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A review by jcburcham
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
adventurous
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Audio. This was my first book by Geraldine Brooks, an Australian-American author. The amount of research she invested in this novel is what makes it a masterpiece. She poured her heart and soul into this book, and you can feel it. This is absolutely what I love about historical fiction.
This book is told from a handful of different viewpoints, some present day and some pre-Civil War. As she explains in the Afterword, Brooks began to realize this book would need to be about race as much as the racehorse, Lexington. Owning racehorses was considered extremely prestigious, particularly during Lexington's lifetime. Much of the care, training, racing and success of the horses was tied directly to Black horseman (often enslaved), but details about individuals are scarce. An article Brooks read from Harper's New Monthly magazine published in July 1870(!) refers to the existence of a painting by Thomas Scott in which Lexington is being led by "Black Jarret, his groom". The painting itself has been lost, and despite Brooks' exhaustive efforts, she could not find further information about this Jarret. So she created a character named Jarret, and the life he leads in the book is inspired directly by facts she uncovered in her research.
As anyone who has ever truly loved a horse knows, the bond between human and horse can transcend words. The author's ability to capture this special bond between Jarret and Lexington further shows that she has not only researched the living daylights out of this subject, but she has firsthand knowledge of this bond. Everything about Jarret's decisions and actions surrounding Lexington were completely believable and often remarkable. I love that we can speculate from Lexington's ACTUAL SKELETON (on display at the International Museum of the Horse) about his health and what may have caused the blindness that eventually ended his racing career (and led to an extremely successful breeding career).
The other characters provided layers of context that created the rich backdrop for the story that is Lexington (or, as his skeleton was once simply referred to, "Horse").
Lexington is no mere "Horse" and this is not your average horse story. You will become invested in this story and learn so much along the ride.
This book is told from a handful of different viewpoints, some present day and some pre-Civil War. As she explains in the Afterword, Brooks began to realize this book would need to be about race as much as the racehorse, Lexington. Owning racehorses was considered extremely prestigious, particularly during Lexington's lifetime. Much of the care, training, racing and success of the horses was tied directly to Black horseman (often enslaved), but details about individuals are scarce. An article Brooks read from Harper's New Monthly magazine published in July 1870(!) refers to the existence of a painting by Thomas Scott in which Lexington is being led by "Black Jarret, his groom". The painting itself has been lost, and despite Brooks' exhaustive efforts, she could not find further information about this Jarret. So she created a character named Jarret, and the life he leads in the book is inspired directly by facts she uncovered in her research.
As anyone who has ever truly loved a horse knows, the bond between human and horse can transcend words. The author's ability to capture this special bond between Jarret and Lexington further shows that she has not only researched the living daylights out of this subject, but she has firsthand knowledge of this bond. Everything about Jarret's decisions and actions surrounding Lexington were completely believable and often remarkable. I love that we can speculate from Lexington's ACTUAL SKELETON (on display at the International Museum of the Horse) about his health and what may have caused the blindness that eventually ended his racing career (and led to an extremely successful breeding career).
The other characters provided layers of context that created the rich backdrop for the story that is Lexington (or, as his skeleton was once simply referred to, "Horse").
Lexington is no mere "Horse" and this is not your average horse story. You will become invested in this story and learn so much along the ride.