“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks

“Portrait of Lexington” by Thomas J. Scott, 1857. From Smithsonian Magazine, 2022.

Lexington was the name of an amazing horse. He was born in Kentucky in 1850, and lived for 25 years, during which he set several speed records. He was also famous for siring hundreds of colts that became champion racers. His owners were well-known in the Civil War era, as was the painter Thomas J. Scott, who painted his portrait. In the mid-twentieth century, the portrait was the property of Martha Jackson, an art dealer who mainly dealt in avant-garde works by painters like Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner. The skeleton of the horse and the painting are now the property of the Smithsonian Institution.

All these things are true. In the novel Horse, published in 2022, Geraldine Brooks weaves them into a wonderful story, imagining the events of the 19th century and creating the character of Jarret, an enslaved man who was the groom and trainer and devoted caretaker of the famous horse. Brooks also imagines how Martha Jackson, whose life work was promoting mid-20th century artists, came to own a conventional 19th century painting. Further, the novel presents a fictionalized story of discovery of additional works by the painter Scott and of the skeleton of the horse in the storage area of the Smithsonian in 2019. Amazingly, Brooks manages to alternate chapters concerning the events of the 1850s, the 1950s, and 2019 with clarity. She manages to build suspense in multiple strands of the novel, including an encounter with violent outlaws during the Civil War and other exciting events.

The brilliance of Horse is in the imagining of the characters — both the historic ones and the fictional ones. Based on a few historic mentions of the enslaved horse trainer Jarret, Brooks creates a fascinating man and a fascinating portrayal of what it must have meant to be an intelligent, accomplished, and ambitious enslaved person, whose race and condition of servitude so hideously limited his life and those of his family. In her creation of the twentieth-century characters, she explores the impact of current racism on a sensitive, imaginative, and ambitious black man. Without belaboring the point, she makes the reader see how racism continues throughout our history, and how it poisons lives.

The brilliance of Horse is also in the fascinating descriptions of the small details. The descriptions of how Jarret lovingly cares for the horse are particularly wonderful. Of course I also enjoyed the many passages about food in both the 19th and the 20th century chapters. Here’s a small example: “Jarret nodded, but his attention was on the biscuit. It was still warm, steaming, with just the right soft center and crusty outer. Biscuits came from the big house…” (p. 63)

Horse is a wonderful novel. It grabbed my attention, and I couldn’t stop reading despite the fact that I normally have no interest in horses or horse racing at all! I’m grateful to my sister who gave it to me for Christmas.

Review © 2023 mae sander