together. I think I “get” it, but the incestuous father-daughter relationship which the author never seems to really condemn, never making anyone pay for that particular crime, making us witness their exchanges, the ‘beloved daddy’s and the lack of overall horror of the two people involved, and ending on a “slavery was super bad, and white supremacy is super bad, oh and also, as quick aside, maybe don’t groom and rape your daughter? kthx” note still makes the whole completely unsavoury for me.
I appreciate the dedication though.
The Sport of Kings is clever, obviously ambitious, at times awkwardly earnest, but very skilfully and artfully put together. I think I “get” it, but the incestuous father-daughter relationship which the author never seems to really condemn, never making anyone pay for that particular crime, making us witness their exchanges, the ‘beloved daddy’s and the lack of overall horror of the two people involved, and ending on a “slavery was super bad, and white supremacy is super bad, oh and also, as quick aside, maybe don’t groom and rape your daughter? kthx” note still makes the whole completely unsavoury for me.
I appreciate the dedication though.
An impressive epic, The Sport of Kings runs strong. Despite focusing on horse racing and farming of the last century, Morgan's second novel is extremely relevant for today's tumultuous American landscape. With gorgeous prose, realistic characters, and a story that never stays stagnant for long, Morgan has crafted a winning novel, entertaining and intelligent.
I'm not one for horse racing. I don't even like horses—I've always found them to be frighteningly alien in appearance. But when this novel showed up on an Anticipated Future Release List of some variety, the description somehow enticed me—I had been curious about the author anyway—and I gave it a try. Initially, I admired the strong writing, but I wasn't pulled into the story. The Sport of Kings is in many ways an epic, and it certainly takes some time for the story to develop.
Some readers will not care for the breadth of Morgan's novel. As evidenced by The Sport of Kings, Morgan is perhaps wordy at times. She has a great grasp of the English language and her descriptions will tire some readers. Further, she is an intelligent author, but that can also get in the way at times. Word choice can grow repetitive. “Dais,” for instance, is used any time a character speaks from a pulpit or platform. Who uses this word? Is this prominent in Kentucky? The frequent repetitiveness stopped me every time.
But these are minor quibbles. The fact is, The Sport of Kings is a phenomenal and sweeping family saga. It is gutsy and provoking in a way that reminds me of a serious Man Booker contender. I will not be the least surprised if The Sport of Kings does not make this year's long list (to be announced July 27). Remember, if it makes the list, you heard it from me first.
I'm not one for horse racing. I don't even like horses—I've always found them to be frighteningly alien in appearance. But when this novel showed up on an Anticipated Future Release List of some variety, the description somehow enticed me—I had been curious about the author anyway—and I gave it a try. Initially, I admired the strong writing, but I wasn't pulled into the story. The Sport of Kings is in many ways an epic, and it certainly takes some time for the story to develop.
Some readers will not care for the breadth of Morgan's novel. As evidenced by The Sport of Kings, Morgan is perhaps wordy at times. She has a great grasp of the English language and her descriptions will tire some readers. Further, she is an intelligent author, but that can also get in the way at times. Word choice can grow repetitive. “Dais,” for instance, is used any time a character speaks from a pulpit or platform. Who uses this word? Is this prominent in Kentucky? The frequent repetitiveness stopped me every time.
But these are minor quibbles. The fact is, The Sport of Kings is a phenomenal and sweeping family saga. It is gutsy and provoking in a way that reminds me of a serious Man Booker contender. I will not be the least surprised if The Sport of Kings does not make this year's long list (to be announced July 27). Remember, if it makes the list, you heard it from me first.
Beautifully written and probably the best novel I've read in a very, very long time. The author weaves a compelling story that shows the continuity between our present and the early frontier days of Kentucky which lead to the establishment of what became the wealthy Forge family, whose epic this magnificent book is. (In fairness, some consider these historical linkages to be "digressions" and the author overly indulgent for providing them. I doubt the book would be as structurally complete without them.)
I am sorry that I actually finished it. This is a book that deserves to be read out loud for the haunting beauty of its prose. I think I'm going to have to make a new shelf right now -- books to reread fairly soon and give this one a prominent place on it.
I am sorry that I actually finished it. This is a book that deserves to be read out loud for the haunting beauty of its prose. I think I'm going to have to make a new shelf right now -- books to reread fairly soon and give this one a prominent place on it.
I'm not sure what I thought about this one. I liked certain parts of the book and others I didn't think it worked. Not sure I enjoyed any of the characters.
I'm about 1/3 of the way through and the book is due back at the library. I will not renew it. Although I tended to enjoy this book once I picked it up, I find myself just not picking it up - maybe fatigue with reading so many slave novels in a row, but I think the main problem is all the horses. I know it's not really a book about horses, but there are an awful lot of horses in it (not a surprise, just look at the title/cover). And I have discovered that everytime I am reading about a horse being broken, or bred, or raced, (or euthanized) I put the book down.
So I won't debate that this a worthwhile read - everything I have heard about it says it is - but I can say it's not for me at this time.
So I won't debate that this a worthwhile read - everything I have heard about it says it is - but I can say it's not for me at this time.
What Morgan does well, she does magnificently. However, these bits are surrounded by layers and layers of extraneous tangents and oh INCEST.
This book is an operatic critique of American society and some may have gone over my head as I've avoided southern gothic literature.
Also, horse racing is stupid and cruel.
This book is an operatic critique of American society and some may have gone over my head as I've avoided southern gothic literature.
Also, horse racing is stupid and cruel.
This is a great big tremendous sprawl of a novel about Kentucky thoroughbred racing, genetics, consanguinity, slavery, prison time, Cincinnati, bluegrass country and the Ohio River with some of most striking prose I've read in a long time. There are murders and revenge and love and incest across many generations. Survival is registered in different ways. I couldn't put it down but sometimes it took some pushing to pick it up. The book club struggled and agreed a tougher editor was needed but the writing took my breath away:
"The air was raucous and thick with birdsong, the afternoon's light refracted through a veil of pollen...cattle, sturdy on their legs and fattening...chewed their cud with the resignation of age... The youngest Miller...a girl of seven with violently red hair, a face mottled with freckles, and knees as fat as pickle jars."
Description of the Ohio River: "La belle riviere: the Great, the Sparkling, the White; coursing along the path of the ancient Teays, the child of Pleistocene glaciers and a thousand forgotten creeks run dry, formed in perpetuity by the confluence of two prattling streams, ancient predecessors of the Kentucky and Licking--maternal and paternal themes in the long tale of how the river became dream, conduit, divide, pawn, baptismal font, gate, graveyard, and snake slithering under a shelf of limestone and shale, where just now a boy is held aloft by his beautiful father, who points and says, "Look!" and the boy looks, and what he will remember later is not just the river like a snake but also the city crowding it, and what a city! A queen rising on seven hills over her Tiber, ringed hills forming the circlet of a crown. "
"The air was raucous and thick with birdsong, the afternoon's light refracted through a veil of pollen...cattle, sturdy on their legs and fattening...chewed their cud with the resignation of age... The youngest Miller...a girl of seven with violently red hair, a face mottled with freckles, and knees as fat as pickle jars."
Description of the Ohio River: "La belle riviere: the Great, the Sparkling, the White; coursing along the path of the ancient Teays, the child of Pleistocene glaciers and a thousand forgotten creeks run dry, formed in perpetuity by the confluence of two prattling streams, ancient predecessors of the Kentucky and Licking--maternal and paternal themes in the long tale of how the river became dream, conduit, divide, pawn, baptismal font, gate, graveyard, and snake slithering under a shelf of limestone and shale, where just now a boy is held aloft by his beautiful father, who points and says, "Look!" and the boy looks, and what he will remember later is not just the river like a snake but also the city crowding it, and what a city! A queen rising on seven hills over her Tiber, ringed hills forming the circlet of a crown. "
There were parts of this that I really, really liked. A lot of it, in fact I really liked but ultimately it is an overkill. I slightly wanted to shake CE Morgan up and say, hey, calm down a little. You're a very good writer but just reign it in a bit, you're trying too hard. Less is, very often, more. Parts of this were powerful, parts were heartbreaking, parts quite clever but towards the end, it all fell apart a bit, became a mess. Could have been 100 pages or so shorter too.