Bar bands, lounge acts, journeymen guitar players and singers who need just that one hit to become stars. Their world is one of night upon night looking and feeling the same, of crowded van rides in between gigs, of diners and drinks after sets when the rest of the world is starting to wake up. It's the world of Al Ward in Willy Vlautin’s The Horse .
Or it was his world until the drink and success at life and love were snatched away from him by bad luck one too many times. Now, he's living in a shack on his late great-uncle's mining claim in the middle of nowhere Nevada. He's living off canned soup, beer and rememberances of real-life dreams come true past.
And oh what rememberances. As a young child living with a single, hard-working mother, Al mainly had his uncle for company. His love of music was noted and he received a guitar for a birthday.
It immediately became his best friend. When not hanging out with his drinking uncle, who shared his beer and booze. Al started playing in Reno casino bands and writing songs.
Throughout the novel, the song titles tell the stories of his lost loves and the small things noticed during the nightly slog of performing the same music over and over. Usually with people who didn't get along with each other. But the joy of making music is solid in his story.
Over the years, good things happened to Al but they never lasted. Finally, his tired soul had enough and he escapes to the mining claim that his late great-uncle, another male relative who cared about him, bequeathed to Al. He's been alone for months.
Then one winter day, an old horse that appears to be blind appears next to the shack. Is it real? Why won't it drink the water he gives it, or try to eat the pasta he cooked up for it (it was all Al had except for the soup)? As Al worries about the horse and tries to think of ways to help it, or put it out of its misery, the totality of what his own life has been comes into focus. Al has had second, third and fourth chances.
He has tried every time to take advantage of those chances and live a life of making music, writing songs and maybe loving someone who loves him back. While he or the drink or circumstances get in the way, he still carries on as best he can. The end of the novel, as with the entire work, show the value of people who carry on as best they can.
The Horse is a story of how people's better natures shine regardless of what happens to them or the mistakes they make. --------------------------- If it's Tuesday, it's new books day. Links to the following titles are to The Literate Lizard , the online bookstore of Readers and Book Lovers' debtorsprison, while blurbs are from the publishers.
Japa and Other Stories by Iheoma Nwachukwu These eight brutally beautiful stories are struck full of fragmented dreams, with highly developed thieves, misadventurers, and displaced characters all heaving through a human struggle to anchor themselves in a new home or sometimes a new reality. This book is about young Nigerian immigrants who bilocate, trek through the desert, become temporary Mormons, sneak through Russia, and yearn for new life in strange new territories that force them to confront what it means to search for a connection far from home. From Savagery by Alejandra Banca Alejandra Banca's devastating debut throws its arms around a displaced generation of young Venezuelan migrants, reveling in the clamor and beauty of their day-by-day survival.
The Border Between Us by Rudy Ruiz Ramón López was born along the US–Mexico border but is determined to get out and embrace the American dream—and he’s not sure whether his complicated family is a help or a hindrance. As the son of immigrants, as Ramón grows, his admiration for his entrepreneurial father sours as he watches his dad’s dreams of success wither on the vine. Ramón’s mother is constantly preoccupied with his younger brother, who struggles with intellectual disabilities.
And the outside world is rife with danger and temptations threatening to distract Ramón from his dreams of making it to New York and succeeding as an artist. A Kid from Marlboro Road by Edward Burns An Irish-American family comes to life through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy in this debut novel by actor-filmmaker Ed Burns. Immigrants and storytellers, lilting voices and Long Island moxie are all part of this colorful Irish-Catholic community at the end of the 1970s.
Mirage by Nahid Rachlin Set in contemporary Iran, Mirage delves into the complicated relationship between Roya and her identical twin sister, Tala. READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE DAY TIME EST/EDT SERIES EDITOR(S) SUNDAY 4:00 PM Let’s Talk BOOKS Angela Marx 6:00 PM Young People’s Pavilion The Book Bear (LAST SUN OF THE MONTH) 7:30 PM LGBTQ Literature Chrislove MONDAY 8:00 PM The Language of the Night DrLori TUESDAY 8:00 PM Contemporary Fiction Views bookgirl 10:00 PM Nonfiction Views DebtorsPrison WEDNESDAY 8:00 PM Bookchat cfk et al. THURSDAY 8:00 PM Write On! SensibleShoes (FIRST THURS OF MONTH) 2:00 PM Monthly Bookpost AdmiralNaismith FRIDAY 7:30 AM WAYR? Chitown Kev (OCCASIONALLY) 8:00 PM Books Go Boom! Brecht 9:30 PM Classic Poetry Group Angmar SATURDAY Noon You Can't Read That! or Paul's Book Reviews pwoodford 9:00 PM Books So Bad They’re Good * Ellid (* on temporary hiatus ).
