GREAT READS FOR OCTOBER, 2016
The Sport of Kings, by C. E. Morgan
Henry Forge, Southern gentleman, is master of all he
surveys. Through iron-clad determination
and obsessive planning he has converted the family farm of his ancestors, those
hard men and slave owners who had trekked across the mountains into Kentucky
looking for a new life 200 years before, into a premiere Thoroughbred
horse-breeding operation: his aim is to
produce a Superhorse, an animal with beauty, speed, stamina and a mighty heart
to win all the major horse races in the country, just as the peerless
Secretariat had done so effortlessly and convincingly years before – it can be
done again, and he is just the man to do it.
Henry’s fixation on horses began at a young age when he
saw horses broken in on the neighbouring farm;
unfortunately his burgeoning interest is not encouraged by his
autocratic father, who believes that his only son should accept unquestionably
that the Forges have always made their reputation and considerable fortune growing corn; there will be no deviation from this
tradition – until Henry, whose hatred of his father is absolute, discovers a
family secret so terrible that he cannot resist flinging his new knowledge into
his unsuspecting father’s face: Henry’s
beautiful mother is having a torrid affair with a family servant. A nigger.
So begins Ms Morgan’s huge, epic novel about breeding –
of horses and men; a story that explores
ruthlessly the cruel pathways of slavery and racism, as innate and inbred in
the old Kentucky families as the bloodline of a favourite dam or sire.
Henry’s
obsession with producing the perfect animal doesn’t stop with horses; it extends to his own progeny, Henrietta,
whose high-society mother soon becomes dissatisfied with her quiet life on a
horse farm and lights out for pastures new, leaving Henrietta to grow up gaining
a home-schooled classical education thanks to dear old dad, but lacking the
warmth and normalcy of a loving feminine influence. The solitary child grows into a singular,
brilliant woman, one who takes her pleasures when and where she wants, always
conscious of her privileged position and her status as her father’s ‘right-hand
man’, but always, always lonely.
Then
the miracle occurs: one of Henry’s mares
gives birth to a foal that has all the early indications of a champion, and as
she grows, the little filly called Hellsmouth fulfils all her early
promise. She is the longed-for wonder
horse, and a new groom is hired by Henrietta to care for her exclusively. Allmon Shaughnessy is gifted with
horses; he has the touch –
unfortunately, he also has a prison record, and he is black. But Henrietta is intrigued by him and hires
him while her father is elsewhere, thus setting in train events that culminate
in undreamed-of success for Hellsmouth, and tragedy of Shakespearian
proportions for everyone else.
Ms
Morgan’s talents as a writer are frightening.
She can beguile the reader with wondrous imagery one minute, then plunge
us all quailing into utter horror the next as she hurls words like javelins to
describe the cruelty casually dispensed to animals and people. There are no happy endings here; Henrietta does not walk off into a rosy
sunset with a perfectly-bred Beau approved by Henry, but I have to say it: WHAT A RIDE!!
And what a writer, despite the eyewateringly small print (my eyes will
never recover) and tragedy on every page.
SIX STARS!!
Nutshell,
by Ian McEwan
Hamlet is still in his mother Trudy’s womb, and space is
getting more limited by the day;
however, he is quite comfortable for the moment and takes a keen
interest in the sounds around him, especially the radio interviews, lectures
and podcasts he listens to (Trudy believes in keeping up with the play,
globally speaking); his only complaint
about unborn life so far is that his soon-to-be father, publisher John
Cairncross, has been evicted from the crumbling family home because mum is
having a very carnal and energetic affair with John’s brother Claude. The frequent battering ram assaults by Claude
on various parts of his tender anatomy infuriate our little narrator; he hopes that his silly mother will soon see
the huge differences between the brothers before he sees the light – he is
astonished that his kind, intellectually superior father has been supplanted by
property-developer Claude, whose claims to sophistication and intelligence are negligible
– but he does know how to choose a wine!
And a lot of wine is consumed, lulling the unborn to
sleep most of the time, until he wakes up and hears a conversation which
horrifies him: Trudy and Claude have
decided to remove John permanently from their lives by Murder Most Foul. Because the decaying, filthy house in which
Trudy lives (John and Claude’s childhood home) is in a very fashionable part of
London, Claude knows that the site is worth millions, and because John is
showing a marked and shameful reluctance to end his marriage (For Heaven’s
sake, stop grovelling – where’s your self-respect!) there is only one
solution: he’ll have to go. Claude intends to win Fair Lady and the loot.
Baby is agog at their duplicity, especially when it
becomes painfully clear that he will not figure in their futures, but will be
‘put somewhere’. To add insult to injury
his own father appears to have no interest in his imminent birth either, intent
as he is at abasing himself at the sandaled feet of his faithless wife. What can he do? What awful fate awaits him?
Mr McEwan’s book extends to just under two hundred pages,
culminating with the birth of our fretting little narrator. The author likes the idea of a novel that one
can read in one or two sittings, ‘an intense experience’ – always assuming that
it will entertain the reader sufficiently enough to do just that. I have to admit that I have found some of his
works to be of a much lesser quality than this one; however, he has certainly achieved his objective
with ‘Nutshell’. His scintillating prose
illustrates treachery, betrayal and murder in grand Shakespearian style and
baby Hamlet’s family has never seemed more real. FIVE STARS
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