Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Kingston, N.Y. : McPherson & Co., c2010.
Description
At the rock-bottom end of the sport of kings sits the ruthless and often violent world of cheap horse racing, where trainers and jockeys, grooms and hotwalkers, loan sharks and touts all struggle to take an edge, or prove their luck, or just survive. Equal parts Nathanael West, Damon Runyon and Eudora Welty, Lord of Misrule follows five characters, scarred and lonely dreamers in the American grain, through a year and four races at Indian Mount Downs, downriver from Wheeling, West Virginia-- from dust jacket.
Media reviews
The narrative voice constantly shifts, the language challenges, the action is minimal and meanders. It’s not an easy read, but Gordon’s writing will grab and pull you in.
Horse racing has rarely inspired serious fiction. Novels about the sport are usually formulaic (e.g., Dick Francis mysteries) or filled with cliches (e.g., the triumph of an underdog). So it was a shock when "Lord of Misrule," a new novel set at a bottom-level West Virginia racetrack in the early
There are no triumph-of-the-underdog moments in author Jaimy Gordon's book. Her mythical Indian Mound Downs is populated by infirm, battle-scarred old horses and the owners, grooms and trainers who try to eke out a living with them. Some of the characters are noble, in their way, some deranged, some capable of murder and rape, but few of them harbor dreams much grander than winning a cheap race, collecting a small purse and perhaps cashing a bet.
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1970s, was named one of the five finalists for the National Book Award for fiction, a prize that has been won by literary giants such as William Faulkner, John Updike and Saul Bellow.There are no triumph-of-the-underdog moments in author Jaimy Gordon's book. Her mythical Indian Mound Downs is populated by infirm, battle-scarred old horses and the owners, grooms and trainers who try to eke out a living with them. Some of the characters are noble, in their way, some deranged, some capable of murder and rape, but few of them harbor dreams much grander than winning a cheap race, collecting a small purse and perhaps cashing a bet.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member msf59
Indian Mounds Down, is a rundown amateur racetrack, in West Virginia, circa 1970.
Everything in this ramshackle place is broken or about to be, populated with hot-walkers, grooms, jockeys, trainers and third-rate gangsters, all christened with names like Deucey,
Medicine Ed, Two-Tie and Kidstuff.
The author presents this world in a unique language, full of slang and verbal shortcuts, doing away with quotations and some punctuation, so it flows like poetic grunge. This makes for some difficult reading, but there is beauty to the prose and at times you can smell the dust and horse sweat, emanating from the page.
“An hour before Little Spinoza’s first race they sat around in a funeral mood-all except Little Spinoza who stood in his bucket of ice as cool as a Tiffany cocktail stirrer, dreaming in black jewelry eyes of emerald alfalfa and clover of Burmese jade. He had miraculously regained his innocence as they had all lost theirs.”
I can see why this National Book Award winner, has divided readers. It’s not an easy read but I find my problems with the narrative, a deficiency in me and not in the writing. If you are up for the challenge, I think the rewards will be yours.
Everything in this ramshackle place is broken or about to be, populated with hot-walkers, grooms, jockeys, trainers and third-rate gangsters, all christened with names like Deucey,
Medicine Ed, Two-Tie and Kidstuff.
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The line between these misfits and the brokedown horses they live for, blur again and again. The author presents this world in a unique language, full of slang and verbal shortcuts, doing away with quotations and some punctuation, so it flows like poetic grunge. This makes for some difficult reading, but there is beauty to the prose and at times you can smell the dust and horse sweat, emanating from the page.
“An hour before Little Spinoza’s first race they sat around in a funeral mood-all except Little Spinoza who stood in his bucket of ice as cool as a Tiffany cocktail stirrer, dreaming in black jewelry eyes of emerald alfalfa and clover of Burmese jade. He had miraculously regained his innocence as they had all lost theirs.”
I can see why this National Book Award winner, has divided readers. It’s not an easy read but I find my problems with the narrative, a deficiency in me and not in the writing. If you are up for the challenge, I think the rewards will be yours.
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LibraryThing member IronMike
This is simply the best book I have read in years. It was a late submission to the National Book Award Committee, so when they named it best fiction book of the year 2010 it caught most people by surprise. The NY Times, San Francisco Chronicle, etc., haven't had a chance to review the book yet, but
One way I have described the book to friends is: William Faulkner goes to the Racetrack, sleeps on the hay in horses' stalls for a few months, wanders around and writes down what he finds. After reading the first four chapters I put the book down for a moment just to savour what I had read. Refreshed, I picked up the book again and read Chapter 5. It was only a little over one page long but it was so beautifully written and conceived that I had to put the book down again and savour the writing some more.
The book gets a bit more hard-nosed after that for a while but I read on compulsively. I had to go to sleep eventually, but the following day I finished reading the book. Had the world gone through an economic collapse? Had the government passed laws against putting salt on eggs? I was beyond caring. I was still living the book.
My comment about Faulkner comes from the fact that early on in my reading of Lord of Misrule the voice of my conscience (or whatever) was telling me I have to go back and read Faulkner again. I have not done so in a long time...maybe 40 years. There is something in Jaimy Gordon's style that reminded me of the little boy in one of Faulkner's stories sitting on a keg of nails in a dry goods store which is being used by the local judge to try a case of arson. The boy's father's barn had been burned down by a neighbor. I don't remember much else about the story but I feel I have to find it again and read it. There was something in Ms. Gordon's writing that gave me that same sense of high drama taking place in a backwater local setting.
The National Book Award Committee made a wonderful selection. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever put two dollars on a horse or may have had the inclination to do so....and of course, to everyone who enjoys fine literature.
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I will be quite surprised if they don't give it rave reviews. One way I have described the book to friends is: William Faulkner goes to the Racetrack, sleeps on the hay in horses' stalls for a few months, wanders around and writes down what he finds. After reading the first four chapters I put the book down for a moment just to savour what I had read. Refreshed, I picked up the book again and read Chapter 5. It was only a little over one page long but it was so beautifully written and conceived that I had to put the book down again and savour the writing some more.
The book gets a bit more hard-nosed after that for a while but I read on compulsively. I had to go to sleep eventually, but the following day I finished reading the book. Had the world gone through an economic collapse? Had the government passed laws against putting salt on eggs? I was beyond caring. I was still living the book.
My comment about Faulkner comes from the fact that early on in my reading of Lord of Misrule the voice of my conscience (or whatever) was telling me I have to go back and read Faulkner again. I have not done so in a long time...maybe 40 years. There is something in Jaimy Gordon's style that reminded me of the little boy in one of Faulkner's stories sitting on a keg of nails in a dry goods store which is being used by the local judge to try a case of arson. The boy's father's barn had been burned down by a neighbor. I don't remember much else about the story but I feel I have to find it again and read it. There was something in Ms. Gordon's writing that gave me that same sense of high drama taking place in a backwater local setting.
The National Book Award Committee made a wonderful selection. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever put two dollars on a horse or may have had the inclination to do so....and of course, to everyone who enjoys fine literature.
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LibraryThing member GCPLreader
Tommy and Maggie dream of making their fortune at a backwoods, last-stop horse track in West Virginia. Their seedy schemes are no match for the rules of the track and the shady gangsters who finance it. The rules of the track? Don’t ask me to explain. I knew next to nothing about horse racing
The author’s style required very intense concentration from me. She uses a difficult, sometimes unintelligible, jargon in her dialogue and no quotation marks whatsoever. Also, for the first time ever in my reading experience, the author occasionally switched to some form of narrative where the omniscient narrator addressed one of the characters with “you”. (??) As you can tell, I found the whole novel too difficult to enjoy. The writing here is often extraordinary, but for my taste it is too showy. What a shame for me because I cared about and rooted for the character of Maggie and really, really wanted to love this award winner.
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going in (shame on me a Kentucky girl!) and am still utterly confused going out. The author’s style required very intense concentration from me. She uses a difficult, sometimes unintelligible, jargon in her dialogue and no quotation marks whatsoever. Also, for the first time ever in my reading experience, the author occasionally switched to some form of narrative where the omniscient narrator addressed one of the characters with “you”. (??) As you can tell, I found the whole novel too difficult to enjoy. The writing here is often extraordinary, but for my taste it is too showy. What a shame for me because I cared about and rooted for the character of Maggie and really, really wanted to love this award winner.
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LibraryThing member brenzi
I’m no horse racing enthusiast and this book did not turn me into one, although I doubt that was the author’s intent. She wrote a book about some down and out characters, seedy has-beens much like the horses that populate the second-rate racetrack in West Virginia where the story is set. It
Tommy Hansel is a newcomer to Indian Mound Downs Racetrack and he has a plan: he’ll bring in four horses that are better than they look, win big and quickly get out. Things don’t go exactly as planned. It’s the story of these characters, their gritty lives and commitment to these mediocre steeds that might provide them with the wherewithal to buy that used trailer if only they can win Saturday’s $1,500 race. They live from race to race as others live from week to week. Gordon paints a grim picture of life at the track and its genuineness is unsparing.
The narrative depicting the race scenes is absolutely riveting.
“Gates clang open and Mr Boll Weevil, he is looking for a home all right. He’s still looking around that gate like he’s thinking about putting up wallpaper in it, making a down payment on a living room suit, moving in for life. Finally he drops his big head and it soaks in that all them other horses have done already gone and left him behind. He takes off running, passing horses right and left, and you can see he ain’t half trying yet. He just eats holes for hisself between them other animals in his weevilly way.” (Page 52)
And yet something about the story feels disjointed. Besides the gritty dialect, that takes some getting used to, the characters, for whatever reason, go by more than one name, making it difficult to know who’s talking or being referred to. There were many times when I just didn’t know what was going on. By the time I got to the last hundred pages, I knew what was going on (sort of) but I felt the urge to reread the book, not because I so loved it but so I could finally understand it.
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follows the lives of five of these characters and four races that take place over the course of a year in the early 1970s. The story is told through these four races.Tommy Hansel is a newcomer to Indian Mound Downs Racetrack and he has a plan: he’ll bring in four horses that are better than they look, win big and quickly get out. Things don’t go exactly as planned. It’s the story of these characters, their gritty lives and commitment to these mediocre steeds that might provide them with the wherewithal to buy that used trailer if only they can win Saturday’s $1,500 race. They live from race to race as others live from week to week. Gordon paints a grim picture of life at the track and its genuineness is unsparing.
The narrative depicting the race scenes is absolutely riveting.
“Gates clang open and Mr Boll Weevil, he is looking for a home all right. He’s still looking around that gate like he’s thinking about putting up wallpaper in it, making a down payment on a living room suit, moving in for life. Finally he drops his big head and it soaks in that all them other horses have done already gone and left him behind. He takes off running, passing horses right and left, and you can see he ain’t half trying yet. He just eats holes for hisself between them other animals in his weevilly way.” (Page 52)
And yet something about the story feels disjointed. Besides the gritty dialect, that takes some getting used to, the characters, for whatever reason, go by more than one name, making it difficult to know who’s talking or being referred to. There were many times when I just didn’t know what was going on. By the time I got to the last hundred pages, I knew what was going on (sort of) but I felt the urge to reread the book, not because I so loved it but so I could finally understand it.
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LibraryThing member markfinl
Lord of Misrule is the story of the trainers, grooms, jockeys and assorted hangers on at a seedy racetrack in West Virginia. I love horse racing and so I eagerly anticipated the novel, especially after learning that it had won the National Book Award. Unfortunately, little about the story rang
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true. The story is told from the point of view of several characters, a technique that is quickly becoming hackneyed. One of the characters is Medicine Ed, the African American groom. Ed's narration is such a caricature that it borders on offensive. I'm not sure Gordon has ever talked to a black person in her life. Ed's character appears to have been constructed from reading Uncle Remus and watching episodes of Amos n Andy. Nearly every character is given a colorful nickname, of course, and the main character, Maggie, goes in for a little bondage just for the heck of it. This is the kind of book that reeks of creative writing program, with full of artifice, lacking in humor and completely divorced from any actual life experience the author may have had. From now on, I think I am going to have to read author biographies more carefully and pass on book written by anyone contaminated by an MFA. Show Less
LibraryThing member froxgirl
This was truly an American grown up version of National Velvet and just as well written and exciting. Girl has no horses, girl gets horses, girl's life changes forever.
Anyone who loves horse racing should love it. Every character is singularly drawn (and quartered).
Highest recommendation.
Anyone who loves horse racing should love it. Every character is singularly drawn (and quartered).
Highest recommendation.
LibraryThing member earthwind
A story told beautifully of horses loved and used by people. The scruffy backstage of a fictitious racetrack depicted with authentic sense of place is at once hopeful, heartbreaking and lyrical.
LibraryThing member JosephJ
There is a reason Lord of Misrule won the National Book Award. Gordon expertly uses four separate third-person narrators (well one is actually second-person) throughout the entire book. Each chapter dives into a different characters head and never once does the reader feel at a loss for who is the
Every character in this book is trying to stack the odds in their favor to either simply survive in or walk away very rich from the horse racing world. The truth is that they are all susceptible to what feels like a perpetual cycle of many losses with an occasional win so long as they remain within the confines of the racing world—which can be seen as a metaphor for human existence in the world at large. Gordon’s characters know or learn the ins and outs of the racing world, for better or worse, and they do their best to continue to put a roof of their own over their heads (Medicine Ed), keep a horse in their stall (Duecey), protect their family (Two-Tie), discover who they are (Maggie).
This book is also about the fallacy of the Cinderella story. Each person who makes any kind of gain, legitimate or otherwise, does so through hard work or very dirty dealings, which often lead to unpleasant consequences. There is nothing pretty about the workings of this horse race world, even some of the horses themselves have been run ragged. Yet, everyone loves a Cinderella story, even if they have to ignore a few shady details to believe it.
In the end, Maggie discovers that she is stronger and more capable of handling life than she ever knew herself to be before coming to Indian Mound Downs. She no longer feels she is there simply to take care of Tommy Hansel and his horses; she was there for herself as much as for any man or any animal.
The language in this book is divine. Even in the early stages of the book when I was trying to orient myself and when the action was slow, the language kept me reading. The first two chapters are great, but it was as if Gordon was purposefully keeping us in the gate while all we wanted to do was burst out and get on with the race.
I’m glad she finally opened the gate because the story really picks up. While the whole book is superb, Chapter 27 is some of the best reading I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. I went over it at least twice and plan on reading it again. In that chapter, specifically, Gordon carries the reader on her back as if she were a seasoned thoroughbred; the reader is never distracted or thrown off by a single word. The entire book is drenched in images and phrases that had me breaking out the highlighter and rereading pages for pure enjoyment’s sake.
For me as a writer, the greatest strength of all, regarding Lord of Misrule, is that every time I put it down, I wanted to write.
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focus.Every character in this book is trying to stack the odds in their favor to either simply survive in or walk away very rich from the horse racing world. The truth is that they are all susceptible to what feels like a perpetual cycle of many losses with an occasional win so long as they remain within the confines of the racing world—which can be seen as a metaphor for human existence in the world at large. Gordon’s characters know or learn the ins and outs of the racing world, for better or worse, and they do their best to continue to put a roof of their own over their heads (Medicine Ed), keep a horse in their stall (Duecey), protect their family (Two-Tie), discover who they are (Maggie).
This book is also about the fallacy of the Cinderella story. Each person who makes any kind of gain, legitimate or otherwise, does so through hard work or very dirty dealings, which often lead to unpleasant consequences. There is nothing pretty about the workings of this horse race world, even some of the horses themselves have been run ragged. Yet, everyone loves a Cinderella story, even if they have to ignore a few shady details to believe it.
In the end, Maggie discovers that she is stronger and more capable of handling life than she ever knew herself to be before coming to Indian Mound Downs. She no longer feels she is there simply to take care of Tommy Hansel and his horses; she was there for herself as much as for any man or any animal.
The language in this book is divine. Even in the early stages of the book when I was trying to orient myself and when the action was slow, the language kept me reading. The first two chapters are great, but it was as if Gordon was purposefully keeping us in the gate while all we wanted to do was burst out and get on with the race.
I’m glad she finally opened the gate because the story really picks up. While the whole book is superb, Chapter 27 is some of the best reading I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. I went over it at least twice and plan on reading it again. In that chapter, specifically, Gordon carries the reader on her back as if she were a seasoned thoroughbred; the reader is never distracted or thrown off by a single word. The entire book is drenched in images and phrases that had me breaking out the highlighter and rereading pages for pure enjoyment’s sake.
For me as a writer, the greatest strength of all, regarding Lord of Misrule, is that every time I put it down, I wanted to write.
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LibraryThing member milibrarian
I found this book difficult to read. The dialogue was hard to follow, there were no quotation marks even though there was a lot of dialogue, and it was hard to tell the characters apart. There were a few sections which were quite good, but most of the book was difficult to follow.
LibraryThing member GypsyJon
Well written and interesting tale of lifes hard choices and the gritty underbelly of a slowly dying sport.
LibraryThing member Dorritt
Back in Roman days, the Lord of Misrule presided over the celebration of Saturnalia, a holiday during which the ordinary rules of life were subverted - masters served their slaves, wives and husbands switched duties, etc. If there is a theme in this novel – and you have to look hard to find it
Appropriate that a story about the subverting of “sure things” should be set at a racetrack. What setting better lends itself to a tale of people needing desperately to believe they can exert some control over fate, only to discover otherwise? Tommy Hanson, the story’s reagent, believes he can make a fast buck running ringers in a series of cheap claims races – only to see his best-laid plans thwarted right out of the gate. (Pun, sadly, intended.) Maggie, Tommy Hanson’s girlfriend, carelessly indulges her penchant for violence and risk by hooking up with Tommy, confident that she can control whatever chaos ensues – only to find herself in a situation that she genuinely cannot control. Medicine Ed, an old groom at the dead-end racetrack where Tommy and Maggie wash up, believes his “goofer dust” can “magic” horses into winning – but finds himself paying a terrible price when he tries to use it. Meanwhile, various mobsters operate (mistakenly) under the arrogant delusion that they have the power to predetermine the winners of races; a rather decent gentleman by the name of Two-Tie believes (mistakenly) he will be able to protect his niece Maggie from herself (in the process redeem a mistake he made years before – which doesn’t happen either); a female jockey believes (mistakenly) that she can “sing” a washed-up “could-have-been” champion into winning; all of which culminates in a final stakes race in which fate truly has the last laugh, orchestrating the most improbable of all possible outcomes (which, don’t worry, I won’t spoil here, but be sure to appreciate the glorious chaos and irony of Gordon’s big finale when it comes). Ultimately those characters that learn to bow to the whims of fate survive, while those who insist on trying to control their own destiny come to bad ends (madness, death), and fate spins on, unflustered and unrushed, God’s eternal hot-walking machine.
I mention that the book really is “about” something, because the vast majority of favorable reviews I’ve read don’t even mention the plot, focusing almost entirely on the story’s “Runyon-esque characters” and the author’s “unique voice” – both of which I found so off-putting, I very nearly didn’t finish this. With apologies to the National Book Award people, are you guys sure you weren’t so dazzled by Ms. Gordon’s literary furbelows – her faux-authentic racing lingo, her nervy use of dialect, her flashy shifts in point of view (including whole chapters narrated in second person – there’s something you don’t often see), her fearless embracing of physical and spiritual ugliness, her disdain of quotation marks and other textual conventions – that you neglected to notice that extent to which these flourishes make the book laborious to read and distasteful to digest? Yes, I appreciated the humanity of several notable characters (especially Medicine Ed, the one and only reason I’d ever read this again); I understood the inherent nobility of the horses, selflessly sacrificing their sinews (though never their dignity) in the cause of a sport they didn’t create; and I “got” Two-Tie’s sacrifice. But even these weren’t enough to offset the sense of general “yuckiness” left behind by the loathsomeness of the imagery (too much violence, bondage, humiliation, blood, snot, sweat and stench!) and the moral turpitude of majority of characters in the story; my annoyance over the lack of quotation marks and having to wade through such dense dialect; or my frustration at the author for sacrificing good storytelling to the Gods of Modernism (or perhaps to the National Book Award gods, in this case).
Am not sure I’ve ever read a book over which opinions were so polarized – half the people loving it, the other half loathing it. I’m willing to come down somewhere in between – but having said that, I definitely won’t be recommending this to friends and am not sure I’ll be reading anything else by Gordon in the future. This felt way too much like work for way too little reward; too much frosting over too little cake, if you will. Literary critics and book prize judges will have to fawn over her next tome without me.
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– it’s how casually (and sometimes cruelly) the lives and expectations of humans are subverted by the ultimate Lord of Misrule, fickle fate.Appropriate that a story about the subverting of “sure things” should be set at a racetrack. What setting better lends itself to a tale of people needing desperately to believe they can exert some control over fate, only to discover otherwise? Tommy Hanson, the story’s reagent, believes he can make a fast buck running ringers in a series of cheap claims races – only to see his best-laid plans thwarted right out of the gate. (Pun, sadly, intended.) Maggie, Tommy Hanson’s girlfriend, carelessly indulges her penchant for violence and risk by hooking up with Tommy, confident that she can control whatever chaos ensues – only to find herself in a situation that she genuinely cannot control. Medicine Ed, an old groom at the dead-end racetrack where Tommy and Maggie wash up, believes his “goofer dust” can “magic” horses into winning – but finds himself paying a terrible price when he tries to use it. Meanwhile, various mobsters operate (mistakenly) under the arrogant delusion that they have the power to predetermine the winners of races; a rather decent gentleman by the name of Two-Tie believes (mistakenly) he will be able to protect his niece Maggie from herself (in the process redeem a mistake he made years before – which doesn’t happen either); a female jockey believes (mistakenly) that she can “sing” a washed-up “could-have-been” champion into winning; all of which culminates in a final stakes race in which fate truly has the last laugh, orchestrating the most improbable of all possible outcomes (which, don’t worry, I won’t spoil here, but be sure to appreciate the glorious chaos and irony of Gordon’s big finale when it comes). Ultimately those characters that learn to bow to the whims of fate survive, while those who insist on trying to control their own destiny come to bad ends (madness, death), and fate spins on, unflustered and unrushed, God’s eternal hot-walking machine.
I mention that the book really is “about” something, because the vast majority of favorable reviews I’ve read don’t even mention the plot, focusing almost entirely on the story’s “Runyon-esque characters” and the author’s “unique voice” – both of which I found so off-putting, I very nearly didn’t finish this. With apologies to the National Book Award people, are you guys sure you weren’t so dazzled by Ms. Gordon’s literary furbelows – her faux-authentic racing lingo, her nervy use of dialect, her flashy shifts in point of view (including whole chapters narrated in second person – there’s something you don’t often see), her fearless embracing of physical and spiritual ugliness, her disdain of quotation marks and other textual conventions – that you neglected to notice that extent to which these flourishes make the book laborious to read and distasteful to digest? Yes, I appreciated the humanity of several notable characters (especially Medicine Ed, the one and only reason I’d ever read this again); I understood the inherent nobility of the horses, selflessly sacrificing their sinews (though never their dignity) in the cause of a sport they didn’t create; and I “got” Two-Tie’s sacrifice. But even these weren’t enough to offset the sense of general “yuckiness” left behind by the loathsomeness of the imagery (too much violence, bondage, humiliation, blood, snot, sweat and stench!) and the moral turpitude of majority of characters in the story; my annoyance over the lack of quotation marks and having to wade through such dense dialect; or my frustration at the author for sacrificing good storytelling to the Gods of Modernism (or perhaps to the National Book Award gods, in this case).
Am not sure I’ve ever read a book over which opinions were so polarized – half the people loving it, the other half loathing it. I’m willing to come down somewhere in between – but having said that, I definitely won’t be recommending this to friends and am not sure I’ll be reading anything else by Gordon in the future. This felt way too much like work for way too little reward; too much frosting over too little cake, if you will. Literary critics and book prize judges will have to fawn over her next tome without me.
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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
A Damon Runyonesque story about horse racing - some of those horses are treated well, many are not. This book was long listed for the Orange Prize but I didn't find it profound. I did finish because it kept me interested enough to know what happened, but one could lead a long and happy life without
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it. Female masochism is never appealing to me. Show Less
LibraryThing member pcalsdorf
Sexual abuse, characters were dispicable, nothing to like about this book,
LibraryThing member flashflood42
The language of the down-at-the-heels race track where worn-out horses and worn-out (or soon-to-be-worn-out) groomers, trainers, loan sharks all congregate is amazing with many, many coined words that simply fit the situation. I seldom have to look up a word but the words "hierodule" and "miscible"
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were ones I suspected were not made up, and I was right--but I didn't know them. The language shifts with the point-of-view, but one quickly gets a sense of who is talking or thinking. The sense of the track, the races, the stables, the betting, the bute and other drugs, the corruption, the gambling, as well as the general seediness is developed beautifully. The plot concerns four horses, two of whom one comes to respect and love and one of whom one fears and despises. The last one is the meant-to-be-winner in a fixed race that was set so that all the bookies and jockies and other stable hands could make some money as well as the big gangster who tries to manipulate everyone and everything. Was it the potions and charms of Medicine Ed, the old black groom, or simply random chance that led to the climax of this book? The human plot concerns a young girl who is working as a groom, girlfriend of a guy who thinks he can beat the system but is badly beaten by it. The girl is befriended by most and lusted after by the rest. Whether she can survive the corruption and life on this track in Indian Mound, West Virginia, is part of the plot. This book has gotten very little press but it won the National Book award. I'm glad it did for, otherwise, I might not have read it and I would have missed a wonderful read. Show Less
LibraryThing member SalemAthenaeum
A story that follows the journey of horseman Tommy Hansel as he tries to save his stables with an underhanded scheme. He has purchased four horses to Indiana who have never been heard of before and try to race them at long odds and win big off of them, leaving before anyone notices his game.
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However, at the racetrack he has chosen to carry out his plan, everyone notices. It ends up being the job of Hansel's girlfriend, Maggie Koderer, to lift the spirits of all those who become involved and remind them of the reason they love horse racing itself. Show Less
LibraryThing member EllenH
I almost gave up on this book, it was hard getting into her writing style. But I eventually went back to it & became interested. Finally actually liked the story & gritty, crude characters.
LibraryThing member TimBazzett
Finally, a book that deserves the recognition it's getting, the prestigious National Book Award, in this case. I mean this is simply one hell of a good read! The last time I was this riveted by a book about horse racing was probably when I was reading all those Black Stallion books by Walter
Because Gordon approaches her characters from nearly every angle, and makes masterful use of dialogue and interior monologue, they all become creepily real and the sensuous and dangerous relationships evolve expertly, luring the reader surely into this seedy world of used-up horses and fixed races. I didn't know a whole lot about horseracing before reading this. Now I feel like I know something. The vernacular, the smell, the feel of it - this writer delivers it all. I've noticed some readers have whined that Gordon failed to use quotation marks for her dialogue, that it made the story hard to follow. I disagree. This 'style' worked fine for her. And she is not the first writer to dispense with such niceties of grammar or punctuation. I only recently saw the same stylistic device in a couple novels by South Dakota writer Kent Meyers, whose books have won a raft of awards. Complaining about something like this is nothing more than nit-picking, particularly in the face of a literary achievement like Gordon's.
Every character here, misfit and villain alike, is perfectly realized. A particular favorite of mine was Two-Tie (Maggie's erstwhile 'Uncle Rudy'), with his fastidious and fussy ways of an old bachelor, whose only love is his dog, Elizabeth, an aging and arthritic German Shepherd. The description of the dog's descent of stairs ("reared back a little and let down the two in front, bump, then came the two behind, da-bump") and of her being "more of a thinker, not a athlete, nutting like one of those idiot fox-running dogs, all yap and slobber ..." will immediately grab dog folks. For me it brought to mind the dog/man relationship expressed so perfectly in J.R. Ackerley's wonderful memoir, MY DOG TULIP.
Most of all, this is a feat - and a feast - of story-telling. Jaimy Gordon had me from page one, and she didn't let go until the very last page. These are compelling characters, every strange one of them. Put aside some time when you read this book, because once you start it you won't want to put it down. I didn't want it to end, but she even managed to end it in a way that left me feeling satisfied, thinking, 'yeah, that's exactly what would happen.'
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Farley, and before that Marguerite Henry's classic kid's book, King of the Wind. And they were a loooong time ago. Oddly, the horses in Jaimy Gordon's novel don't really play such major roles as they did in those children's books. Nope, this is is a book that concentrates on the people - the grotesques and misfits of the two-bit life of the dregs of the racing world. The grooms, trainers, jockeys and gofers and hangers-on at the low-level end of thoroughbred racing take center stage in LORD OF MISRULE, and they all come grittily alive as Gordon skilfully employs multiple points of view to tell the story. There's Medicine Ed, the gimpy black groom whose family history with horses goes back a couple generations and who mixes spells and 'goofer' powders in hopes of gaining an edge for the horses he bets on. There's buzz-cut lesbian Deucey who loves her old horses, Suitcase Vernon Smithers, and Two-Tie, the loan shark, who has been banned from the track at Indian Mound Downs, but who has his own kind of personal code of honor. There are various villains and many multifarious misfits represented here, but heroes would be hard to find. Perhaps the racetrack neophyte Maggie is a heroine, but seems more of a misfit. Her relationship with Tommy Hansel, a near-crazy dandy and womanizer, is dark, mysterious and bordering on sleazy, as the somewhat sado-masochistic nature of their ties become quickly evident.Because Gordon approaches her characters from nearly every angle, and makes masterful use of dialogue and interior monologue, they all become creepily real and the sensuous and dangerous relationships evolve expertly, luring the reader surely into this seedy world of used-up horses and fixed races. I didn't know a whole lot about horseracing before reading this. Now I feel like I know something. The vernacular, the smell, the feel of it - this writer delivers it all. I've noticed some readers have whined that Gordon failed to use quotation marks for her dialogue, that it made the story hard to follow. I disagree. This 'style' worked fine for her. And she is not the first writer to dispense with such niceties of grammar or punctuation. I only recently saw the same stylistic device in a couple novels by South Dakota writer Kent Meyers, whose books have won a raft of awards. Complaining about something like this is nothing more than nit-picking, particularly in the face of a literary achievement like Gordon's.
Every character here, misfit and villain alike, is perfectly realized. A particular favorite of mine was Two-Tie (Maggie's erstwhile 'Uncle Rudy'), with his fastidious and fussy ways of an old bachelor, whose only love is his dog, Elizabeth, an aging and arthritic German Shepherd. The description of the dog's descent of stairs ("reared back a little and let down the two in front, bump, then came the two behind, da-bump") and of her being "more of a thinker, not a athlete, nutting like one of those idiot fox-running dogs, all yap and slobber ..." will immediately grab dog folks. For me it brought to mind the dog/man relationship expressed so perfectly in J.R. Ackerley's wonderful memoir, MY DOG TULIP.
Most of all, this is a feat - and a feast - of story-telling. Jaimy Gordon had me from page one, and she didn't let go until the very last page. These are compelling characters, every strange one of them. Put aside some time when you read this book, because once you start it you won't want to put it down. I didn't want it to end, but she even managed to end it in a way that left me feeling satisfied, thinking, 'yeah, that's exactly what would happen.'
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LibraryThing member ritamae
Excellent book. Gordon is at the top of her game. The shifting point of view showed how completely she'd captured each character. She took risks with portraying exactly the way each character spoke, thought and acted and the risks paid off tremendously (unlike the risks the characters themselves
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took over the course of the novel). This one deserved the National Book Award. Show Less
LibraryThing member lxydis
Rather hard to read with its over-artful style.
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
Since this won this year's National Book Award for fiction, I read it, finishing it on Dec 23, 2010. It never caught my interest. It has no quotation marks even though there is much dialogue. I have read such books before, and became accustomed to the screwy system. But this book was so dull that
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it annoyed me all the way through. The book tells the story of four horse races and of the folk interested in them. I cannot say anything good about this book Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
From the opening metaphor of the hot-walking machine at Indian Mound Downs to its final pages, this novel is filled with characters, human and animal, whose lives intersect in dramatic encounters. The setting is the world of horse racing. Like the plays of Shakespeare or the novels of Dickens when
'Nothing, of course, goes according to plan, especially since everyone seems on to his scheme, and the horses aren’t as cooperative as Tommy would like them to be. Complicating the issue is the quirky, intelligent Maggie Koderer, new to the horse-race business but nonetheless Tommy’s love. Maggie is college-educated but is drawn to the seamy underbelly of the track and the broken-down beauty of the horses.
The best aspect of Jaimy Gordon's fine novel is the portrayal of the racing milieu. The atmosphere is a presence that is strong enough to smell. The characters are developed through small vignettes through which their personalities gradually emerge. Gordon structures the narrative around the four horses and she seamlessly moves the reader from one narrative consciousness to another without being manipulative or intrusive. The races themselves are described with a tour de force of energy and spirit. The exceptional writing and idiosyncratic characters give the reader entry into another world and make this a delightful, engaging, and even award-winning read.
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they portrayed the lower classes, the story is set in the small time backwater of the claims stakes with bit players, the subculture of grifters and ne’er-do-wells whose lives center on a venue that obviously has never and will never bring them success. They include the handlers, owners, and wannabes along with gamblers, backers, and assorted hanger-ons. They have names like Two-Tie, Medicine Ed, Kidstuff and Deucey, and they’re capable of speaking a kind of racetrack patois occasionally reminiscent of Damon Runyon characters: “So I want you should write me a race, well, not me personally, fellow from Nebraska, kid I used to know back when—actually I used to know his mother…She was very good to me. Alas, I fear I did not return the favor like I should have.” At the center of the novel is Tommy Hansel, a horse trainer with a get-rich-quick scheme that he feels cannot fail. He plans to enter “sure-fire” winners in claiming races, benefit from the long odds, then get out of town quickly. "I tell you a secret, horse racing is not no science."(p 83) 'Nothing, of course, goes according to plan, especially since everyone seems on to his scheme, and the horses aren’t as cooperative as Tommy would like them to be. Complicating the issue is the quirky, intelligent Maggie Koderer, new to the horse-race business but nonetheless Tommy’s love. Maggie is college-educated but is drawn to the seamy underbelly of the track and the broken-down beauty of the horses.
The best aspect of Jaimy Gordon's fine novel is the portrayal of the racing milieu. The atmosphere is a presence that is strong enough to smell. The characters are developed through small vignettes through which their personalities gradually emerge. Gordon structures the narrative around the four horses and she seamlessly moves the reader from one narrative consciousness to another without being manipulative or intrusive. The races themselves are described with a tour de force of energy and spirit. The exceptional writing and idiosyncratic characters give the reader entry into another world and make this a delightful, engaging, and even award-winning read.
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LibraryThing member mkunruh
Despite floundering through the first 50 or so pages (maybe more?), I loved reading this book. Her physical descriptions of people and animals are intensely good, Margaret's is one of the best female characters I've ever met in fiction, and I appreciated that Gordon allowed me to love Toe-Tie and
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Elizabeth. And Pelter. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jubercat
It's always a great bonus when a good work of fiction can also teach readers about something new. Lord of Misrule did this, introducing me to a world of horseracing that I never knew existed. Set in the 1970's and taking place at a run-down, small-stakes track and stable operation in the boonies of
While the dialects, lack of quotation marks or spacing of dialogue, and Gordon's changing points of view require a bit of acclimation and close attention, soon enough you will be enveloped by the narrative; read a few words into the sentence and the identities of the speakers becomes obvious.
Gordon's knowledge of small-time horse racing and attention to detail is impressive. I can only imagine the amount of research a work like this required. And, even though the story includes realistic portrayals of the abuses and suffering of both horses and people, the book remains as objective in its stance as it can. Yes, one can tell the "good" characters from the "bad" ones, even if flaws and worthy traits appear in both, but Gordon avoids easy resolutions. This is the story about lives lived, not fortunes made; but the poignant emotions evoked by the tale and its memorable characters are what make this novel worthwhile.
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West Virginia, Misrule tells the story of a group of downtrodden, but loyal track employees, the unethical, money-obsessed men who call the shots, and the ill-fated horses who (literally) race through their world. While the dialects, lack of quotation marks or spacing of dialogue, and Gordon's changing points of view require a bit of acclimation and close attention, soon enough you will be enveloped by the narrative; read a few words into the sentence and the identities of the speakers becomes obvious.
Gordon's knowledge of small-time horse racing and attention to detail is impressive. I can only imagine the amount of research a work like this required. And, even though the story includes realistic portrayals of the abuses and suffering of both horses and people, the book remains as objective in its stance as it can. Yes, one can tell the "good" characters from the "bad" ones, even if flaws and worthy traits appear in both, but Gordon avoids easy resolutions. This is the story about lives lived, not fortunes made; but the poignant emotions evoked by the tale and its memorable characters are what make this novel worthwhile.
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LibraryThing member jimmaclachlan
There's a reason for using certain styles, like dialog with quotes, he said & she said. This is all mixed up with some sentences being thoughts while others are apparently supposed to be dialog. Seems like the author knows what he/she is talking about, but it's just too much work trying to read
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this. Show Less
LibraryThing member michigantrumpet
Less about horses and horseracing than about the unfortunates who live on the fringes of a broken down small time racetrack. Many people will find this atmospheric and interesting. It just wasn't a world in which I wanted to spend much time.
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2010)
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2012)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2012)
Independent Publisher Book Awards (Gold — Literary Fiction — 2012)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Short List — 2011)
PEN/Faulkner Award (Finalist — 2011)
Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award (Winner — 2010)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2010)
Michigan Notable Books (2011)