Page 39 - Phonebox Magazine June 2024

BOOK REVIEW
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Reviewed by Thelma Shacklady
Set in America in two centuries, two hundred years apart, this novel with its simple one-word title is a fascinating read. It is, indeed, about a horse; Lexington was a famous thoroughbred racehorse in antebellum Kentucky – so much is fact, but the story which is woven around him is a demonstration of the author’s remarkable skill.
In 2019 Jess discovers the skeleton of America’s renowned racehorse in the attic of the Smithsonian museum. She notices certain flaws in the articulation and is given a golden opportunity - to disarticulate it and start again from scratch. Meanwhile, Theo watches an elderly neighbour depositing a number of items bearing the sign ‘Free stuff’ on the kerbside. One of these items is a dingy canvas in a splintered frame – a picture of a horse, a young colt. He rescues it and subsequently has it cleaned. As the story progresses we learn that both of these items represent Lexington. Interspersed with the chapters relating the meeting and growing friendship between Jess and Theo are those which tell the story of the famous horse, from his birth, through his amazing achievements on the track and subsequent time at stud until he dies a
peaceful death in old age. Throughout this time he is accompanied by Jarret, a slave since boyhood, whose skill as a trainer develops with his love of this amazing horse. It is the account of Jarret’s life and of his fellow slaves which make this novel a story, not merely about a racehorse but also about race. It is this combination which makes the book so compelling. The reader follows Jarret’s adventures, the knowledge that his life is not his own, but totally dependent upon his owner. It is the civil war, which also forms part of the story, that eventually enables him to be a free man. It also introduces Thomas Scott, the painter whose skill in depicting horses made him famous. It was, indeed he who painted the picture of Lexington recovered two centuries later from the kerbside in Washington DC. The novel ends with a sudden and unexpected
tragedy, one which reveals that the prejudice which is an inheritance of the years when slavery was an acceptable way of life in the southern states still tarnishes modern society in America. It is a salutary and uncomfortable reminder of what still needs to change. It also brings this remarkable, thought-provoking novel full circle.
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June 2024 | Phonebox Magazine 39