August’s Book- Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls

Thank you Susie for hosting our book club this month. We had a lively discussion on, The Postmistress, and all agreed in the end that it was a good book to read. War is a terrible tragedy, but when you look at how it effects individual lives it can be devastating. This book helped us see how individuals coped and how we as a country in the 1940’s needed to open our eyes more. Thanks for recommending the book Susie.

Sue Mitchell will host next month on Tuesday  August 3rd.  Her Pick will be:

                                         

A Book Review:

Jeannette Walls's "The Glass Castle" was "nothing short of spectacular" ("Entertainment Weekly"). Now she brings us the story of her grandmother -- told in a voice so authentic and compelling that the book is destined to become an instant classic. ""Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did."" So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, in Jeannette Walls's magnificent, true-life novel based on her no-nonsense, resourceful, hard working, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town -- riding five hundred miles on her pony, all alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car ("I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn't need to be fed if they weren't working, and they didn't leave big piles of manure all over the place") and fly a plane, and, with her husband, ran a vast ranch in Arizona.

She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in "The Glass Castle." Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds -- against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit the mold. "Half Broke Horses" is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's "Out of Africa" or Beryl Markham's "West with the Night." It will transfix readers everywhere.

A Reader from Goodreads says:

Jeannette Walls’ true-life novel, Half Broke Horses is a captivating, beautifully woven story that is fast pace and hard to put down. Wall’s gives her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith a voice and shares her story - passed down orally from different family members - with the world. Lily Casey is an extraordinarily strong, smart, and spirited woman that any granddaughter or reader of this novel can admire. This book is filled with both triumph and heartbreaking tragedy, and definitely does not lack adventure. Growing up in a still somewhat untamed west, Walls provides an interesting portrayal of important events in American history from prohibition and the depression to the industrial revolution and WWI and WWII through the perspective of her grandmother.

Walls writes the story in first person from the point of view of her grandmother. She explains in the author’s note that she wrote the story in first person because she wanted to capture Lily’s distinctive voice that she can clearly recall. The first person narration doesn’t disappoint either. Walls successfully captures Lily Casey’s voice in a way that only enhances the narrative, and makes Lily seem all the more enchanting. The language is witty and poetic in its simplicity.

Sounds like a great book to read for the summer. Enjoy!

Please note we will not be meeting in September.