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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 remember once reading that the best predictions of Supreme Court decisions came not from fancy algorithms or the best-and-brightest, but from a select handful of salt-of-the-earth, work-a-day folks who for whatever reason also happen to intuit the pulse of the court with frightening accuracy.
Now imagine instead of the supreme court, you're trying to predict your favorite book of the year. Don't look to the latest machine learning approach, or big data, listen to the saltiest among us, Joseph Maffey. He brought me to The Sport of Kings, and like any good horse to water I drank.
Every time someone asked me about what I was reading, like Man O' War around the quarter pole I'd plow into "well it's a story about a dynastic family in Kentucky that gets into horse racing....but it's also about a black worker they hire and his life....it's a generational story about family and race in America....wait what are we talking about again?" My affliction stemmed not from the book's imprecision, rather that it hits so many targets with such precision that I lost count.
Not since White Tears by Hari Kunzru earlier this year have I felt through a novel such a resounding, impactful reckoning with race at both structural and individual levels. This book is long, affording it the long view of white pedigreed farming royalty as well as Northern black urbanity. In each case, the tragedies are personal, and they resonate with age-old injustice born of malice as well as of indifference. More importantly, as they meld together, we see how the overt racism and legacy of slavery gestating on the Forge family farm unfurls into the violence that our black protagonists experience systemically decades and centuries later.
Apart from the book's revelatory examination of American life and culture, it is also marbled with truly stunning prose. For one thing, the horse racing scenes slam (don't forget, it is nominally about horse racing). More importantly, each scene ends with some indelible image or untouchable moment, and could make any aspiring novelist mothball their word processor in favor of a lesser ambition. Just flipping to pages at random, I have lines underlined like
"There is also love, which looks like hunger but is not. The fewer words said about it, the better. Language is the charnel house of man."
"a bird flew directly over his head in the patch of blue. [...] Then it proceeded to sing a song louder than any country cousin, because it had so much to sing against. No creature comforts here. A bird's only defense is its own body and that you can break with your hand."
"Ambition is a form of suicide if it kills the simple self."
Sure, there were sections of this book that held my attention perhaps with only one hand. Moreover, it took me weeks to read, which has some second-order predictive value about my overall enjoyment. But honestly screw that noise, this book is a true masterwork, and kicks the shit out of other Great American Novels. Read it.
Now imagine instead of the supreme court, you're trying to predict your favorite book of the year. Don't look to the latest machine learning approach, or big data, listen to the saltiest among us, Joseph Maffey. He brought me to The Sport of Kings, and like any good horse to water I drank.
Every time someone asked me about what I was reading, like Man O' War around the quarter pole I'd plow into "well it's a story about a dynastic family in Kentucky that gets into horse racing....but it's also about a black worker they hire and his life....it's a generational story about family and race in America....wait what are we talking about again?" My affliction stemmed not from the book's imprecision, rather that it hits so many targets with such precision that I lost count.
Not since White Tears by Hari Kunzru earlier this year have I felt through a novel such a resounding, impactful reckoning with race at both structural and individual levels. This book is long, affording it the long view of white pedigreed farming royalty as well as Northern black urbanity. In each case, the tragedies are personal, and they resonate with age-old injustice born of malice as well as of indifference. More importantly, as they meld together, we see how the overt racism and legacy of slavery gestating on the Forge family farm unfurls into the violence that our black protagonists experience systemically decades and centuries later.
Apart from the book's revelatory examination of American life and culture, it is also marbled with truly stunning prose. For one thing, the horse racing scenes slam (don't forget, it is nominally about horse racing). More importantly, each scene ends with some indelible image or untouchable moment, and could make any aspiring novelist mothball their word processor in favor of a lesser ambition. Just flipping to pages at random, I have lines underlined like
"There is also love, which looks like hunger but is not. The fewer words said about it, the better. Language is the charnel house of man."
"a bird flew directly over his head in the patch of blue. [...] Then it proceeded to sing a song louder than any country cousin, because it had so much to sing against. No creature comforts here. A bird's only defense is its own body and that you can break with your hand."
"Ambition is a form of suicide if it kills the simple self."
Sure, there were sections of this book that held my attention perhaps with only one hand. Moreover, it took me weeks to read, which has some second-order predictive value about my overall enjoyment. But honestly screw that noise, this book is a true masterwork, and kicks the shit out of other Great American Novels. Read it.
Wow. C.E. Morgan's writing style is unlike anything I have ever read. It is funny in places but with an overall tone of regret/guilt, immensely detailed yet still gripping- a real page-turner- but overall, the style is just beautiful. It is almost like reading a painting rather than a book. The lack of chapters is difficult to adjust to at first, but it causes the novel to flow perfectly and also enhances some of the themes that run through it, for example, the impact of ancestry on each character. Every character is as well-rounded, even the minor ones, and distinct, as a real person, and you can tell who is speaking just through tone and the language used, making the characters particularly engaging and relatable.
In terms of plot, 'The Sport of Kings' is a book focusing on the story and family dynamic of the Forges, an incredibly wealthy family from Kentucky, and their involvement with a working-class black man named Allmon. The book revolves around themes of racism and inheritance, all mirrored by the brutal world of horse racing and breeding that Henry Forge is involved in. You don't have to love horses to enjoy it, however, as the racing is primarily a way to reinforce the themes previously mentioned.
Overall, 'The Sport of Kings' is well worth the read, thought-provoking, painful, and beautiful. It is the kind of book that arguably everyone should read- you cannot help but become invested in each character's story, however immoral, and understanding the motives behind it all.
In terms of plot, 'The Sport of Kings' is a book focusing on the story and family dynamic of the Forges, an incredibly wealthy family from Kentucky, and their involvement with a working-class black man named Allmon. The book revolves around themes of racism and inheritance, all mirrored by the brutal world of horse racing and breeding that Henry Forge is involved in. You don't have to love horses to enjoy it, however, as the racing is primarily a way to reinforce the themes previously mentioned.
Overall, 'The Sport of Kings' is well worth the read, thought-provoking, painful, and beautiful. It is the kind of book that arguably everyone should read- you cannot help but become invested in each character's story, however immoral, and understanding the motives behind it all.
Wasn't in the mood for the subject matter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault
Moderate: Physical abuse
The Sport of Kings won several literary awards, and I was positive it was going to be a knock out, 5 star read from me. After finding the novel at a local book sale (squee! a deal!) and then hearing it was the Speed Art Museum's Speed Reading Book Club pick, I added it to my reading list to knock out before my favorite unofficial state holiday, Derby Day (*Which has since been rescheduled to September #thankscorona). I was truly hoping it would get me in the mood for racing season. (Of course, with the Derby now postponed, I guess I didn't have to rush!)
I cracked the physical book open and started reading the first few pages of the 545 page book, and was promptly put off by the excessively verbose writing. I like detail, but I was slowly losing traction with my attention span while reading. When this starts to happen, I know it's time to switch mediums- so I downloaded the audiobook.
This was better, as I let the grandiose writing wash over me, and was able to pick out the interesting bits of the plot-lines as they came to me. Readers are introduced to Henry Forge, a wealthy, racist son of a farmer. Forge Farms is locally well known, and Henry's ancestors helped settle the area, so entitlement masked as pride is passed down throughout the generations. When Henry's mother is cast out for sleeping with a black servant, Forge family racism is also passed down.
As Henry ages, he becomes fascinated with the sport of kings- horse racing. He declares that he will turn the family farm into a horse farm when he inherits it- and so he does. He starts a racing empire, and bears a daughter that he names after himself- Henrietta- and shows her everything she needs to know about how to run the family operation. Although she has Henry for a father, she becomes a fine horsewoman, but her looks and success intimidate all the suitable men. Naturally, she starts a love affair with a black man and rebels against her father.
Oh, also, all of this takes place from the 1960s to 2006.
As the cringe-worthy plot began to come together and the horse racing became a backdrop, there seemed to be another round of new characters and another plot-line forming. When I'm 250-ish pages into a book, new characters are such a turnoff. So, I decided to DNF the audiobook at 48%.
While I can respect Morgan's ambitious writing (as she was in her twenties when she wrote it) and her determination to shed a spotlight on the historical side of horse racing, I felt completely uncomfortable reading The Sport of Kings. It blew my mind that this book was set in modern times, as it reads like something from the mid-1800s. There are so many racial slurs and comments that degrade women- and while we have certainly come a long way towards that in the past century, there probably was a lot of historical accuracy in it. However, that doesn't make me want to read it in 2016 (when the book was originally published) or 2020. The writing style alienated me, I completely disliked the main characters, and the plot was so convoluted that it was difficult to enjoy anything I was reading. It was a major disappointment.
I cracked the physical book open and started reading the first few pages of the 545 page book, and was promptly put off by the excessively verbose writing. I like detail, but I was slowly losing traction with my attention span while reading. When this starts to happen, I know it's time to switch mediums- so I downloaded the audiobook.
This was better, as I let the grandiose writing wash over me, and was able to pick out the interesting bits of the plot-lines as they came to me. Readers are introduced to Henry Forge, a wealthy, racist son of a farmer. Forge Farms is locally well known, and Henry's ancestors helped settle the area, so entitlement masked as pride is passed down throughout the generations. When Henry's mother is cast out for sleeping with a black servant, Forge family racism is also passed down.
As Henry ages, he becomes fascinated with the sport of kings- horse racing. He declares that he will turn the family farm into a horse farm when he inherits it- and so he does. He starts a racing empire, and bears a daughter that he names after himself- Henrietta- and shows her everything she needs to know about how to run the family operation. Although she has Henry for a father, she becomes a fine horsewoman, but her looks and success intimidate all the suitable men. Naturally, she starts a love affair with a black man and rebels against her father.
Oh, also, all of this takes place from the 1960s to 2006.
As the cringe-worthy plot began to come together and the horse racing became a backdrop, there seemed to be another round of new characters and another plot-line forming. When I'm 250-ish pages into a book, new characters are such a turnoff. So, I decided to DNF the audiobook at 48%.
While I can respect Morgan's ambitious writing (as she was in her twenties when she wrote it) and her determination to shed a spotlight on the historical side of horse racing, I felt completely uncomfortable reading The Sport of Kings. It blew my mind that this book was set in modern times, as it reads like something from the mid-1800s. There are so many racial slurs and comments that degrade women- and while we have certainly come a long way towards that in the past century, there probably was a lot of historical accuracy in it. However, that doesn't make me want to read it in 2016 (when the book was originally published) or 2020. The writing style alienated me, I completely disliked the main characters, and the plot was so convoluted that it was difficult to enjoy anything I was reading. It was a major disappointment.
It’s not that this book is not well written or filled with symbolism and meaning (it has all that) but my god is this book depressing on epic proportions. This was 550 pages of joyless reading. This book reminds me of Moby Dick, using 18 words where only 2 are needed. I’m too impatient for this shiz!
I have never experienced such a turbulent combination of (or at times the lack of) emotions as I did whilst reading this book. I still can’t really tell you whether I liked it or not.
Firstly, let me prelude my lukewarm review by saying that I can totally see why a lot of people are really liking this book. I thought I would be one of them. Morgan is undeniably a very talented writer, and you can tell a lot went in to this novel. In fact, I even think it has a good chance of winning the Bailey’s Prize this year (of which I only have ‘The Dark Circle’ left to read from the shortlist!) I’m also big enough to note that this book is probably too clever for me. This is probably one of the most ‘literary’ fiction novels I have read. So take my opinions with a pinch of salt, as always.
‘The Sport of Kings’ is a well written tale spanning several generations of the thoroughbred racehorse raising Forge family. The novel is deeply seated in it’s Kentuckian setting, the Forges’ as dynastic as Southern families come. Luckily, it isn’t actually that much about sport at all, and thankfully so, as I bloody hate horse racing and may have liked this even less.
Anyway, the book is actually quite important. It looks at the history of racial tensions specifically in Southern America, the importance of recognising privilege, and is otherwise just a fairly well crafted read about a mostly despicable family and a father’s obsession with leaving a legacy.
At around 35% of the way through this book I was all for abandoning it. I’ve gotten a lot better at DNF’ing books I just can’t gel with, and I was on my way to doing just that. The problem was, I hated all the characters I’d encountered up to that point. They were a bunch of entitled, rich, racist, sexist assholes basically. Now, usually I am quite partial to reading about horrendous characters doing questionable things, it can often make for quite delicious reading. But in this case, each character had little to no redeemable qualities, so much so that I just didn’t find myself wanting to continue reading in order to avoid hearing about them. The book is mostly written in third person, and I think this actually deepened the issue I had. Although the writing is often rich and descriptive, we get a look at the characters only really at face value. We are never privy to their innermost thoughts, their true feelings and motives. This just further distanced me from people I couldn’t empathise with in the least.
Then along comes Allmon Shaughnessy, a young black man (with an absent, white father and a criminal past), who is hired by Henrietta Forge to work on their estate. All of a sudden, I was intrigued. It genuinely felt like I’d stumbled into a different book. An encounter with a character I liked, a character I began to feel for. Up until this point I felt the writing was impersonal, I constantly felt held at a distance by the story, but it grew to be full of emotion. Allmon even helped me warm to Henrietta, as the tension between them quickened the pace of this (in my opinion) overly long novel, I wanted to read on as these characters were finding something in each other. However, a while after that, the plot takes a sudden turn, it starts to get a little bit Shakespearean tragedy, and it started to go downhill again for me.
Having finished the book now (it only took 5 days but it felt a lot longer), I can say that the actual bones of the story, I loved. I just think Morgan was being overly ambitious with what she was trying to cram in. All the individual stories fighting for a place on the page felt murky. There are only 6 dense chapters split up with interludes between each one that I thought were pointless and just over complicated an already crowded narrative. So much didn’t need to be there. I’m all for showing your skill but strip it back and you’d still have a really clever and important story, the characters could have been nuanced and I might have actually given a shit or two.
I want to end with mentioning that I still feel pretty uncomfortable with a white writer featuring the ‘n’ word in her story this many times, no matter what the context. Black voices need to be heard, and we need more of them in fiction no question, but I would rather read about them from the perspective of people of colour. Maybe it’s just my white guilt making me feel uncomfortable about this, but still.
Essentially, I’m very conflicted about this book. I’m glad I finished it, but it was never a book I would have persevered with if it hadn’t been on the Baileys shortlist.
Thank you to Netgalley and 4th Estate for providing me a copy of this ebook for review.
Firstly, let me prelude my lukewarm review by saying that I can totally see why a lot of people are really liking this book. I thought I would be one of them. Morgan is undeniably a very talented writer, and you can tell a lot went in to this novel. In fact, I even think it has a good chance of winning the Bailey’s Prize this year (of which I only have ‘The Dark Circle’ left to read from the shortlist!) I’m also big enough to note that this book is probably too clever for me. This is probably one of the most ‘literary’ fiction novels I have read. So take my opinions with a pinch of salt, as always.
‘The Sport of Kings’ is a well written tale spanning several generations of the thoroughbred racehorse raising Forge family. The novel is deeply seated in it’s Kentuckian setting, the Forges’ as dynastic as Southern families come. Luckily, it isn’t actually that much about sport at all, and thankfully so, as I bloody hate horse racing and may have liked this even less.
Anyway, the book is actually quite important. It looks at the history of racial tensions specifically in Southern America, the importance of recognising privilege, and is otherwise just a fairly well crafted read about a mostly despicable family and a father’s obsession with leaving a legacy.
At around 35% of the way through this book I was all for abandoning it. I’ve gotten a lot better at DNF’ing books I just can’t gel with, and I was on my way to doing just that. The problem was, I hated all the characters I’d encountered up to that point. They were a bunch of entitled, rich, racist, sexist assholes basically. Now, usually I am quite partial to reading about horrendous characters doing questionable things, it can often make for quite delicious reading. But in this case, each character had little to no redeemable qualities, so much so that I just didn’t find myself wanting to continue reading in order to avoid hearing about them. The book is mostly written in third person, and I think this actually deepened the issue I had. Although the writing is often rich and descriptive, we get a look at the characters only really at face value. We are never privy to their innermost thoughts, their true feelings and motives. This just further distanced me from people I couldn’t empathise with in the least.
Then along comes Allmon Shaughnessy, a young black man (with an absent, white father and a criminal past), who is hired by Henrietta Forge to work on their estate. All of a sudden, I was intrigued. It genuinely felt like I’d stumbled into a different book. An encounter with a character I liked, a character I began to feel for. Up until this point I felt the writing was impersonal, I constantly felt held at a distance by the story, but it grew to be full of emotion. Allmon even helped me warm to Henrietta, as the tension between them quickened the pace of this (in my opinion) overly long novel, I wanted to read on as these characters were finding something in each other. However, a while after that, the plot takes a sudden turn, it starts to get a little bit Shakespearean tragedy, and it started to go downhill again for me.
Having finished the book now (it only took 5 days but it felt a lot longer), I can say that the actual bones of the story, I loved. I just think Morgan was being overly ambitious with what she was trying to cram in. All the individual stories fighting for a place on the page felt murky. There are only 6 dense chapters split up with interludes between each one that I thought were pointless and just over complicated an already crowded narrative. So much didn’t need to be there. I’m all for showing your skill but strip it back and you’d still have a really clever and important story, the characters could have been nuanced and I might have actually given a shit or two.
I want to end with mentioning that I still feel pretty uncomfortable with a white writer featuring the ‘n’ word in her story this many times, no matter what the context. Black voices need to be heard, and we need more of them in fiction no question, but I would rather read about them from the perspective of people of colour. Maybe it’s just my white guilt making me feel uncomfortable about this, but still.
Essentially, I’m very conflicted about this book. I’m glad I finished it, but it was never a book I would have persevered with if it hadn’t been on the Baileys shortlist.
Thank you to Netgalley and 4th Estate for providing me a copy of this ebook for review.
I probably will not finish this because I hate it. Every year, there is one Tournament of Books book that I hate and I suspect this is this year's.
I found this book more and more disappointing as I read, initially I was drawn to it by the promise of horse racing, I have loved since I was a kid. However, that barely features in the novel and in fact takes a backseat to the rest of the story. I’m also incredibly disheartened by the ending which ended with no characters having redeemed themselves and most of the central figures ending up either dead or miserable. The treatment of race in this story seemed to lack any grace or compassion from both the author and other Black characters giving me the impression that much of the book was slanted towards a less than favorable portrayal of characters like Allmon. The book was beautifully written, but I’d argue it contained a lot of unnecessary prose that did not necessarily add to the story. Overall, a pretty disappointing read.
I found this book very dark and depressing. The title is a bit misleading, as horse racing is only a backdrop for a story of the Forge family and their former slaves' history, and Henry Forge's desire to build a legacy. There are many triggers in this book including racism, slavery, abuse of children, women and animals, rape, incest, suicide, drugs, language and stereotyping. The characters are well-drawn, but not particularly likeable. It appears to be an ambitious effort to write an epic; however, there are many paragraphs that seem unnecessary, with nonsequiturs thrown in occasionally. I am sure the author had a good reason for these passages, but I could not discern it.
I realize this work was a claimed as an "epic tale", but I found it painful to read. I got through about a quarter of the book and decided not to finish it. The characters are all utterly miserable and abused by those who purportedly love them. I've read too many books where the author drags you through pain to have some sort of redeeming end to made all that much sweeter in comparison. I don't have patience for books like this.