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58th out of 149 books
—
149 voters
Boleto
by
Alyson Hagy (Goodreads Author)
An unforgettable story of men and horses, the American West, and the dream of a ticket out
* A May 2012 Indie Next Pick *
Will Testerman is a young Wyoming horse trainer determined to make something of himself. Money is tight at the family ranch, where he's living again after a disastrous end to his job on the Texas show-horse circuit. He sees his chance with a beautiful qu...more
* A May 2012 Indie Next Pick *
Will Testerman is a young Wyoming horse trainer determined to make something of himself. Money is tight at the family ranch, where he's living again after a disastrous end to his job on the Texas show-horse circuit. He sees his chance with a beautiful qu...more
Hardcover, 251 pages
Published
May 8th 2012
by Graywolf Press
(first published May 1st 2007)
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I know from reading Alyson Hagy in the past--following her developing career, in fact--that her books are not to be missed. Fundamentally, she's a poet who writes novels: her thoughtful, penetrating, crystalline images are to be savored. This is not a book to rush through, looking for a thrill, with an eye on The Plot. There is a plot (what a plodding word that is), and a forward momentum to the story, but the deepest rewards for the reader are moment by moment, as Will moves through his days an...more
Mar 11, 2010
Anastasia Hobbet
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-fiction
The eight, spare, elegant short stories in Alyson Hagy’s new collection, Ghosts of Wyoming left me haunted too at the end. Hagy has sculpted her writing down to such leanness that, if she had written a few words less here and there, I’d have been lost. But instead, I was drawn down by the tow of her words and became part of the scene. I didn’t care what the characters said or did; I just wanted to be with them. It takes powerful writing to make me so docile. Now, having finished the book, here I...more
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I had a really hard time giving this book a star rating. Do I rate on quality of writing or entertainment value? Do I rate on my own level of entertainment or its potential to entertain? I guess the point of this rambling is to give no weight to whatever star rating I give, if I give one at all.
Let's start off by saying that Alyson Hagy is a great writer and from a writers perspective, there is much to be learned from this novel. That said, this book is not at all my style of story. I found it e...more
Let's start off by saying that Alyson Hagy is a great writer and from a writers perspective, there is much to be learned from this novel. That said, this book is not at all my style of story. I found it e...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Will Testerman is a young Wyoming horse trainer with big dreams no one in his family takes seriously except his mother. Since his childhood, she has asked her thoughtful youngest the wistful question, "Who are you today, Will Testerman?" He has replied variously, but one thing he knows for certain now, as a man who feels older than his 23 years, is that he is not destined to work the family ranch forever. And he believes he has found his ticket--his "boleto" in hispanic ranch-hand parlance--out...more
I gave this book 4.15/5 stars at InsatiableBooksluts.com.
Review excerpt:
"Hagy did something else that I found very impressive: she wrote about the business of, uh, horsery (that’s totally a word isn’t it? No? Well, it is now) without boring me to death. Despite my love of Cormac McCarthy, I may be the only person from Kentucky who isn’t a sucker for a good horse story. Remember the movie Seabiscuit? Well, I don’t, because I never saw it. I’m generally that disinterested in horses. Hagy used char...more
Review excerpt:
"Hagy did something else that I found very impressive: she wrote about the business of, uh, horsery (that’s totally a word isn’t it? No? Well, it is now) without boring me to death. Despite my love of Cormac McCarthy, I may be the only person from Kentucky who isn’t a sucker for a good horse story. Remember the movie Seabiscuit? Well, I don’t, because I never saw it. I’m generally that disinterested in horses. Hagy used char...more
This book rambles a bit like the landscape that nurtured it. Part I takes place on Will Testerman's home turf, where he has a reputation to live up to or live down, depending upon how you look at it. He's a quiet, introspective, young man...traits which set him apart from his brothers and Wyoming cohorts. It is that quiet manner, though, that allows him to slip deftly into the head of the horses in his care. We learn that he stood quietly and solidly behind his mother as she battled cancer and t...more
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainme...
A cowboy, his talents and his horses combine to form Alyson Hagy's newest novel 'Boleto'
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor books@dallasnews.com
Published: 01 June 2012 04:34 PM
In her wise new novel Boleto, Alyson Hagy follows modern-day Wyoming cowboy Will Testerman on his simple quest: to make his way in the world through his gift for working with horses, and to prove he can spot raw talent by training a quarter horse, bought cheap, into a polo pony he can...more
A cowboy, his talents and his horses combine to form Alyson Hagy's newest novel 'Boleto'
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor books@dallasnews.com
Published: 01 June 2012 04:34 PM
In her wise new novel Boleto, Alyson Hagy follows modern-day Wyoming cowboy Will Testerman on his simple quest: to make his way in the world through his gift for working with horses, and to prove he can spot raw talent by training a quarter horse, bought cheap, into a polo pony he can...more
Looking for a wonderfully well-written, delicately drawn book that perfectly captures the atmosphere of horse culture and Wyoming? Well, here it is. I picked this book up because it was recommended by the New York Times, because there was a horse on the cover. (Not my most sophisticated decision ever), and because I was looking for something absorbing to read on the beach.
It took me a while to get into it at first because of the very simple sentence structure. There are very few complex or compo...more
It took me a while to get into it at first because of the very simple sentence structure. There are very few complex or compo...more
If I could, I would give this 3.5 stars, only because the story, as divided into three parts, leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Not that everything in a book needs to be neatly tied up, but I really wanted to know what happened to some of the characters who just (literally) disappeared. That said, the simple sentences sing and descriptions shimmer in short bursts of prose. Hagy made the horse world fascinating. She also navigates the line between those stories that unrealistically glorify an...more
Here's the low down: twenty-something Will lives with his parents on a farm/ranch in Wyoming. He purchases a horse he calls Filly to train to become a polo horse. He moves to California to learn the polo horse trade.
This book was ok. I never really have loved books with animals, but this was better than most. The relationship of Will to horse was realistic and honest. As I sit writing this book review a week after I read it I honestly cannot remember much about this book or the way I felt about...more
This book was ok. I never really have loved books with animals, but this was better than most. The relationship of Will to horse was realistic and honest. As I sit writing this book review a week after I read it I honestly cannot remember much about this book or the way I felt about...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The story is of Will, a young Wyoming horse trainer determined to make a career off the family ranch.
He buys a beautiful filly and while he is training her as a polo horse we learn of him, his life and family thru the stories he tells to his horse.
He works with her first at home, then at his summer job at a dude ranch, and finally in California on a polo 'estancia'.
Beautifully written.
But I was a bit disappointed in the ending as I think he didn't explore all his options very well. I don't real...more
He buys a beautiful filly and while he is training her as a polo horse we learn of him, his life and family thru the stories he tells to his horse.
He works with her first at home, then at his summer job at a dude ranch, and finally in California on a polo 'estancia'.
Beautifully written.
But I was a bit disappointed in the ending as I think he didn't explore all his options very well. I don't real...more
The first two parts of the book were engaging. The main character, Will, was believable, likable and I enjoyed the way he worked with the horse. The last part was disappointing and I felt it knocked the ground out of all that had been built up earlier. He basically abandoned his horse, made decisions that seemed out of character and destroyed all that he had been working for with no really good reason. There were clearly less dramatic resolutions to his problems but he didn't even try to behave...more
A beautifully written book. It is part Cormac McCarthy, part Hemingway and all Alyson Hagy's own style. I picked this up at a bookstore because it was signed, knowing nothing about the author or story. Rewarded for judging a book by its cover.
The story takes place in Wyoming, California and Texas and is the sparse story of a young cowboy learning to make his way in the world. Not an easy thing while family issues and work make it harder. His love for his horses, his family, and kindness make him...more
The story takes place in Wyoming, California and Texas and is the sparse story of a young cowboy learning to make his way in the world. Not an easy thing while family issues and work make it harder. His love for his horses, his family, and kindness make him...more
There are two issues that, depending on the reader's veiwpoint, could cloud the book:
1) the horse thing. Yes, there are horses in this novel and they are mighty important. So, does that make this a "horse book?" If I say yae, then hoards of folk won't read it. If I say nae, then horse folk won't read it. And you'd all be up the creek without a paddle because you will have missed a glorious novel that defies labels such as "horsey" or "about the West."
2) Right here, folks, we've got a woman write...more
1) the horse thing. Yes, there are horses in this novel and they are mighty important. So, does that make this a "horse book?" If I say yae, then hoards of folk won't read it. If I say nae, then horse folk won't read it. And you'd all be up the creek without a paddle because you will have missed a glorious novel that defies labels such as "horsey" or "about the West."
2) Right here, folks, we've got a woman write...more
You do not have to love the American West, horses and the men who love them to recognize what a great book Boleto is. Written in a literary style that is both rich and simple at the same time, the story is that of a man and a horse, both young and untested.
Will Testerman grew up on a ranch in Wyoming amid tough winters and even tougher horses. He buys the best filly he's ever seen with the idea he will train her to be a polo pony. He knows nothing about the sport, yet he recognizes potential whe...more
Will Testerman grew up on a ranch in Wyoming amid tough winters and even tougher horses. He buys the best filly he's ever seen with the idea he will train her to be a polo pony. He knows nothing about the sport, yet he recognizes potential whe...more
This book is about a boy/young man from Wyoming who hopes to make money training and selling horses. The story focuses on the relationship between himself and a 2 year old filly he purchased, but it really is about him coming to terms with and understanding people, and your place in the world.
If you're hoping to find a book about a man and his horse - this isn't it. The relationship with his horse(s) are prominently featured, but they are only the background to Will understanding who he is, and...more
If you're hoping to find a book about a man and his horse - this isn't it. The relationship with his horse(s) are prominently featured, but they are only the background to Will understanding who he is, and...more
Aug 08, 2012
Kristin
added it
A few years ago when Brokeback Mountain came out, my friend and I, just out of high school, went to see it in the theaters. Envisioning it as an interesting and society-changing intellectual film, we were amused to find that the theater was packed with middle aged ladies hot for some dirty cowboy-on-cowboy action. That was perhaps the first time I learned that middle aged ladies are horny, horny, cowboy obsessed people. This book exemplifies this truth once again. I thought it was going to be ab...more
You know that old saying "Still waters run deep"? Well, sometimes water is still because it's a damn mud puddle. That's our protagonist in this book. Will Testerman. Cowboy. Moron. Misogynist. Supposed horse whisperer. Possibly a murderer--I was really hoping for that, but that could be just because he reminded me so much of Edward Norton in Down in the Valley or Eddie Redmayne in Hick--but that alas is not addressed in the book.
The prose is written with no quotation marks, which didn't annoy me...more
The prose is written with no quotation marks, which didn't annoy me...more
1 like · like · see review
This powerful, short novel begins with a quote from another writer of spare and poetic fiction, James Galvin. Any reader appreciating the deep pleasure of his novel "The Meadow" will be thoroughly absorbed in this character study of two men shaped as much by a lifetime on the near-desolate reaches of Wyoming ranchland as they are by a soul-fracturing ordeal on the killing fields of Korea.
Told out of sequence, with its beginning and ending in 1995, this wonderful novel follows the fortunes of a p...more
Told out of sequence, with its beginning and ending in 1995, this wonderful novel follows the fortunes of a p...more
Boleto is divided into three parts. I think that each part has the potential to be a really good story and that all three parts could be connected to make an incredible novel. As it is, I felt unfulfilled by each story and the book as a whole was weakened by the connections that weren't made.
The synopsis tells us that this is more than just the story of a man and a horse. While this is true, I feel as though the scenes with Boleto, as she comes to be called, are very short and not very interesti...more
The synopsis tells us that this is more than just the story of a man and a horse. While this is true, I feel as though the scenes with Boleto, as she comes to be called, are very short and not very interesti...more
Hagy did a terrific job dragging the reader into stories they had to think about. Throughout most of the book, she switches from serious to comedy short pieces.
My favorites in her collection are "Superstitions of the Indians" and "Lost Boys." The first is a comical short piece about an Indian woman and a book with a mind of its own. The main character is a bit dense to start, but eventually comes around to help the Book and Indian woman. The second piece haunts me with the "lost." I had to sit a...more
My favorites in her collection are "Superstitions of the Indians" and "Lost Boys." The first is a comical short piece about an Indian woman and a book with a mind of its own. The main character is a bit dense to start, but eventually comes around to help the Book and Indian woman. The second piece haunts me with the "lost." I had to sit a...more
I would actually give it 3.5 stars - as a collection. Some of the individual stories would score higher.
Alyson Hagy is a skilled storyteller. Many of the stories in Ghosts of Wyoming (Graywolf Press) feel more like the type that would be told around a campfire than put down on the page, particularly "Superstitions of the Indians." The best of the bunch is the first story in the collection, "Border". It has a more contemporary feel than the other stories, and it sets the tone for a very differen...more
Alyson Hagy is a skilled storyteller. Many of the stories in Ghosts of Wyoming (Graywolf Press) feel more like the type that would be told around a campfire than put down on the page, particularly "Superstitions of the Indians." The best of the bunch is the first story in the collection, "Border". It has a more contemporary feel than the other stories, and it sets the tone for a very differen...more
Ghosts of Wyoming by Alyson Hagy was easily one of my favorite short story collections of this year (2010).
For years, Hagy has been producing solid fiction that, for the most part, flies under the radar--literature that sadly goes unnoticed by most of the reading population in this country. Far too few people have picked up the novels Keeneland and Snow, Ashes and the short-story collections Graveyard of the Atlantic, Madonna on Her Back, and Hardware River. Like the others, Ghosts of Wyoming de...more
For years, Hagy has been producing solid fiction that, for the most part, flies under the radar--literature that sadly goes unnoticed by most of the reading population in this country. Far too few people have picked up the novels Keeneland and Snow, Ashes and the short-story collections Graveyard of the Atlantic, Madonna on Her Back, and Hardware River. Like the others, Ghosts of Wyoming de...more
(3.5) My favorites are Border, How Bitter the Weather, and The Sin Eaters.
I love the opening paragraph of How Bitter the Weather:
I judge their hands. I say to myself, yes, that guy fights fires in the mountains. Or no, that guy's not a roofer, no matter what he claims. Armand has spadelike hands, troweling hands, and they convince me he speaks a certain kind of truth. He woos me with the fused joint of his ring finger, the corrugated grasp of his palms. It seems possible that he quarried rock i...more
I love the opening paragraph of How Bitter the Weather:
I judge their hands. I say to myself, yes, that guy fights fires in the mountains. Or no, that guy's not a roofer, no matter what he claims. Armand has spadelike hands, troweling hands, and they convince me he speaks a certain kind of truth. He woos me with the fused joint of his ring finger, the corrugated grasp of his palms. It seems possible that he quarried rock i...more
Jul 13, 2012
Jessica
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
group-reads,
on-my-shelves,
own-print,
fiction,
read-2012,
literary-fiction,
contemporary,
western,
x
Boleto is a beautifully-written "Western." I put Western in quotation marks because I don't want to pigeonhole this book as a kind of swashbuckling cowboy western, which tends to be my first thought when somebody says "it's a Western" -- but still, it is a book about horses and the American West. Specifically, it's about a young horse trainer named Will Testerman and his dream of training the perfect horse, and a story that takes us from the mountains of Wyoming to the polo fields of southern Ca...more
I know it's a story told from just one person's POV but i still don't feel like we see enough complexity in Charlotte especially and even in Hobbs. Adams view of them both is pretty reductionist. If you're going to tell a story from a single POV I think it makes it much more interesting if that character can see nuances in others. Why was Charlotte so headstrong and destructive? She just is. Why did she do what she did? She just did. Not much explanation for what motivates her or how she thinks...more
This is a Western in the best sense of the word. There are horses and horse training and horse people. There is a young man learning about himself in a world filled with both honesty and deceit, laughter and heartache, good and evil. And there are sentences describing both the beauty and brutality of the western landscape that took my breath away, and made me stop to savor them. Alyson Hagy is a very good writer, and I truly enjoyed this book.
A bit Cormac McCarthy-esque in her writing style, Alyson Hagy creates a bitter sweet world that shaves so close to reality, you can almost feel the razor burn. Will trains horses in the hopes of a big pay-off, gambling on his skills to help make a reputation for himself and I wonder at how he doesn't manage to lose his soul in the bargain. The end of this story is just that...an end and was every bit as heartbreaking as I expected.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| technicalities | 2 | 10 | Jul 18, 2012 04:36pm |
Alyson Hagy, a novelist and short story writer, was raised on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and now lives and teaches in Laramie, Wyoming.
More about Alyson Hagy...
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