BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: April (?) 1980)
(Digital: Yes.)
Audio: 1998, 5/2/2008; 9781449871833; Recorded Books Incorporated; Duration 7:36:59 (9 parts); Unabridged.
(Film: No).

SERIES:
No

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Kate Karlson – Anti-hero main character
Axle Karlson – Husband to Kate
Henry Karlson – Youngest son of Kate and Axel
John Karlson – Middle son of Kate and Axel
Peter Karlson – Oldest son of Kate and Axel
Margaret Karlson – Oldest child of Kate and Axel

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
The preface of this book seems to be a necessary element so that the reader is forewarned that the primary character isn’t going to be particularly likable. I know authors like to get at reality by revealing the foibles of their characters, but I need to like at least one character who has more than a peripheral role. True, I like the daughter, for the most part, but for me, toward the end, she does not act in a manner consistent to the character she’s been described to be. The youngest boy is likable, as is the father/husband of the family. But the story revolves more around an insensitive mother and the child most frustrated by her character, whose own character is warped in consequence.
I liked learning about horse riding. I never knew a good rider learns about the anatomy of a horse and synchronizes his/her own posture to correspond with what the horse’s optimal posture would be. But still, I prefer, if a story is going to have dark weight, that it have strong counterbalances of hope, joy, or love. A, mostly silent, saintly husband whose love strives toward unconditionality doesn’t fill that ticket for me. I need stories to have more heart.
This was Jane’s first novel, according to Wikipedia, though. I picked it because a friend of mine is devoted to this author. She recommended a later trilogy, but I figured since I generally agree with my friend about what is good, that I might want to take this author one book at a time chronologically. I don’t think I do now, but I should read the trilogy my friend recommended. I will probably wait though, until all of my other holds have been consumed.

AUTHOR:
Jane Smiley (Sept. 26, 1949). According to Wikipedia, Jane is an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her 1991 novel, “A Thousand Acres”.
In the section captioned “Biography”, Wikipedia says, “Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from Community School and from John Burroughs School. She obtained a BA in literature at Vassar College (1971), then earned an MA (1975), MFA (1976), and PhD (1978) from the University of Iowa.[2] While working toward her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996 she was a Professor of English at Iowa State University,[2] teaching undergraduate and graduate creative writing workshops. In 1996, she relocated to California. She returned to teaching creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, in 2015.”

NARRATOR(S):
Suzanne Toren. According to Penguin Random Audio House .com, “Suzanna Toren is one of the shining stars in the world of Audiobook recording. A prolific talent, Toren has been narrarating for more than 30 years. Winner of multiple awards, Toren is the recipient of the American Foundation for the Blind's Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award in 1988 and AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction and Culture. Toren has worked on books written by Jane Smiley, Margaret Weis, Jerry Spinelli, Barbara Kingsolver, and Cynthia Rylant.”
Suzanne’s voice brings to mind the unpleasant character of Jane Karlson, so I won’t be tracking her works down, but I do suspect once I hear her voice in a different light, I will get over it.

GENRE:
fiction

LOCATIONS:
Illinois horse ranch

TIME FRAME:
1980’s

SUBJECTS:
fiction, dysfunctional family, family relations, horses, horse riding, horse competitions

NARRATIVE STYLE:
3rd Person Omniscient

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Part One
Preface:
“The verdant pastures of a farm in Illinois have the placid charm of a landscaped painting. But the horses that graze there have become the obsession of a woman who sees them as the fulfillment of every wish. To win. To be honored. To be the best. Her ambition is the galvanizing force that will drive a wedge between her and her family and just possibly bring them all to tragedy.”

RATING:
3 stars. Probably seeing this book in print would have alleviated this complaint, but I was often unsure who was talking (or thinking), and whether there had been a lapse of time.

STARTED-FINISHED
6/7/2021 – 6/21/2021
( )

This novel is almost entirely set in the Illinois countryside at a stables. The family of parents, three boys and a girl live here. While dad goes out to work, mum breeds horses and takes riding lessons and all the children ride. Peter is given the best horse to ride and receives one-to-one tuition from Kate, his mum. She is so ambitious for Peter she misses that her youngest son is considering running away and another, John, is full of jealousy. Meanwhile the daughter is struggling to find her way in life and has returned from college after one term. Jane Smiley conveys how tough it is being a teenager excellently in this novel and the safe / suffocating atmosphere of home. The youngest son dares to cycle off their land, otherwise the only times we read about being away from their home is for a couple of horse shows. Kate is forceful and confident and single-minded and rarely likeable. The children seem well balanced considering but each has their own concerns. ( )

This is the story of the Karlson family. Kate and Axel and their daughter and three teenage sons live on a farm in Illinois, breeding and training horses for the equestrian community. However, Kate is obsessive in her focus and her children are forced through a grueling daily schedule prescribed by her. She believes it is good for them, saving them from the other teenage distractions. Her marriage is in name only, although Axel believes he still loves Kate and stays by her side but the annual gymkhana
held on their property brings family tensions to a head and results in a tragic event.
I believe this was Jane Smiley's first novel. It was good but the unrelenting coldness of the mother figure really cast a pall over the story for me. ( )

I am a big fan of Smiley because of her later novels. This first novel lacks polish in some places, but it has real grit and feeling. Yes it is set in an environment of horse competition, and has some details about that competition, but the scope and appeal of the book is not limited by that subject. ( )

A well-written story of a family caught in the spell of the mother's obsession and ambition. Shakespearean in its overtones. Kate, the mother and wife is blinded to all around her, husband's inner life and needs, children's actual aspiration and feelings, in her quest to produce a champion and make a name for herself in the equestrian world. With Kate in love with her own equine philosophies(she seems to have no inner or outer life that does not have to do with horses) and cocksure in her way of living and raising children, each family member must find way to survive in this virtual vacuum. Axel, Kate's husband is perhaps the most endearing of the characters. His sympathy for his children, especially his nurturing love for his daughter was beautifully developed. And yet, the thrall in which his wife holds him is more than he can defeat. The sturdy and defiant younger son is also interesting. As the book jacket will tell you, this is a tragedy. How the tragedy plays out is fairly easy to see early on. I suppose this book has so many things that would normally make this book a winner with me, however, I just liked it. I think my biggest challenges with it are that there seems to be little humor as I had expected from some of her other works, and then Kate casts such a chilly, bloodless pall over the entire story. ( )