The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

Release date: 2007 / 289 pages

First line: “In those days, even before the war had swept up all the young men from the ranches, there were girls who came through the country breaking horses.”

Synopsis (from jacket cover): In the winter of 1917, a big-boned young woman shows up at George Bliss’s doorstep. She’s looking for a job breaking horses, and he hires her on. Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but determined girl with a serious knowledge of horses. So begins the irresistible tale of nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen, a female horse whisperer trying to make a go of it in a man’s world…

Review:  This was the second book I found showcased at Denver’s Tattered Cover bookstore last April, and I enjoyed it even though it never quite fulfilled its promise.  I must admit, I will always want more about the horses… even in books about horses!  But this novel did focus on the art of breaking — or gentling — horses quite well.  For those of you who ride or know horses, Martha’s methods follow the current “natural horseman” line of training — and her actual breaking of the horse mirrors Clinton Anderson in particular.  And, whether realistic or not, she does not really find her gender an obstacle, to finding work, even in WWI Oregon.

The time period is actually a strength of this novel, especially in how well it portrays how difficult it was to survive as a rancher during this time.  I enjoyed the history angle of the novel — and the characterization, although there are many characters to keep straight. 

In fact, this may be one of my objections to the novel: at the start, we think we will be following Martha’s journey soley, but then there comes a shift of emphasis to the other residents of the area.  Their stories are interesting, but I missed Martha and would have preferred a different point of view.  In fact, I think first person would have been more effective; we could have learned about the other folks, but through Martha’s perceptions and perspective as an outsider.  I also felt as though a quick commentary on the bigotry felt by German-Americans during WWI, and then Japanese-Americans during WWII, was tacked on at the end and deserved either more (or less) attention.

But my complaints are minor overall and I did enjoy this tale of the untamed West.  I will also plan to read Gloss’s other novels in the future (The Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, and Wild Life).

Here is a sample of Gloss’s prose:

Snow began to fall out of the darkness that night and fell straight down all the early hours of the morning, and by daybreak it stood about half a foot deep everywhere in the lower valley, though the sky then cleared off and a pale sun lit up the newborn world.  The horses were excited by the snow, and just about every one of them watned to frisk and jump, which wasn’t quite the same thing as giving trouble but was trouble anyway, and slowed things down.

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