Pulitzer Prize winning author, Geraldine Brooks' latest novel is a sweeping saga that spans the 19th C on the cusp of Civil War to the present. Both the tragedies of slavery and heinous murders of men of color by authorities that continue without retribution are told. Brooks' divergent fractions are connected by a factual racehorse, Lexington, and surmised stories of his caregiver, Jarrett, and an itinerant painter who captured his regal likeness for posterity. The ambitious novel is best paced when delving into the tumultuous history of the US on the precipice of Civil War. These years pertain to Lexington's prodigious winnings at the racetracks. The horse flourished under the unwavering care sown by Jarrett, a young, slave. The story unfurls and then flounders in the present by the discoveries unearthed. Jess is a young white, osteologist and Theo, a black, Phd candidate in art history with an equestrian connection. The coincidences pile up like manure but are necessary fodder for depicting the depravity of slavery. Brooks unbridles an enveloping story of love between a man and a horse. Jarrett bestows unwavering care for the horse Lexington whom he was attached from the time he was foaled. The dignity Jarret musters throughout his enslavement is ennobling. Theo stumbles across an oil painting of a horse his racist neighbor discarded. Jess is researching the bones of a horse at the museum that couldn't possibly be that of the same, actual horse in Theo's painter? Could Jess and Theo possibly fall in love as they both unravel the histories to their biological and artistic mysteries? Hold your horses. There's plenty worth biting into, especially the years enveloping the crumbling of our nation and the last vestiges of slavery clung to with blind hatred. The grace Jarrett mounts throughout his ordeals displays humanity at its finest amidst humanity's cruelest. The pan quotidian in the antebellum south are illustrated; the sufferings and indignities of slavery, the grandeur of plantation life for the elite, and the paces of racing in its heyday. The present day storytelling lags while luster leaps from the historic pages when Lexington is brought to life. Brooks paints a stunning portrait of Lexington, a horse so noble and beautiful we can picture him ourselves. The love story devised between the interracial couple, Jess and Theo feels contrived to provide a "Black Lives Matter" protest. My cheers herald the historic horse tale but pale within the present day structure devised in HORSE.
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