LitPicks - March '08

Healing—Horses, Books, People: This month's books use parallel symbolism to explore human healing. A sick horse heals her owner; a damaged manuscript heals its conserver; and a returning spirit heals her mother.

A Lighter Touch | Wonderfully Written | Great Works




Chosen by a Horse
Susan Richards, 2006
248 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
My sister Janet, a sucker for horses, handed me this book. Neither of us could resist the beautiful face on the cover. It wouldn't matter if the writing inside were drivel. But it's not. Inside is a lovely story about redemption for both horse and human. Grab a tissue.

Richards, an experienced horsewoman, rescues a half-starved race horse. At first sight of the mare, she's overwhelmed: "I'd never had a horse this sick." But then Richards isn't so healthy herself, emotionally—and therein lies the story: horse and woman nurse each other back to health. Pretty much.

Have we read this before...like with The Horse Whisperer? Well, yes, but this is a true story and doesn't end quite so pattly. Besides, the story is really about Lay Me Down, the horse; Richard's own story is a sideline.

Richards already owns three horses, so introducing Lay Me Down to the herd is difficult given its rigid hierarchy (school yard bullying has nothing on the paddock) and the jealousy of the arch-bitch Georgia, Richard's favorite mare. Richards chooses Hot Shot, the herd nerd, as companion-of-choice for Lay Me Down. Their meeting is priceless and Hot Shot falls in love. Think I'm indulging in a bit of anthropomorphizing? Perhaps, but read for yourself.

In the meantime, Richards begins dating. Here the story falls flat; the budding romance feels pallid compared to what's going on in the paddock. Hank (Hank?) is a pretty dull homo sapiens; when placed beside equus caballus for our attention—even if you're not a sap for a horse—the poor guy loses out.

Check out our Reading Group Guide for Chosen by a Horse.

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People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks, 2007
384 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
I was with Salman Rushdie the other night (there were a few others in the room...maybe 2,000 or so) as he spoke about the power of the novel to change the world. Novels, he said, enable us to see the world in a new way and offer the possibility of binding disparate cultures together in a common humanity. It was an inspiring evening for any literature lover.

(Dear reader, do see LitCourse 1—Why Literature Matters—even if it's just for the beginning of the slide lecture!)

I'd been thinking about recommending Brooks's new novel—so now I must. Her book traces the history of a medieval manuscript as it passes from hand to hand for 500 years. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all risk their lives to save this beautiful book.

Hanna Heath, a young (and of course beautiful...duh) Australian and an expert in conserving old manuscripts, attempts to unravel the mystery behind the book's survival. She travels to Sarajevo (and on page 13 meets a handsome young man...not hard to figure out where this is going) to repair the book. Thus begins the saga—of both Hanna and the manuscript.

As Hanna uncovers one clue at a time, her first person narration is interspersed with flashbacks into history. At times the switching was irritating, but I found the mini histories absorbing, self-contained short stories in themselves—although often tinged with purple prose (melodrama). Brooks may not be the most elegant writer, but she's a great story teller.

And there's lots going on here—a literary mystery, an exploration of how history gets told, the enduring quality of art and artists, and most of all, the vision of religious tolerance in a fractured world.

I ended up liking the book (especially in light of Rushdie's talk)—and recommend it.

Check out both our Reading Group Guide for People of the Book, which includes a Geraldine Brooks Interview with Barnes and Noble. It's long but fascinating.

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Beloved
Toni Morrison, 1987
316 pp.


By Molly Lundquist
True, as a "Great Work" this book is too recent to have stood the test of time. But it will. Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize winner, and Beloved her crowning achievement—so this work well deserves its place in the pantheon of enduring Literature.

Possibly the most powerful and imaginative rendering of slavery we have, Beloved confronts the horror of both its practice and legacy. The story centers on an African-American household in Post Civil War Cincinnati—Sethe, her daughter Denver, and Sethe's mother Baby Suggs, who live together at the house simply known as 124.

The story is told on two levels—past and present. Paul D, a former fellow slave, arrives at 124, which sets off a series of fragmented flashbacks as Sethe and Paul D tell each other stories of what happened since they had last seen one another. Morrison's language is packed with emotional force—at times soaring and lyrical, at other times guttural and incomprehensible. Language, it seems, is not always capable of articulating the truths of our deepest pain.

It is in the present that Beloved, a young woman, suddenly appears, taking the name from the tombstone of one of Sethe's daughters. Manipulative, strangely vacant, she haunts the house and torments Sethe—and becomes the past that Sethe must overcome.

The story, though sometimes raw, always returns to the redemptive presence of family and community. This is a work you must not overlook—it is the story of our country. Read this!

Also see our Reading Group Guide for Beloved.


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