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lifeonmybookcase's review
3.0
I expected to enjoy this more, however I hadn’t realised how much of Clover’s story and life focussed on horses. I found it difficult to become invested in this however I became more towards to final half of the book. The writing was beautiful but it wasn’t engaging enough for me.
arosieoutlook's review
4.0
Really enjoyed this book, a very heartfelt and moving account of a life full of wildness and sadness. Made me want to ride horses through open fields and immerse myself in countryside!
minimali's review
4.0
I wasn't quite sure what to expect going into this. Obviously the blurb told me the basics, it followed Clover before and after her mother's horse riding accident which left her with severe brain damage. But it was a lot more that that. Clover has led one hell of an interesting life and this book took me along for the ride.
I found it an intense read, Stroud's writing was at times claustrophobic in its honesty and grief. At there same time, she made me feel like I was riding a horse along the gallops or at the rodeo in Texas.
It reminded me in parts of Amy Liptrot's The Outrun, not necessary in subject matter although alcoholism is a theme in both books, but in the tone of the writing. It was rich, vivid, raw and honest.
Not the easiest of reads but so worth it.
I found it an intense read, Stroud's writing was at times claustrophobic in its honesty and grief. At there same time, she made me feel like I was riding a horse along the gallops or at the rodeo in Texas.
It reminded me in parts of Amy Liptrot's The Outrun, not necessary in subject matter although alcoholism is a theme in both books, but in the tone of the writing. It was rich, vivid, raw and honest.
Not the easiest of reads but so worth it.
halfmanhalfbook's review
3.0
The childhood that Clover and her siblings enjoyed was a relaxing home life, growing up in the country whilst surrounded by horses and the beautiful hills outside Oxford. This idyllic upbringing was brought to an abrupt end in November 1991 when the head interrupted her history class and asked her to step outside. It was then she learnt that her mother had been involved in an ‘incident’. She had fallen from a horse and was seriously injured; just how serious would soon become apparent.
Clover’s life would never be the same again.
This first loss of her mother, the hub and heart of the family, would fracture their lives from that moment onwards. Clover sought solace in friends, lovers and drugs. The search for comfort would take her across to Ireland, to the vast ranches of Texas as a cowgirl and finally to the arms of another lover from the splintered Caucasus regions before she wends her way home to the Vale of the White Horse. She settles and raises a family, with all the ups and downs that this entails. Her mother’s condition slowly worsens as she then deals with her own crisis.
Reading this book is a raw and painful experience. Her turbulent life after her mother’s accident, forms the woman she is to become; strong, independent, vulnerable and delicate. She has the juxtaposition of knowing exactly what she wants, without always knowing the direction that she is heading. Clover is very open about her personal life, going into a fair amount of detail at times, not looking for judgement or approval; just being honest about what happened. The landscape where they lived is her anchor when dealing with all that life throws at her and it is something that she returns to at all the different stages of her life. I was hoping for more of the natural world and her interaction with it. It would have lifted it from the good to the great. Still worth reading though as she writes with a clarity and honesty that you don’t often get. 3.5 Stars
Clover’s life would never be the same again.
This first loss of her mother, the hub and heart of the family, would fracture their lives from that moment onwards. Clover sought solace in friends, lovers and drugs. The search for comfort would take her across to Ireland, to the vast ranches of Texas as a cowgirl and finally to the arms of another lover from the splintered Caucasus regions before she wends her way home to the Vale of the White Horse. She settles and raises a family, with all the ups and downs that this entails. Her mother’s condition slowly worsens as she then deals with her own crisis.
Reading this book is a raw and painful experience. Her turbulent life after her mother’s accident, forms the woman she is to become; strong, independent, vulnerable and delicate. She has the juxtaposition of knowing exactly what she wants, without always knowing the direction that she is heading. Clover is very open about her personal life, going into a fair amount of detail at times, not looking for judgement or approval; just being honest about what happened. The landscape where they lived is her anchor when dealing with all that life throws at her and it is something that she returns to at all the different stages of her life. I was hoping for more of the natural world and her interaction with it. It would have lifted it from the good to the great. Still worth reading though as she writes with a clarity and honesty that you don’t often get. 3.5 Stars
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