I recently sat down with Brooks in the lobby of the historic Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky to discuss Horse. Horse is a story of mystery, passion, skill, and oppression. We also see Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on modern painters like Jackson Pollock, who becomes fascinated with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of unknown background. Jess and Theo connect through their shared interest in the horse - Jess studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his prowess, Theo uncovering the lost history of the overlooked Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. What rich history might be embedded in things we discard? Are we destined to make the mistakes that our ancestors made? What will it take to build a more just society? These are just some of the questions posed by Horse, the latest book by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks.ĭrawn from history but made alive through fiction, Horse starts with the discovery of a discarded painting in Washington DC circa 2019 and takes the reader to the modern art world in 1954 New York City and to 1850s Kentucky to tell the story of Lexington, a record-breaking thoroughbred and greatest stud sire in American history.Įxpertly woven and full of fascinating detail, the story of an enslaved groom named Jarrett and his horse Lexington is shown alongside the modern day stories of Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |