Rating: 
Summary: The movie only hinted at doing justice to this story.
Review: Unlike some other reviewers I wasn't expecting this book to be a great work of modern literature but rather a beautiful story that everyman could relate to with a bit of thought. I wasn't disappointed. Maybe the author was a screenwriter and maybe the sentimental story itself is set out to read like a movie plot unfolding, none of that, to my way of thinking, diminished the simple zen beauty of the authors prose which reflected the search for an inner calm in each of the main characters.Others here have commented on the gore and adrenalin surging accident of Grace and the conveniently named Pilgrim and I from similar experiences found it traumatic - for the horse, but not for Grace herself because her story is really the means by which she and her mother find grace. Her mother Annie is forced to take stock of a life that she fears is not satisfying and which casts an effect on her child and her marriage. If Tom, in a typical display of the western horseman, seems wooden through a lack of dialogue it is because he relates to the world through the horses he works with, espousing the simple wisdoms of a man who has learned to read what is subtle and unspoken. His loneliness is echoed in the souls of Pilgrim, Grace and Annie. That Annie and Tom predictably fall in love and betray her marriage vows, in a different rendition of Graces relationship with Pilgrim, is not an issue. It is that only through the catalyst for change in Tom and the nature of his work with Pilgrim we find the key to the characters, that they too must sacrifice the instinct for self preservation to be remade with maturity.
Rating: 
Summary: potentially great fiction, mild porn
Review: What an abject disappointment!! When I started reading, I became transfixed. Let me say first, that Evans is an exceptionally gifted, insightful and descriptive writer. And that's what hooked me. But then, a novel that appeared heading toward deep emotional catharsis, and meaningful symbolism degenerates into a sordid, mildly pornographic romance novel between the lead female character, Annie, and the 'horse whisperer' Tom---the cowboy fellow she commissions to help heal her daughters' nutty horse. It's as though the author decided on page 300 to pull out "all stops" and insert the sex-formula into the book's recipe; after all, without sex, we immature American's won't be content! Totally unecessary and unfortunately, a real drag on what could have been an otherwise highly meaningful work. I also resent the author's patronizing attempt at conveying the infidelity as something we, the readers, should happily accept as o.k. Mr Evans didn't have to take this route, and his novel would, I believe, still have acheived record status.
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