Horse by Geraldine Brooks

 

First Lines: No. Nup. That wouldn't do. It reeked of PhD. This was meant to be read by normal people.

 

Horse is based on the true story of the record-breaking Thoroughbred, Lexington.

 

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay Thoroughbred foal form a bond that will determine the course of both their lives. When the Civil War breaks out, the painter who made his name by his paintings of this racehorse joins the Union army only to reunite with the stallion and groom on a perilous night far from any racetrack.

 

New York City, 1954. Gallery owner Martha Jackson becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century painting that has a murky provenance.

 

Washington, DC, 2019.  Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian find themselves connected through their shared interest in the horse-- one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the unsung history of the Black horsemen who were critical to the horse's racing success.

~

Geraldine Brooks has done it again: written a transcendent book that is so much more than the sum of its parts. Brooks is a must-read author for me, but Horse was made even more special by my teenage racehorse madness years. I read every book I could get my hands on about Thoroughbred racing and its stars. My mother indulged my obsession: when she went to Kentucky on a genealogy trip, I got to overdose on racehorses, meeting greats like Citation and actually seeing the grave of Lexington, the horse that Brooks centered her book upon.

In Brooks' Afterword, she says, "As I began to research Lexington's life, it became clear to me that this novel could not merely be about a racehorse, it would also need to be about race," and she does this in masterful fashion. Whether it's watching the years pass and Lexington's groom being known as one owner's Jarret after another to-- finally-- having his own name untainted by slavery (Jarret Lewis) or watching the unfolding relationship between the interracial couple Jess and Theo in 2019 and the differences in their experiences and outlooks on the world, the reader becomes totally engaged in the characters' lives. 

Horse is so much more than a fascinating animal story. It is also a powerful story of art, science, and-- above all-- race. It is a story to take in deep. It is a story to remember.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

eISBN: 9780399562983

Viking © 2022

eBook, 401 pages

 

Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Title: People of the Book
Author: Geraldine Brooks
ISBN: 9780143115007
Publisher: Penguin, 2009
Paperback, 400 pages
Genre: Fiction
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.


First Line: I might as well say, right from the jump: it wasn't my usual kind of job.


Australian rare book expert Hanna Heath has been asked to conserve the beautifully illuminated fifteenth-century Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless Hebrew manuscript thought to have been destroyed during the fighting in Bosnia.

As many times as I've worked on rare, beautiful things, that first touch is always a strange and powerful sensation. It's a combination between brushing a live wire and stroking the back of a newborn baby's head.

As Hanna examines each page with great care and wonder, she discovers a series of tiny artifacts left behind in the manuscript: a fragment of an insect's wing, wine stains, salt crystals, and a white hair. These microscopic bits are the keys to unlocking the centuries' old mysteries of the Sarajevo Haggadah and the catalysts that will change Hanna's life forever.

As the insect's wing, then the wine stains, then the salt and hair are analyzed, we learn the history of the ancient book and the lives of the people who had it in their care. Anyone who has ever picked up a book, caressed its cover, and ruffled through its pages wondering about the identities of previous owners or all the places that book has been will absolutely love People of the Book. As Brooks takes us through the centuries, each time period and each caretaker comes to vivid, aching life.

I was deaf and blind to everything around me as I read this book. It's not the first time author Geraldine Brooks has done this to me, and since her latest book (Caleb's Crossing) is on its way to my door, I don't think it will be the last. She is one of the supreme storytellers of her time.

What Hanna does the last time she's with the Haggadah made me cry and made me smile. It also made me think. Around the world today books are under attack from technology, economy, ignorance and indifference. How many of us would be willing to do whatever it takes to ensure their survival?

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