Horse: A Novel
Brooks succeeds gloriously at creating a love letter to thoroughbred horses, racing, and the beauties of antebellum Kentucky, and passably well at creating an unflinching portrait of the struggle of a gifted Black man to devote his life to the miraculous horse he raises and trains, but can never own. That enslaved groom, Jarret Lewis, is Brooks’ imagining of the man who appears in several real-life oil portraits of the 19th-century racing phenomenon, Lexington. Those portraits are the unifying thread that ties together Jarret’s story, that of the equestrian portraitist, Thomas Scott, and of two young, fictional present-day researchers, Nigerian-born art historian Theo and Aussie osteologist Jess. A chance meeting allows the two 21st-century characters to piece together—via Theo’s discovery of a Scott painting on a trash pile, and Jess’ study of the horse’s actual skeleton in the attic of the Smithsonian—the story of just what made Lexington so fast. In the process, they learn about the incredible industry of American thoroughbred horseracing that would not have existed without the talent and dedication of armies of enslaved grooms, jockeys, and trainers.
Brooks creates enthralling separate voices for each point-of-view character, all of whom are obsessed geniuses in their own right. However, the details they obsess over never become tedious, because of Brooks’ gift for evoking the beauties of the Kentucky, Louisiana, and Potomac landscapes the characters inhabit. Each character allows the reader to share a growing understanding of the ironic and tragic distance between the freedom represented by Lexington’s joyous gallop, and the deadly legacy of America’s racist past. Ultimately, the dedication of Jarret to his equine protege’s dignity and quality of life reminds the reader how historical fiction can create unforgettable heroes and role models out of people who were denied a voice in their own time.
