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A review by beckyramone
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
1.0
This book starts out with promise, I thought it would be maybe about a boy unlearning everything his abusive, racist father taught him and then also probably about horse racing. But in reality, it's just a mediocre story about Henry, a white southern man who grows up to learn the error of his ways. If you've seen American History X you know what type of redemption story I mean. There's a few problems with this. One, it's just a boring story. Henry is awful, he learned his awfulness from his dad and goes on to be somehow even more awful, obsessed with interbreeding, he ends up raping his daughter and is thrilled when she becomes pregnant, thinking the baby is his. The baby is not his, his daughter, Henrietta, has been having sex with a black groom, Allmon.
Allmon's life feels very stereotypical to me. It's just uncomfortable to read a white author putting in every negative stereotype about Black Americans into the sole Black character, and then having his life end in tragedy. And the way Henrietta thinks about Allmon is really gross, she looks at his body and describes it the way she would a horse. And we're supposed to think she loves him, which is interesting, because even though CE Morgan writes like she's getting paid by the word, there's no real chemistry between Allmon and Henrietta.
After reading this, it seems like most of the book is just descriptions of like, a bush. And then Henry thinking about being racist. Fun. Morgan can write some beautiful sentences, but eventually I was just finishing the book out of rage so I can write this review. The plot is just so banal. A virulent racist and rapist has a mixed grandchild and then he lives happily ever after. Along with a derivative plot we get the purplest prose that ever purpled. Also there's barely any horse racing, and I have no idea what Morgan was thinking when she wrote the jockey.
Edit: Okay, I'm wrong, there's one more Black character who is only in the story for a few pages. Maryleen, a Black woman who gets a scholarship to college but gives it up in order to cook for rich white people. Really. Oh, and she's written entirely sexless, obviously asexual people exist BUT historically one of the few characters Black women have played in fiction is the "Mammy" character, so yeah, more stereotypes.
Allmon's life feels very stereotypical to me. It's just uncomfortable to read a white author putting in every negative stereotype about Black Americans into the sole Black character, and then having his life end in tragedy. And the way Henrietta thinks about Allmon is really gross, she looks at his body and describes it the way she would a horse. And we're supposed to think she loves him, which is interesting, because even though CE Morgan writes like she's getting paid by the word, there's no real chemistry between Allmon and Henrietta.
After reading this, it seems like most of the book is just descriptions of like, a bush. And then Henry thinking about being racist. Fun. Morgan can write some beautiful sentences, but eventually I was just finishing the book out of rage so I can write this review. The plot is just so banal. A virulent racist and rapist has a mixed grandchild and then he lives happily ever after. Along with a derivative plot we get the purplest prose that ever purpled. Also there's barely any horse racing, and I have no idea what Morgan was thinking when she wrote the jockey.
Edit: Okay, I'm wrong, there's one more Black character who is only in the story for a few pages. Maryleen, a Black woman who gets a scholarship to college but gives it up in order to cook for rich white people. Really. Oh, and she's written entirely sexless, obviously asexual people exist BUT historically one of the few characters Black women have played in fiction is the "Mammy" character, so yeah, more stereotypes.