Jane SmileyRecensioni

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: April (?) 1980)
(Digital: Yes.)
Audio: 1998, 5/2/2008; 9781449871833; Recorded Books Incorporated; Duration 7:36:59 (9 parts); Unabridged.
(Film: No).

SERIES:
No

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Kate Karlson – Anti-hero main character
Axle Karlson – Husband to Kate
Henry Karlson – Youngest son of Kate and Axel
John Karlson – Middle son of Kate and Axel
Peter Karlson – Oldest son of Kate and Axel
Margaret Karlson – Oldest child of Kate and Axel

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
The preface of this book seems to be a necessary element so that the reader is forewarned that the primary character isn’t going to be particularly likable. I know authors like to get at reality by revealing the foibles of their characters, but I need to like at least one character who has more than a peripheral role. True, I like the daughter, for the most part, but for me, toward the end, she does not act in a manner consistent to the character she’s been described to be. The youngest boy is likable, as is the father/husband of the family. But the story revolves more around an insensitive mother and the child most frustrated by her character, whose own character is warped in consequence.
I liked learning about horse riding. I never knew a good rider learns about the anatomy of a horse and synchronizes his/her own posture to correspond with what the horse’s optimal posture would be. But still, I prefer, if a story is going to have dark weight, that it have strong counterbalances of hope, joy, or love. A, mostly silent, saintly husband whose love strives toward unconditionality doesn’t fill that ticket for me. I need stories to have more heart.
This was Jane’s first novel, according to Wikipedia, though. I picked it because a friend of mine is devoted to this author. She recommended a later trilogy, but I figured since I generally agree with my friend about what is good, that I might want to take this author one book at a time chronologically. I don’t think I do now, but I should read the trilogy my friend recommended. I will probably wait though, until all of my other holds have been consumed.

AUTHOR:
Jane Smiley (Sept. 26, 1949). According to Wikipedia, Jane is an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her 1991 novel, “A Thousand Acres”.
In the section captioned “Biography”, Wikipedia says, “Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from Community School and from John Burroughs School. She obtained a BA in literature at Vassar College (1971), then earned an MA (1975), MFA (1976), and PhD (1978) from the University of Iowa.[2] While working toward her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996 she was a Professor of English at Iowa State University,[2] teaching undergraduate and graduate creative writing workshops. In 1996, she relocated to California. She returned to teaching creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, in 2015.”

NARRATOR(S):
Suzanne Toren. According to Penguin Random Audio House .com, “Suzanna Toren is one of the shining stars in the world of Audiobook recording. A prolific talent, Toren has been narrarating for more than 30 years. Winner of multiple awards, Toren is the recipient of the American Foundation for the Blind's Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award in 1988 and AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction and Culture. Toren has worked on books written by Jane Smiley, Margaret Weis, Jerry Spinelli, Barbara Kingsolver, and Cynthia Rylant.”
Suzanne’s voice brings to mind the unpleasant character of Jane Karlson, so I won’t be tracking her works down, but I do suspect once I hear her voice in a different light, I will get over it.

GENRE:
fiction

LOCATIONS:
Illinois horse ranch

TIME FRAME:
1980’s

SUBJECTS:
fiction, dysfunctional family, family relations, horses, horse riding, horse competitions

NARRATIVE STYLE:
3rd Person Omniscient

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Part One
Preface:
“The verdant pastures of a farm in Illinois have the placid charm of a landscaped painting. But the horses that graze there have become the obsession of a woman who sees them as the fulfillment of every wish. To win. To be honored. To be the best. Her ambition is the galvanizing force that will drive a wedge between her and her family and just possibly bring them all to tragedy.”

RATING:
3 stars. Probably seeing this book in print would have alleviated this complaint, but I was often unsure who was talking (or thinking), and whether there had been a lapse of time.

STARTED-FINISHED
6/7/2021 – 6/21/2021

Lucky by Jane Smiley is a polarizing literary novel which covers decades in the life of a folk musician. It is recommended; highly for the right reader.

Jodie Rattler grew up in St. Louis with her mother and near her extended family. She first discovered she was lucky in 1955 when she was six years old and her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack. A roll of two-dollar bills were the physical representation of that luck and she keeps them near her and hidden for years. Jodie always had a love of music along with her family. When she is studying at Penn State in the 1969, her singing career takes off after one of her songs becomes a surprise hit. She does well in royalties and even better after her uncle Drew handles the investment of her windfall. This allows her to travel and even spend time abroad.

Many successful musicians of the time periods involved are mentioned throughout the novel. It is sort of a musical coming of age novel through the 70's and 80's (and on) pop culture, but the plot also focuses on Jodie's relationship with her family. There are a lot of lyrics for the songs Jodie writes included in the narrative and the impetus for the lyrics is part of the story. The actual quality/credibility of the lyrics is debatable. Along the way there are several times Jodie sees a high school classmate she refers to only as the "gawky girl." (It is later clearly revealed that the gawky girl is a stand-in for Smiley.) Jodie does settle down back in St. Louis to care for her mother and grandparents.

The writing is excellent and I was really enjoying this story of a woman's life. Sure, as a character Jodi can be a little self-involved and the plot does move slowly in parts, but there is also a nostalgic element to the narrative as it list musicians for years past that is appealing.

What totally changes everything is the abrupt change in structure, tone, and voice in the final epilogue. How do you rate a book that abruptly changes directions to a stupefying ending? I keep stalling on writing a review, flipping back and forth on how I feel, and that is not a satisfying reading experience so I need to go with a neutral rating. Thanks to Knopf Doubleday for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/04/lucky.html

"Thorgols discovered for himself what is possible in Greenland, where folks must learn new ways or die."
In a harsh land, death and hardship are common... so much so that not being able to "learn new ways, one will die." Because of their isolation, exposure to a harsh environment, violent traditions, and sickness,
“Everyone has many chances to practice with death. If you have not, then you are indeed rare among Greenlanders.”
While the story is engrossing, the style is one of an actual Scandanavian saga. This can be off-putting for some readers. It was worth the effort and challenge and reading it because the story keeps getting better and better. The characters seemed so vivid, their suffering so real..." but who among us does not have a brother or a cousin or a son who seems as though he cannot be helped to do right, but must always find his own way through the thickest undergrowth, although the clear path be near by: Who among us does not sometimes grow angry and sometimes grow bitter and sometimes grow melancholy at the ways of such folk?"

This is a 4 star read for me, but what an incredible reading experience. Smiley writes in the style of old Norse sagas which is hard to get into, but addictive once you get used to it. It is like a magnificent weave is being created in front of your eyes and you get into the characters' lives and then out and back in again.
These people, who really come to life in the book, sometimes die so easily and there is no dwelling upon it. It is a fascinating style that mirrors the harshness of the environment and the constant struggle and nearness of death the real Greenlanders were used to. This is a difficult book to read also because the reality is so unpleasant and the book makes it almost too real for the reader.

A space-time machine.

A lovely little fable about a horse who escapes her stable outside Paris and journeys to the city, where she makes friends with a stray dog, some birds, and a rat. She is eventually "adopted" by a lonely little boy who hides her in his great-grandmother's house. Not a lot happens, but I really enjoyed this tale of interdependence, community, and friendship.

4 stars

De manera molt properaens explica la vida d'una dona amb cinc fills que va ser abandonada pel marit i es va endur els fills quan ella li va ser infidel

Heredarás la tierra
Jane Smiley
Publicado: 1991 | 386 páginas
Novela Drama

Todo parecía apacible en las tierras fértiles de Zebulon County, Iowa, cuando el irascible Larry Cook decidió, en una noche del año 79 —la misma en que celebraban todos el retorno del inquietante Jess Clark—, repartir entre sus tres hijas los mil acres que pertenecieron por cuatro generaciones a la familia. Todo habría seguido la misma rutina de no ser porque, de repente, el viejo Larry Cook, en una especie de proceso senil, empieza a vagar en camioneta por el paisaje, a beber como un cosaco y a armar líos por todas partes. La presencia insidiosa del joven Clark, partidario de una agricultura alternativa, tampoco es ajena a la inquietud que se apodera de las hermanas, quienes ya no consiguen frenar la visión detestable de un padre temible e incestuoso. Los sentimientos de venganza, celos, odio y amor, largamente sofocados, afloran a la par que el veneno que asola aquel verano las tierras, y la tensión que exaspera a sus habitantes irá también atrapando al lector en la trama densa de una tragedia shakesperiana.

Jodie Rattler grew up with a single mother in St. Louis, a city she loves and to which she continues to return. Influenced by her family’s interest in music and the folk singers and other musicians of the 1960s, her talent brings her to the fringes of success, providing enough income to support her. Always independent but with strong family ties, she makes conscious choices how she will live her life. As she passes through the stages of her life, she reflects back, determining whether they were the right alternatives for her.

Well written by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, this will appeal to fans of literary fiction, although I fear some readers may tire of the constant musical references and Jodie’s wanderings around England. For people of a certain age and fans of the folk rock genre, this is a nostalgic read recounting the songs and singers of the 60s, as well historical events dating from the early 60s. There are some very poignant and insightful observations of the various stages of women’s lives and the options open to them.

I don’t like to write spoilers. Suffice to say that there is a turn at the end of the novel that will cause some to say “brava” and others to say “what the…..?”. Read the book to see in which camp you will be.

Thanks to @NetGalley and @aaknopf for the DRC.

A very well-written historical mystery that is more character-driven than suspense-driven.

Fun read about a young racing horse whose curiousity gets the better of him one night when his stall is left open. He finds himself in an unfamiliar area of Paris and is befriended by a raven, and a stray dog . They teach him how to stay hidden and when to look for food. He is later taken in by an 8 yr old boy who lives with his 98 yr old blind and deaf great grandma. The story grows from there. He eventually goes back to the racing stable with his new friends. NPR: It's such a joy when an author whose work you've been reading for decades surprises you with something unexpected. The title character of Jane Smiley's new novel, Perestroika in Paris � her first since she completed her massive The Last Hundred Years trilogy in 2015 Â¥ is a talking horse! Of course, horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Smiley's books, including Horse Heaven and most of her Young Adult novels. Nor is this the first time that the author, best known for A Thousand Acres, her Pulitzer Prize-winning homage to King Lear, has gone light: Moo and Ten Days in the Hills are both satires.But this delightful, heartwarming tale about creatures living in the rough in Paris's Champs de Mars is something new for Smiley, and it's an appealing balm for harsh times. The animals Â¥ her titular racehorse, who converses with an elegant shorthaired German pointer, a haughty raven, a squabbling pair of mallards, and a rat pining for a mate Â¥ share their hardships, fears, needs, and dreams. They also overcome their differences and prejudices to band together to lend a paw, claw, wing, or hoof to each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy.NPR: It's such a joy when an author whose work you've been reading for decades surprises you with something unexpected. The title character of Jane Smiley's new novel, Perestroika in Paris Â¥ her first since she completed her massive The Last Hundred Years trilogy in 2015 Â¥ is a talking horse! Of course, horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Smiley's books, including Horse Heaven and most of her Young Adult novels. Nor is this the first time that the author, best known for A Thousand Acres, her Pulitzer Prize-winning homage to King Lear, has gone light: Moo and Ten Days in the Hills are both satires.But this delightful, heartwarming tale about creatures living in the rough in Paris's Champs de Mars is something new for Smiley, and it's an appealing balm for harsh times. The animals Â¥ her titular racehorse, who converses with an elegant shorthaired German pointer, a haughty raven, a squabbling pair of mallards, and a rat pining for a mate Â¥ share their hardships, fears, needs, and dreams. They also overcome their differences and prejudices to band together to lend a paw, claw, wing, or hoof to each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy.It's such a joy when an author whose work you've been reading for decades surprises you with something unexpected. The title character of Jane Smiley's new novel, Perestroika in Paris Â¥ her first since she completed her massive The Last Hundred Years trilogy in 2015 Â¥ is a talking horse! Of course, horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Smiley's books, including Horse Heaven and most of her Young Adult novels. Nor is this the first time that the author, best known for A Thousand Acres, her Pulitzer Prize-winning homage to King Lear, has gone light: Moo and Ten Days in the Hills are both satires.But this delightful, heartwarming tale about creatures living in the rough in Paris's Champs de Mars is something new for Smiley, and it's an appealing balm for harsh times. The animals Â¥ her titular racehorse, who converses with an elegant shorthaired German pointer, a haughty raven, a squabbling pair of mallards, and a rat pining for a mate Â¥ share their hardships, fears, needs, and dreams. They also overcome their differences and prejudices to band together to lend a paw, claw, wing, or hoof to each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy.Wash Post: Perestroika Â¥ Paras for short Â¥ is a 3-year-old filly thoroughbred who?s just come off a win at a racetrack in Paris. Being a ?very curious filly,? she trots away from her stable when she finds her stall door unlocked, then wanders to the Place du Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower. In short order, she?s joined by Frida, a canny German shorthaired pointer whose owner, a vagabond busker, has recently died; Raoul, a sage raven who keeps a perch on a Benjamin Franklin statue; and a pair of squabbling mallards, Sid and Nancy.The world outside the racetrack is baffling to Paras, in terms of both its human and animal inhabitants. ?What are you chasing?? Frida asks. ?I don?t know,? she responds.Talking-animal stories tend to break down into two categories: Sober allegories about human nature (?Animal Farm?) and lighter allegories via kids? adventure tales (?Charlotte?s Web.?) But ?Perestroika? doesn?t slot neatly into either group. Despite the title character?s name, the novel isn?t concerned with Cold War politics, or politics much at all. (The novel ends on a bright, decidedly un-Orwellian note: ?Why make things more complicated than they really had to be?? ) And though the animals? personalities tend to stick to the straightforward archetypes of children?s literature Â¥ daring, haughty, exploring, squawky Â¥ Smiley strives to avoid a cloying tale about getting along.To help do that, she introduces a handful of more earthbound human characters, most prominently a nonagenarian matron, Madame de Mornay, and her 8-year-old orphan great-greatgrandson, Ÿtienne, who live in a bespoke if declining manor. Ÿtienne lures Paras to the home, where she makes the grand salon comfortable, if a bit smelly. The surrounding Parisians are oblivious Â¥ the novel would stop dead in its tracks if they weren?t. Smiley laments what they?re missing: ?The humans who were out were, as usual, looking downward, minding their own business, thoroughly convinced that they knew all about everything having to do with their world.?

La vida d'una parella amb un fill de set anys que ha renunciat a la vida de ciutat amb molta austeritat sense modernitats i ecològica½

It's helpful to have a good working knowledge of Shakespeare's King Lear in order to read, appreciate, and discuss this book. The story is appropriately set in Iowa, a state that highly values its land, where many small town attorneys would find the characters and events quite plausible.

Some excellent essays, but also some fillers. I am a big fan of Jame Smiley, but was disappointed with this book.

Lucky by Jane Smiley will largely be a hit or miss novel for most readers, plus a few who will simply dislike the realistic dystopian epilogue because it tracks too close to their beliefs.

I know some will lament the lack of what they call action in the novel, I have to assume because internal strife and worries, caring for dying relatives, and the day-to-day ups and downs don't count to them. Must be nice to have never spent a day where you do so much mental and emotional work that you're exhausted, since anyone who has will know that that certainly qualifies as action. But if you want car chases and gunplay, then yes, this is not an action-packed novel.

There are several ways to read this novel, some only becoming apparent when you finish (so I guess that is more a way to understand it than read it). It is a character study that looks at everything from being an outsider to being "lucky." What makes an outsider, and what makes someone think of themselves, internally, as an outsider? How does one tell one's own story, how does one tell someone else's story, and how should we think about the differences? Or, on a much more basic level, you can simply read the novel as a way to experience another person's life, much as we do with all fiction and a lot of nonfiction.

I read it mostly in that simpler manner, taking mental side trips when scenes or phrases would make me think about something more "big picture." It wasn't until the epilogue that I came face-to-face with what is definitely the "bigger picture." For me, it was not just a twist but a way to bridge the personal (how I largely read it) and the societal. To think about the relative importance of overly prioritizing the personal, especially when making decisions about the societal, and what some of the possible ramifications could be.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy being with a character for an entire lifetime, who considers life itself as being full of action, and, of course, times of minimal action. Especially those who want a book to make them both consider the character's perspective while also making you reflect on your own life decisions. If this doesn't sound appealing to you, then definitely choose something else.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.½

A surprisingly good read!

I'm not generally a fan of taking animals, but this story was fun and well-writren. The author developed the characters so well that I felt myself holding my breath of things in the story got a little tense (don't worry, no spoilers).

A really nice, fun, easy read.

This is an excellent bedtime book for my two-year-old. As we learned from the weird phenomenon of [b:The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep: A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep|21915666|The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep|Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437770588s/21915666.jpg|40305551], yawning a lot while you read that last bedtime story tricks your kid into feeling extra sleepy (or something like that). So I suggest yawning dramatically every time someone in the book yawns (all 20 times).

Happily, unlike that dumb rabbit book, this book is delightful. Warm and fuzzy without being saccharine. The text is beautiful, not overly flowery. The illustrations are adorable. The family appears to be multiracial (white dad, brown mom and daughter). Lucy has a special teddy bear named Molasses and so my daughter now calls her teddy bear Molasses.

This is a keeper.

Thanks to #NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC.

The title of this not only should be Lucky but “Traveling Musician,” even though she didn't travel as a musician most of the time but did write songs when she was in high school and when she got older and traveled around Europe, she wrote a lot too. She was in a few bands too as a substitute. She really didn't have a job per se but settled in NY and made videos for MTV and stayed active in the music scene it seems. I loved the setting of the 60s because of the music and artists she loved back then and I so do I. ides her writing songs and performing with bands once in a while. She never seemed to be doing anything permanently besides writing songs and getting people once in a while to record her music even at 47 old and singing at small concerts and gigs.

The book was first person and it was set in the present but looked back at her life. I loved the family aspect of it with her aunts and uncles living in St. Louis where she ended up mostly and her mom.

The epilogue was set in the way future it seems and it was definitely interesting.

To be honest, in order to be a writer you have to be an avid spy

from Lucky by Jane Smiley
Jodie Rattler tells her life story, how lucky she has been. Her pregnant, unwed mother wanted her. Her uncle took her to the racetrack and she won $82 lucky dollars that she never parts with. By chance, she saw the college she knew she wanted to attend. She walked away from the love of her life to claim her own career and life. She made enough money as a singer/songwriter to never have to worry.

Jodie grows up, takes lovers, sings her music, buys a cabin in the woods and a house in her hometown of St. Louis, learns how to connect with family and make friends, experiences the end of life of her grandparents and mother.

Jodie talks about the events and times of my own life: the Cuban Missile Crisis bookended by climate change angst; “Sing Along with Mitch” and folk music; 77 Sunset Strip; concerns about rising American fascism.

It is a full life, simply presented.

But the novel isn’t what it seems. And in the Epilogue, Jamie Ring reveals the identity of the ‘gawky girl’ who haunts her life like a ghost, and we learn something about art and how writers transform life into fiction, and questions the very concept of luck.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

The story is told through the thoughts of 71-year-old Anna who was born at the turn of the 20th century. She's married to 77-year-old Ike who's upstairs in bed dying. Anna's three daughters and her granddaughter come visit every day, always bringing food and preparing meals.
Through Smiley's descriptions of places and inanimate objects -- masterfully rendered in descriptive, poetic language -- we follow Anna's thoughts as she looks back at her austere childhood with her German parents in the western US mountains.
We also learn her thoughts about her marriage with Ike. She reminisces about his physical strength and sense of humor. Wondering if she ever actually loved him, she remembers longing for him one day seven years into their marriage. Mostly, she recalls him as an abusive bully who beat their daughters too. Although we see him as a whiney, bossy, sarcastic, selfish old man, and amid all her negative thoughts of him, inexplicably she thinks to herself how much she loves him.
The family members don't really like each other. Their conversations consist of resentment and criticism as they talk about food, cooking and memories. The granddaughter distinguishes herself by not discussing food and being critical but rather by describing her albeit shallow thoughts about desiring a single life where she can just be in her own room without her needy husband whose child she's expecting. Grandmother Anna labels her a genius which, compared to the rest of them, she is.
I can't imagine a shallower group of people and had hoped for an ending that would elevate this tedious depressing book into something more than a mundane still life.

I'm a total sucker for this kind of daily-life anthropological fiction, with rich understanding and respect for the characters and the connections between grand social and technological changes and the way people live.

Plus, as a child of Iowa and Kansas with big opinions about how the agricultural communities were screwed and screwed themselves, it was compelling to see if play out in this story. It made me feel more connected to my ancestors, and more melancholy for the life they knew and lost.

Trilogy completion check-in: it's good. Read on.

I'm not sure the title is accurate; however, this short book of essays is both enchanting and serious. Smiley holds the podium effectively, with subjects as varied as an appreciation of St. Louis; the joy of growing up on a farm; abiding admiration of Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope; Huck Finn vs Uncle Tom's Cabin; the role of mothers as both authors and subjects of literature; Willa Cather and her classic My Antonia; and the joy of reading Jessica and Nancy Mitford despite knowledge of their family history of Nazi involvement. My favorite chapter states a strong defense of Amy March as the most feminist character in Little Women, beating out the universally beloved Jo. Everyone who loves, loves, loves the Louisa May Alcott classic will be pleased to take sides!

Quotes: "There were writers then who frightened me, who liked to say, you'll never be a writer if you (fill in the blank) or if you don't (fill in the blank)."

"White Americans always think racism is a feeling, and they reject it or they embrace it. To most Americans, it seems more honorable and nicer to reject it, so they do, but they almost invariably fail to understand that how they feel means very little to Black Americans, who understand racism as a way of structuring American culture, American politics, and the American economy."

"The essence of the novel is the tension between wanting to linger in appreciation of an individual line and wanting to see what happens next."½

This was a fun book. I love the way Jane Smiley writes about animals, she is able to get inside how they might view things. This book is more fanciful. She's ascribing human kinds of thought to them while retaining the essence of each species. The interplay of their points of view was fun and full of humor and her descriptions of the personalities and squabbles, especially among the birds, was hilarious.

A promising premise for sure. Gold Rush California and a widowed prostitute, Eliza, and her friend decide to find out who is murdering women after being inspired by the works of E.A. Poe.
Should be interesting, right? Nope. Boring.
The whole novel spins in this average routine: Eliza takes in a gentlemen at the brothel, describes the event, then goes and finds a dead body with her friend in the woods. Eliza talks about mud and footprints a lot, follows some people around, takes in another gentleman at the brothel, describes prick and maybe they are a suspect. Then she eats food and walks around some more. No tension, no air of mystery, or feeling they are in danger. I feel like this could have been a short story but Smiley and her publisher wanted it blow up to fulfill some sort of contractual obligation.
Bloated and tedious.

The story of three generations or so of Norse families in the slowly declining Greenland settlement in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. I say "story"... Truth is, it doesn't necessarily read very much like a novel. In some places we get dialog and insights into specific characters' points of view. In other places, it reads more like an overview of history, and in others more like we're among these people listening to news from the neighbors, and all of these different things just blend seamlessly into each other, page after page.

And there are a lot of pages. Nearly 600 of them, full of the ordinary and extraordinary details of people's lives, their disputes and loves and mistakes and changes of heart, their physical and mental illnesses, their hardships and hopes and tragedies and moments of pettiness and violence and beauty. It's compelling stuff, and through it all, these people, for all their differences from us, feel absolutely like real people.

This is not a fast-reading book. It's the kind of book that really only works, I think, if you just let it unspool at its own pace and take you along for its slow but immersive ride. And you know what? I think it did me an incredible favor with that. I feel like lately I've been feeling sort of stupidly stressed about my reading life. I'm not reading as many books as usual! I'm not making sufficient progress through my out-of-control TBR shelves! Whatever I'm reading, I'm constantly distracted by thinking about what I'm going to read next! Or, rather, I was. This book just sort of demanded I let all that go and just relax and enjoy the journey. Which, after all, is what pleasure reading is supposed to be about. And whaddaya know? It worked.

Rating: Slightly to my surprise, I'm giving this one 4.5/5. Sometimes, you just get the right book at the right time, and you have to show it some appreciation for that. Plus, the ending was so poignant that it's left me with unexpected emotions that still seem to be lingering after I've turned the last page and shut the covers.½

Smiley covered the entire world of horse racing in a single book.