The Literary Horse: Great Modern Stories About Horses - Hardcover

Distinguished mainly by readability rather than literary quality, the stories in this piebald anthology will undoubtedly appeal to horse lovers. Although Steinbeck and Kipling are included (the former with the mandatory classic, "The Red Pony"), few other vintage authors are among the 22 represented here. The middle rank of writers have less distinguished pieces, with weak efforts from Patricia Highsmith, Beryl Markham, Saki and Topper-creator Lorne Smith, whose fantasy of a man who awakes as a horse goes on too long for the slim comic premise. Some of the best tales come from Kay Boyle, Joyce Cary, William Saroyan and John O'Hara (O'Hara's account of a drifting ostler whose livelihood is doomed by the advent of the automobile is a laconic but moving elegy). Wallace Stegner's depiction of a boy's introduction to life's realities in "The Colt" is reminiscent of the Steinbeck tale but stands on its own. Among stories by such contemporary writers as Gretl Ehrlich, James Salter and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, there are two standouts: Pam Houston's "What Shock Heard," a story of courtship conducted almost entirely by horseback, and "Wild Horses," Rick Bass's tale of horsebreaking and broken hearts.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The often bittersweet, sometimes passionate relationship between horses and humans has been evident since humans first encountered Equus caballus in prehistoric times. This anthology of horse stories celebrates that bond. The stories are grouped into five sections focusing on some aspect of horse or human nature. In "Horses as Heroes," the main characters are horses, and some of the stories are even told in the horse's voice; the section entitled "Rogues" features horses that continuously confound humans with extremely mischievous behavior. Readers will find the anticipated and terribly sad tales of love, loss, and heartbreak in the section entitled "Horse and Child" ; while in "Of Horses and Men" and "Women and Their Horses," intense relationships between adults and their equine friends are explored. While all of the stories are passionate and powerful, Rudyard Kipling's "Maltese Cat" and John Steinbeck's "Red Pony" are especially noteworthy. Kathleen Hughes