- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; (Reissue) edition (17 Mar 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006547265
- ISBN-13: 978-0006547266
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 175,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
A woman's increasing dedication to the rearing and showing of horses - to the virtual exclusion of her own family's needs - is, ultimately, deeply destructive. Set in rural Illinois, this is a quietly written yet deceptively powerful family saga. (Kirkus UK)
In this unusual first novel Smiley, with flawless command of the shaky grandeurs and gritty drudgery which can absorb the equestrian fancy, matches the openended rigors of the discipline with one woman's tragically destructive obsession. Kate Karlsen, owner of 50 horses in the Illinois countryside, trainer hnd instructor, a "failed equestrienne" in the Big Time and a severe convert to Catholicism, manages her family of four children - college dropout Margaret, 17-year-old Peter, 15-year-old John, pre-teen Henry - by inflexible rules: a code of manners for stable management, horsemanship, household and school duties. "Kate felt certain. . . of the loveliness of those rules. . . the nearly sensual pleasure in following them, lashing oneself to them." And husband Axel, from whom Kate has withdrawn in a gesture of shriving asceticism, is still fascinated by this unapproachable, driven woman who loves her children but is blind to their needs and personalities. Through the days of hard, grinding labor (the entire complex is manned only by the children) what did they know of anything besides horses? And did anyone ever ask them if they liked horses? While the family prepares for the shows, the restless adolescents, long suppressed and bewildered by disorienting visions of simple freedoms, are shocked into abortive protest: John, resenting his mother's passionate championing of Peter, as her best training product and given her best mount, resorts to untypical cruelty and neglect of the horses; Margaret encourages a casual flirtation with an older horseman but dreams of ordinary dates; Henry plans to run away. And at the show on the Karlsen complex the family will ride together for the last time - handsome, straight-backed, "all six attesting to the wisdom of Kate's theories and methods." The lives, drawn taut, will snap. John is killed, leaving Axel, Margaret, and Henry, like discarded marionettes, slumped in grief. . . but weeks later Kate and Peter, enslaved forever by Kate's lifelong "tigerish" circling of unattainable perfection, are working on the training field in a "frightening happiness." A devastating probe of a woman sealed within that (to most of us) alien world of the track and paddock; special - but deep-driving. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this unusual first novel Smiley, with flawless command of the shaky grandeurs and gritty drudgery which can absorb the equestrian fancy, matches the openended rigors of the discipline with one woman's tragically destructive obsession. Kate Karlsen, owner of 50 horses in the Illinois countryside, trainer hnd instructor, a "failed equestrienne" in the Big Time and a severe convert to Catholicism, manages her family of four children - college dropout Margaret, 17-year-old Peter, 15-year-old John, pre-teen Henry - by inflexible rules: a code of manners for stable management, horsemanship, household and school duties. "Kate felt certain. . . of the loveliness of those rules. . . the nearly sensual pleasure in following them, lashing oneself to them." And husband Axel, from whom Kate has withdrawn in a gesture of shriving asceticism, is still fascinated by this unapproachable, driven woman who loves her children but is blind to their needs and personalities. Through the days of hard, grinding labor (the entire complex is manned only by the children) what did they know of anything besides horses? And did anyone ever ask them if they liked horses? While the family prepares for the shows, the restless adolescents, long suppressed and bewildered by disorienting visions of simple freedoms, are shocked into abortive protest: John, resenting his mother's passionate championing of Peter, as her best training product and given her best mount, resorts to untypical cruelty and neglect of the horses; Margaret encourages a casual flirtation with an older horseman but dreams of ordinary dates; Henry plans to run away. And at the show on the Karlsen complex the family will ride together for the last time - handsome, straight-backed, "all six attesting to the wisdom of Kate's theories and methods." The lives, drawn taut, will snap. John is killed, leaving Axel, Margaret, and Henry, like discarded marionettes, slumped in grief. . . but weeks later Kate and Peter, enslaved forever by Kate's lifelong "tigerish" circling of unattainable perfection, are working on the training field in a "frightening happiness." A devastating probe of a woman sealed within that (to most of us) alien world of the track and paddock; special - but deep-driving. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
The pastures of the Karlson farm in Illnois have the charm of a landscape painting, but the horses that graze there have become the obsession of a woman who sees in them the ultimate fulfilment of her every wish - to win, to be honoured, to be the best. By the author of "A Thousand Acres".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I have loved several of Jane Smiley's books but this one was a real disappointment. Maybe it got better but I was so bored by the ponderous style and shallow characters (both human and horse) that I didn't finish it.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Well, I knew that this, Smiley's first novel, couldn't be as good as the Pulitzer-winning A Thousand Acres -- and it isn't. It's another dysfunctional family, this time ruled by domineering, horse-mad matriarch Kate Karlson. The family keeps 40 horses on the farm, and quiet, long-suffering husband Axel meekly works long hours in the city in order to (barely) pay for it all. Kate is determined to be the best, and drives her four teenage children to succeed in her field of horse shows and competitions, to the exclusion of any maternal feelings. The four children react in different ways, and all of them are damaged by her relentless ambition. The story ends in inevitable tragedy -- but no catharsis, as it's evident that Kate will carry on regardless, just the way she always has. I see Smiley dedicated the book to her own mother -- a rather backhanded "compliment" given Kate's character!
The trouble with it is that the characters don't seem well enough developed, and never seem real in the way that the characters in A Thousand Acres did -- you can't work out what makes any of them tick, especially Axel (and in fact Kate herself -- what made her so driven?). The story is about failures of communication within the family, but unfortunately Smiley doesn't really communicate any empathy to the reader here, so it's ultimately unsatisfying.
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