The Notebook
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Spoilers: Some
TL;DR: For the best reading experience, skip over all of the modern bits (the 1955 chapters are pretty okay for the most part) and stick to the 1800's
***
This was a LFL find, and by this point, I'm glad I didn't waste any money.
The good things. The chapters about Jarret are very, very good. It's grounded in history and an aspect from which I've never read the Civil War: professional horse racing. It really is a breath of fresh literary air when it comes to that time period, that there is still something new to read and discover. Because the characters are/were real people, they are grounded and shaped by the environment of the time, and they feel real. They make mistakes, they face consequences, and sometimes they're tossed around through no will or fault of their own. They have opinions and dreams and contradictions which sometimes get called out by other characters. And other than a few rough paragraphs, nothing feels super preachy. Yes, everyone has an opinion on race and slavery, but it is correct for the time and believeable for the characters, even when those characters show that they are ignorant of the other person or the other side.
The bad things. Basically everything about the modern chapters is a nauseating, fictitious caricature inbred of DC liberal politics. Every chapter features a university-level lecture targeted at readers, I mean, another character. Most of the lectures have to do with race, but there are a few environmental lectures just for a little variety. Theo never evolves as a character, and in fact has the exact same mentality of some of the 1800's characters, except the 1800's characters have a good reason. "Everything is about race if you're not white." No, Theo, that's a you problem.
(But there are examples of him being racially discriminated against.)
Was he? Or was it just a convenient target? Jarret, a literal slave, handled even worse situations with far more grace and tact. He found something bigger than himself to motivate his actions, and he did what he believed was right. And that didn't involve constant lectures and whining about white women white woman-ing. Which, I will say, as a white woman, I have interacted with enough white liberal women to understand when people cringe. I don't take it personally because I know the exact picture they have in their mind. I cringe, too. I just know that I have to be better. But the situations which the omnipotent hand of the author tosses him and other modern character into are a keyboard warrior's hyped up fantasy about what they think the country is like outside of DC.
The in-between chapters in 1955 are pretty mediocre. I think they could have been better, and I think they are what the modern chapters could have been, as it traces what happened to certain artifacts after the war. The characters are not compelling in any way, but it's an interesting plot thread to follow.
History part of the story: excellent. Modern part of the story: fictitious cringe. Middle part: Meh.
***
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Spoilers: Some
TL;DR: For the best reading experience, skip over all of the modern bits (the 1955 chapters are pretty okay for the most part) and stick to the 1800's
