Rating: 
Summary: Horse Heaven
Review: Horse Heaven is not Jane Smiley at her best. Too many characters poorly developed and no discernable plot. In a single word: disjointed. In three words: disjointed, wordy, dull.
Rating: 
Summary: Horse Hilarity
Review: Eileen, a Jack Russell terrier, steals scene after scene in Jane Smiley's Horse Heaven with her clicking nails and emotional outbursts in excrement. Smiley has an uncanny ability to read the minds of animals; horses, of course, are featured here, but Eileen's responses to the love lives and machinations of her owners are hysterical. On another note, Smiley incorporates an interesting character from Moo--Joy Gorham was last seen there and is more developed here. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: It IS Heavan
Review: How can I read this book and not review it? I hope everyone will read Horse Heavan. It is discouraging though. If I could write one paragraph as beautifully as almost any of Smiley's paragraphs I would be in Human Heavan. It is her characterization I suppose I love best. The men, women, children and horses who populate this book are alive and fascinating. She is ironic about them, humane and humorous in her care for them, and wonderfully insightful.The three main romances in the book (one of them adultorous) are handled with great feeling. Smiley has that great talent of allowing us to care, to be sentimental about her characters without being maudlin or unrealistic. She finds that superb balance between a close reader involvement and removed judgement. So read Horse Heavan and write a review.
Rating:
Summary: heaven for a horse lover
Review: admittedly, before i read this book, i was both a jane smiley fan AND a life-long horse owner/lover, so this book came out of the gate with pretty good odds. because of the numerous characters, human, equine, and canine, the start was a little tough, but once i'd found my rhythm and figured out who all the characters were, i didn't want to get to the finish line. the horses were far better developed as characters than were the people (--justa bob was my favourite!--), but i think even a non-horse lover could find this book to be quite entertaining. as it's making the rounds of barns in my "neigh"borhood, we're all applauding smiley's ability to capture a world that only those who live in it seem to know. i'd enthusiastically recommend this to horse lovers and to others who are interested in that world.
Rating: 
Summary: 4 to 3 You'll Like This Book!
Review: Jane Smiley takes on horse racing and succeeds admirably. Written from the perspectives of the owners, trainers, jockeys, bettors, and the horses (!), Smiley describes the interplay between about 50 humans and 12 racing horses. While this may confuse at first, Smiley's vivid and distinctive portraits help the reader distinguish between the large cast. This dense population ultimately helps because it richly depicts the sociocultural context (much like Tom Wolfe). "Horse Heaven" conveys the role of luck in the success and failure of both human and horse. It also sensitizes readers to some of the cruel outcomes involved in racing without being preachy. You don't have to be a track aficionado to enjoy the technical descriptions of racing, although equestrians will enjoy Smiley's eye for detail. Highly recommended: A great summer read!
Rating:
Summary: Perfecta
Review: There are parts of this book that are just so well put together that I will return to it from time to time. Jane Smiley is a fine writer and she spins a horsey "tail" (sorry) that will involve you even if you never go to the track and think of a daily double as a happy hour special. Her cast is large, but every character is distinct and finely drawn. And the horses! They are the stars of this show. She brings them alive as individuals. I don't think I'll ever look at horses the same way again. The story is truly moving, but never pretentious, melodramatic or patronizing. The race sequences were breathtaking. She got her facts right too. The whole tempo of racing life. The circuits, the training, the track. I don't like animal stories as a rule, but this book is a rewarding exception. Smiley's style is so smart, and her intelligence so insightful that I did that thing that only books can let you do, I read my favorite passages over, and paged back from time to time to examine a point well made or to just enjoy the luxury of excellent writing. If you like horses, want to like horses or just enjoy first class writing, this book is a winner.
Rating: 
Summary: A horsey tale
Review: Jane Smiley's gentle racing romp offers an incisive and absorbing view of the horsing circuit that spans Kentucky, California, New York and Paris. For the dedicated follower of horses, this is a well-researched account of the daily happenings and colourful personalities that inhabit the enclosed world. Her knowledge is apparent in her lengthy description of a mare undergoing a potentially fatal birth and she includes many interesting snippets of information. For example, horses are not re-exported from Hong Kong if they have been exposed to disease here and so are destroyed once their racing career is over. The book's main drawback is that at times the reader feels as if they are tackling that most British of equestrian events - the Grand National. Like the National, there seem to be so many participants it is difficult to keep track of who they are, as Smiley negotiates an unwieldy course. Her skill in knitting the narrative together is never in doubt, but the depth of her characters suffers in her quest to cover as much ground as possible. Furthermore, the sheer volume of characters results in some being given scant attention. While the likes of Rosalind - the beautiful but neglected "track wife" who dallies with Dick, the trainer employed by her husband - has a rightful part in the story, it is at the expense of others. For instance, racehorse owner Lin Jay Hwang - nicknamed "The Pisser" as a schoolboy in Hubei province for his seemingly bottomless bladder - and his mother, Round Pebble, seem to warrant more than just the few pages they are allocated, and not just because they are from this part of their world. Smiley glosses over their move to America and eventual entry into racing, yet they are proof that the sport's participants are not solely confined to well-off WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) with the "correct" pedigree that outsiders sometimes imagine is representative of the Western horsing world. As a result, the momentum starts to drag even before the reader has reached the half-way mark, which is a pity because the prose is well written and the potential of the characters apparent. Fans of racing stalwarts Dick Francis and Jilly Cooper are likely to find this book particularly unsatisfying. It lacks the former's flair for absorbing plots and thrilling twists, and the latter's instinct for a rollicking narrative that broadens its appeal to readers who would otherwise give a wide berth to horsy matters. Consequently, readers turn the last page feeling deprived of the buzz from a brisk gallop and instead feel they have had to make do with a lackadaisical trot.
Rating:
Summary: And the book has me off and learning
Review: Jane Smiley entertainingly introduces readers to the world of horse racing from nearly every perspective (selling, buying, owning, breeding, birthing, feeding, training, grooming, riding, racing, betting, and most importanly loving) from both the humans and the horses' points of reference. I delight in reading books that open new worlds. I learned a considerable amount about the world of horse racing and now as a result have a far greater appreciation for it. The timing for the reading of this book is perfect. Over the last two weeks, when directed from the front page, I've been finding myself turning to the sport page. Imagine that. I've been keeping myself abreast of the Kentucky Derby and the Hall of Fame hoopla. The book swept me in. I even went so far as to be sure I was home in time to catch the race. Reading Smiley's book and watching the winner, $4 million Fusaichi Pegasus, run the race made me weepy eyed. He is a masterpiece, poetry in motion. The race lasted only 2:01 minutes but the book will remain with me forever. It has made me acutely aware of all that had led up to and will proceed from a horse race.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters and smart horses!
Review: The horses in this book are the best literary horses I have ever met! Probably horses don't think like these, but if not, no one will ever get closer to them. Besides the clear reading of horses, Jane Smiley reads humanoids with kindness and subtlety. I don't complain that the chapters follow each other in a discontinuous way, and that the scenes shift almost arbitrarily from one venue to another because this book is an overview of a whole milieu. This book tells the reader more about horse racing than a general reader might want to know, but every reader will be enriched by the Smiley's analysis of the characters, equine and otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: I'm in "Horse Heaven"
Review: What a good book this is! I have never read Jane Smiley before and have nothing to compare this to, but I found the writing to be excellent, the characters to be extemely well-developed and accurate, and her grasp of horse-racing and the horse world in general to be masterful. The amount of research it must have taken for her to so correctly capture the little nuances of everyday life with horses is boggling, and perhaps that is why some -- people who are not "horse people", as we call them -- found the story and characters confusing and hard to follow. Ms. Smiley must have immersed herself in the racing scene to prepare for writing this book, and her readers do not have the same luxury. Those that already know what it's like (and that could mean from any "horsey" discipline, like the hunter/jumper world) have a head start and therefore a great advantage in reading this book. I found her characterizations of ALL creatures, be they human, equine, or canine, to be right on target. Wonderful reading for the equestrian-minded!
|
