I recently spent a few days with a dear old friend who lives in Cornwall. Horse was lying on her coffee table because she was enthusiastically preparing it for presentation to her book club. I picked it up, read three pages and was instantly drawn in. On the way home I bought a download while waiting on Truro station and had devoured almost a quarter of it before I reached Paddington. This was my first encounter with Geraldine Brooks. It won’t be the last.
An astonishingly accomplished blend of fact and fiction, this historical novel uses time shifts to explore the world of nineteenth century horse racing in the southern American states where, of course, it was usually slaves who did the training and stable management. It also takes us to present day Washington DC where Theo, a cultured, beautifully mannered, black art historian chances on a scruffy old paining of a race horse and starts a relationship with a white woman, Jess, whose field is animal bones and their display. We also visit the early 1950s where a female art dealer finds – guess what? – an intriguing painting of a horse. But this is much more than clever, linked-up story ranging over 170 years. It is almost epic in scope as it highlights racism then and now. And I learned a huge amount about horses, how they’re built and how they function.
Lexington was (in real life) one of the most famous race horses in the nineteenth century and has acquired almost legendary status. Brooks’s character Jarett is present at Lexington’s birth because his father is trainer for his white owner. Later, Jarret is sold “down the river” with Lexington. The bond between boy/man and horse is beautifully done. They are sometimes cruelly separated but reunited and Lexngton excels until disaster strikes but there is still a future for him as a stud. And of course we meet the artist who paints him. Most of the characters here were real people richly brought to life by Brooks whose writing is as accessible as it is profound and heart-breaking. She’s very good at capturing the way Jarret would have addressed the slave owning men and their families – always wary but gradually finding confidence.
The civil war is graphically evoked in this novel. It’s hard to imagine the animosity of factions whose lives and livelihoods depended on the outcome of the war and of course there were gangs of thugs who simply plundered, stole and took advantage of everyone else. And horses, including Lexington, were often at the centre of these atrocities.
And I loved the way that this connects with the 2020s when because Lexington’s skeleton turns up in some dusty back room at the Smithsonian.
Theo, is a delightfully drawn character – as is his dog, Clancy – and I fell in love with him almost as much as Jess does. I really don’t want to include spoilers here. Suffice it to say it doesn’t go as the two of them would like and the reasons are hideously, plausibly topical. Jarret, a century and a half earlier is, eventually rather luckier despite his humble orgins.
It’s a meatily moving read and one of the best modern novels I’ve read in a while.
Next week on Susan’s Bookshelves: Bess of Hardwick by Mary S Lovell
