Horse by Geraldine Brooks

HORSE by Geraldine Brooks came out today and it is the top candidate for my favorite book of the year. The Pulitzer Prize winning author has skillfully used the history of a famous racehorse to interweave the stories of nineteenth century enslaved people with modern day race relations. Sport, art, science, war, and mystery all play a part in this fascinating saga with portions set in the mid-1800s, in 1950s New York art world, and in Washington, D.C. in 2019. Early in the novel, Brooks introduces Jess who works at the Smithsonian and contemplates the vast storage area which “also held the things people had created – the finest examples of the artistry and the ingenuity of our own species. How could we be so creative and so destructive at the same time?” That theme repeats throughout the book; for example, in the tension between beauty and abuse of the thoroughbreds, and certainly, for her human characters, in the privileges conveyed by class and/or race.  In a time before photography, gentlemen often paid to have their horses painted and it is amazing how Brooks brings the stories of the owners, artists, trainers, and groomsmen alive. In HORSE, she focuses on a slave named Jarret, a youngster in 1850 when the foal Darley, later known as Lexington, was born. Together, the two travel from Kentucky to New Orleans to New York and ultimately back to Kentucky winning races and astounding fans. HORSE received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal and is a text which could easily be added to the curriculum, particularly for American Studies, or alternate with The Invention of Wings, another personal favorite. Book groups, too, will thoroughly enjoy discussing Brooks’ latest - here are the questions from the Reader’s Guide provided by Penguin. Highly recommended.