Scott, an itinerant equine artist trained by Edward Troye, the pre-eminent Swiss-born horse portraitist of his era. He calmly points to hers, further down the rack. ![]() He is no stranger to racist slights, and in fact, on his first encounter with Jess outside the Smithsonian, where he has taken his treasure to be identified, she accuses him of trying to steal her bike when she sees him bent over the lock of his own identical model. Theo, the son of two diplomats – a Yoruba mother and an American father – grew up all over the world and played polo at Oxford. Unfortunately, their interest in the horse is more convincing than their interest in each other, which seems engineered to provide a platform on which to address racial issues. ‘Really out of control.’ America digs in for inflation fight.īrooks frames the intertwined history of Jarret and Lexington with a modern-day love story between Jess, an Australian-born zoologist who is restoring Lexington's skeleton to exhibit at the Smithsonian, and Theo, a doctoral student in art history who rescues what turns out to be a valuable portrait of Lexington and his trainer from his neighbor's trash. But as the value of both Lexington and Jarret increase, freedom recedes out of reach. Elisha Warfield, promises him an interest in the bay colt in lieu of a year's wages. Harry has managed to buy his own freedom but is still saving to pay for his son's, and is excited when his boss, Dr. He assists his father, Harry Lewis, the head trainer, who foresaw the advantages of combining the violent stud Boston's pedigree with that of the ornery mare Alice Corneal. But from the moment we meet him in 1850, on the day of Lexington's conception on a Kentucky horse farm called The Meadows, he's a hero who is easy to root for.Īt 13, Jarret is already a horse-whisperer who has demonstrated a rare, gentle affinity with even the most difficult horses. Jarret, Lexington's devoted groom and trainer, is the most compelling and wholly realized character, albeit largely imagined due to what Brooks says in her afterward is woeful lack of documentation about him. Her sensitive, deeply researched novel is a welcome step toward correcting the historical record. The skilled Black grooms, trainers, and jockeys – many of whom were enslaved – have yet to be given their due. ![]() ![]() While not as well known today as Seabiscuit, Lexington was a champion who became "the greatest thoroughbred stud sire in racing history." His 575 foals included many Belmont and Preakness winners, including Preakness himself.īrooks, clearly a horse lover, explores a fascinating sidebar to history that highlights how the lucrative business of horse racing was deeply entwined with the institution of slavery in the pre-Civil War South. The result is a book not just about a racehorse, but about race. Geraldine Brooks' “Horse” circles two tracks: one a riveting historical novel about a talented, enslaved Black horse trainer and his charge, the famous white-footed racehorse named Lexington, the other a contemporary story about an interracial romance between two characters who connect over their interest in the horse.
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