Rating: 3.70

Written in 2005, about 2/3 of the way through his career, this is yet another shift in genre, theme and POV narrative for Everett. What's interesting is how dramatically different the style is when compared to [b:I Am Not Sidney Poitier|6080748|I Am Not Sidney Poitier|Percival Everett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438311375l/6080748._SY75_.jpg|6257449], [b:Percival Everett by Virgil Russell|15792900|Percival Everett by Virgil Russell|Percival Everett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361640295l/15792900._SX50_.jpg|21514852], or [b:Assumption|11019107|Assumption|Percival Everett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348434901l/11019107._SX50_.jpg|15938422]

One of many elements I enjoy about his writing is he rarely if ever dwells on back story and uses dialog sparingly. And in many cases, he establishes the characters in a scene, rather than stating their names after the dialog. With this book, there's lots of 'he or she said', after each sentence. In some ways its a bit amateur though I'm sure he had his reasons.

Evocative and engaging, this is the story of John Hunt, a black horse trainer and rancher in a small community in Wyoming who is both respected and revered. But like any backwoods area, prejudice is known and accepted. When a homosexual is brutally assaulted, an old college friend's 20 year old son David shows up for a rally and has his own encounters causing John to come to his rescue. Mild mannered, compassionate and loyal, John introduces a Chicago city kid to rural life, horses, nature and more. Soon after, David decides to take a break from school and work on John's ranch.

The B story is focused on strange executions of beef cattle on an Indian land owned by a close friend of John's. The redneck sheriff is indifferent while fears grow of who or what is behind it. When David's father decides to pay an unannounced visit, the dislike between father and son results in a drunken brawl sending David into a snow storm. As the pace quickens, themes of sexual preference, family respect and race elevate.

Unlike his others, predictable plot isn't helped by characters that while good, are far from those in his other books. Of the 7 or 8 I've read by this author, this good but far from my favorite. For those that enjoy racially driven mysteries that are paced well and engaging, you might want to add it to your list.

( )

John Hunt is a horse trainer; honest, upright, and a little ornery. "I was hating people more than usual as I drove into town. I drove past the Walmart that I refused to enter, past the McDonald's that I refused to enter and past the church that I refused to enter."

He's also black in the small-town west. A gay man is murdered outside of town and John's recent cowhand is arrested, but John doesn't think he did it. Then the gay son of a long-time friend comes to help John at the ranch after a break-up and disappears on an errand to town. John and his Uncle Gus don't really trust the wishy-washy sheriff and go to find the boy on their own, successfully and with necessary violence.

Wounded is a story of stoicism in the face of intolerance, until stoicism no longer works. ( )

I picked this up because I met the man once. I liked him fine. When I was browsing the shelf the other day for something to read and I realized I hadn't yet read this, I skimmed the first couple of chapters and liked the narrative device he starts with, so I grabbed it and tucked in for some solid fiction.

Unfortunately, Everett drops that interesting device quickly, and the rest of the book is a downhill slide into quick, sloppy storytelling, full of cliches, exposition, and rushed plot. The setting is beautiful and the themes explored are important, but I kept feeling like Everett was forcing the issues he wanted to address into the book, trying to write an essay and winding up with a novel or vice versa. The result gets so progressively unpolished that I can't help but feel as though he started out with a great idea and a solid few chapters and then, out of steam or under deadline, hurried through the rest of the draft and fired it off to the publishers without so much as a proofread. There are moments, in back-to-back chapters, where characters actually repeat and contradict themselves, as though Everett had moved whole conversations from one scene to another but forgot to delete the first-draft version. That the novel got put into print in so rough a form -- and by Graywolf, a press I admire -- is shocking.

It's not a bad book (I've certainly read worse), but given the expectations I have of Everett and of Graywolf Press, this novel is sorely disappointing. ( )

this is not (thank god)some kind of hate-crime detective novel. the prose is lovely and spare, but i feel like the dialogue is a bit clever, or a lot clever, in places where it should just let go.

that said, my experience with this book has been pleasurable, in large part just because i love to read prose about horses and land and mules and sky and fences and caves and small town folks with bad habits and nice children. all that, too, where the focus is not solely on white, herterosexual men. ( )

this is not (thank god)some kind of hate-crime detective novel. the prose is lovely and spare, but i feel like the dialogue is a bit clever, or a lot clever, in places where it should just let go.

that said, my experience with this book has been pleasurable, in large part just because i love to read prose about horses and land and mules and sky and fences and caves and small town folks with bad habits and nice children. all that, too, where the focus is not solely on white, herterosexual men. ( )