Horse Whisperer

Rating:
Summary: Needs a good editor
Review: This was Evan's first novel, and his editor could have helped to improve it. Not to make it shorter, but to shake the problems out. It could have been a very good story, because Evans is a good writer. The story starts out beautifully, and it seems it's going to be about the daughter's physical and emotional healing process, and how certain aspects of love and spirituality can build bridges between people and animals (in this case, horses). But the story all but abandons the daughter and focuses on a selfish love triangle, and the ending is over-the-top pathetically bad. Each year there is a contest to see who can purposely write the worst opening to a novel (e.g. it was a dark and stormy night . . .), but this novel could win a contest for the worst ending, which I won't give away. See the movie for a better version of this story.

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.