false 32226 20 It takes a great deal of faith to gear a novel this horse-besotted to the general public. Horse love is one of those things either you get or you don't, and for the vast majority of the populace, horse stories tend to read like porn written for 13-year-old girls. The good news, then, is that while a love of all things equine is not a prerequisite for enjoying Jane Smiley's <I>Horse Heaven</I>, a love of human perversity is. Racing, after all, is at worst a dangerous, asset-devouring folly and at best an anachronism, as one of her horse trainers notes: <blockquote> The Industry Leaders had made it their personal mission to bring horse racing to the attention of the general public, with the NFL as their model and television as their medium of choice, which was fine with Farley, though his own view was that horse racing out at the track, newspaper reading, still photography, placing bets in person, and writing thank-you notes by hand were all related activities, and football, ESPN, video, on-line betting, and not writing thank-you notes at all were another set of related activities. </blockquote> A crucial piece of information for Smiley fans is that, among her many novels, <I>Horse Heaven</I> most resembles <I>Moo</I>. (And there's even a pig!) In fact, with these two books it appears that this versatile author has finally found a home in which to unpack her impressive gifts: that is, the sprawling, intricately plotted satirical novel. Her target in this case is not academia but horse racing--less commonly satirized but, here at least, just as fruitfully so. Wickedly knowing, dryly comic, the result is as much fun to read as it must have been to write.<p> None of which means that <I>Horse Heaven</I> is a casual read. For starters, one practically needs a racing form to keep track of its characters, particularly when their stories begin to overlap and converge in increasingly unlikely and pleasing ways. Perhaps it says something about the novel that the easiest figures to follow are the horses themselves: loutish Epic Steam, the "monster" colt; the winsome filly Residual; supernaturally focused Limitless; and trembling little Froney's Sis. And that's not to forget <I>Horse Heaven</I>'s single most prepossessing character, Justa Bob--a little swaybacked, a little ewe-necked, but possessed of a fine sense of humor and an abiding disdain for winning races by anything but a nose. <p> Then there are the humans, including but not limited to socialite Rosalind Maybrick, her husband Al (who manufactures "giant heavy metal objects" in "distant impoverished nationlike locations"), a Zen trainer, a crooked trainer, a rapper named Ho Ho Ice Chill, an animal psychic, and a futurist scholar, as well as attendant jockeys, grooms, and hangers-on. (Not to mention poor, ironically named Joy, a few years out of Moo U and still having problems relating.) It's a little frustrating to watch this cast come and go and fight for Smiley's attention; you glimpse them so vividly, and then they disappear for another hundred pages, and it breaks your heart. <p> But there are certainly worse problems a novel could have than characters to whom you grow overattached. A plot this convoluted would be one, if only it weren't so hard to stop reading. There are elements of magic realism, astounding coincidences, unabashed anthropomorphism. (At one point--while Justa Bob throws himself against his stall in sorrow at leaving his owner's tiny, wordless mother behind--this reviewer cried, "Shameless!" even as she began to tear up.) Improbably, it all works. <I>Horse Heaven</I> is a great, joyous, big-hearted entertainment, a stakes winner by any measure, and for both horse lovers and fans of Smiley's dry, character-based wit, a cause for celebration on par with winning the Triple Crown. <I>--Mary Park</I> 801323 1999 Horse Heaven total:644|5:185|4:230|3:163|2:51|1:15| 644 2451 843 98 5 2 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat Feb 23 09:43:39 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 23 10:07:19 -0800 2008 How does Jane Smiley do it? Her books are all completely unique. There is no formula; no predictability (you could say she is an anti-Ian McEwan). The story is set in the thoroughbred racing world of Southern California. The story...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 22 13:53:08 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 22 13:56:11 -0700 2008 2 1 false false Thu Jan 22 07:59:56 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 08:01:17 -0800 2009 Review originally and more completely published at http://www.epinions.com/review/Horse_Heaven_by_Jane_Smiley/content_56073162372

I found Horse Heaven to be entirely too disjointed, jumping from unconnected event to unconnected character every few pages. Smiley did give all her animals ve...more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Nov 21 14:42:37 -0800 2008 Fri May 22 11:53:37 -0700 2009 3 4 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu May 08 08:56:38 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 08:57:42 -0700 2008 5 2 false false Mon Dec 17 08:25:29 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 17 08:25:49 -0800 2007 5 1 false false Wed Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Thu Jan 01 13:26:27 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 14:54:32 -0800 2009 1 Our Mutual Friend as perhaps his best work. With Horse Heaven she g...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 26 11:11:24 -0800 2008 Tue Aug 11 13:08:59 -0700 2009
The only thing keeping the book from receiving a higher rating was that it was a little too...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 20:00:46 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 18:19:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 29 12:12:01 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 13:47:11 -0700 2009
Ms. Smiley's novels are worth reading for many ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 13:35:11 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 12:51:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 15:54:59 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 19:08:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Jan 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Aug 06 10:16:37 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 02 15:56:02 -0800 2009 Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley is a novel about horses and their breeders, owners, trainers, grooms, jockeys, traders, bettors and other turf-obsessed humans. It takes place over two-years and chronicles the lives of various horses and their people.

I know a little about horses - that is to ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Jul 03 11:02:27 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 16:02:26 -0700 2007
Edit 7/14: I'm struggling to stay with it and am hanging in at page 150. I hate not finishing books if they're even halfway decent. I'm learning a lot about the horse racing circuit. The writing is good. The struct...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jul 13 07:46:27 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 07:57:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Mon Aug 10 00:10:38 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 00:13:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1996 Tue Feb 10 15:03:18 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 15:10:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 13:04:30 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 09 17:46:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 16 10:33:58 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 10:38:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Mon Aug 03 17:39:21 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 17:41:30 -0700 2009 more...]]>