Lord of Misrule
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At the rock-bottom end of the sport of kings sits the ruthless and often violent world of cheap horse racing, where trainers and jockeys, grooms and hotwalkers, loan sharks and touts all struggle to take an edge, or prove their luck, or just survive. Equal parts Nathanael West, Damon Runyon and Eudora
… More »At the rock-bottom end of the sport of kings sits the ruthless and often violent world of cheap horse racing, where trainers and jockeys, grooms and hotwalkers, loan sharks and touts all struggle to take an edge, or prove their luck, or just survive. Equal parts Nathanael West, Damon Runyon and Eudora Welty, Lord of Misrule follows five characters, scarred and lonely dreamers in the American grain, through a year and four races at Indian Mount Downs, downriver from Wheeling, West Virginia.--book jacket
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Add a CommentIf you like horses and horse racing ( gambling) this book is for you. Winner of the national book award. Quite unique ( but not for everyone)
Suspicious, I read a couple of pages in the middle --- two people having a boring argument, while one is tied up, what? --- and noticed it was all in the present tense. Then I noticed there's no quotation marks or "he said". It's... modern poetry. In slang. A quick flip shows the entire book is the same. @#$ it, I'm too old and cranky for this. Thanks Falcon52 for the concise review: "illiterate". I agree!
A glimpse into a foreign culture...for most of us, anyway. Slow going out of the starting gate (ugh, sorry for the pun), but if you stay the course (again, apologies), it's well worth the ride (can't help myself). The characters, dialogue, and stories all ring true. Gordon made me interested in a world I didn't even know existed.
Beautifully written with a unique style. I am looking forward to reading her other books.
I found several of Jaimy Gordon's previous books to be impossibly convoluted, so was skeptical and curious when it was announced that "Lord of Misrule" was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction this year. This one is different - I am totally gripped by the eccentric characters and their oddball community of errors. Gordon's attention to physical detail, personal mannerisms, and nuances of speech make them sometimes uncomfortably real. And it's very hard to not fall in love with the horses - downtrodden as they are, their spirits are still very powerful. If you like this book, I highly recommend Willy Vlautin's "Lean on Pete," another tale about the dark underbelly of the horse racing world's lowest tier and the odd community of owners, jockeys, trainers, misfits and horses who inhabit it.
illiterate