I’ve been doing a considerable amount of research into life in the American West in 1890, which reminded me of these two great reads.

I simply disappeared between the covers of this book. Hilarious, heart-breaking and oh so real, this isn’t just a story about a cowboy and the cowboying way of life, it’s about a strict code and living up to it especially when it ain’t easy, it’s about the settling of the American West, and it’s about the progress of civilization and what gets left behind.

People like Monte exist anywhere there is a frontier, they are the loners who go out ahead of the rest of us, and when they’re done, there is no place left for them. If you don’t cry at the end of this book, you aren’t human.

I’d call this book almost a sequel to Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer, and I consider Monte Walsh one of the perfect novels. The writing is superb, in that run-on raconteur style that feels like the easy canter of a horse. It’s 1917, and young Martha Leeson leaves home to become an itinerant bronco buster, only she’s a horse whisperer instead and she doesn’t get that far from home, either.

This book works on so many levels, I hardly know where to begin. It’s a book about World War I at home, it’s a book about coming of age, it’s a book about the loss of the American west, it’s about the failed government program to settle the West with farmers, it’s about the American cowboy, only this time she’s a girl. The circle ride is a terrific device for telling not only Martha’s story but the stories of all the ranchers and farmers for whom she is breaking horses, not to mention a look through Gloss’s eyes at the loneliness and beauty of the eastern Oregon landscape.

But mostly this is a story about Martha, a young woman from an abusive home who is so lonely and unsocialized (for lack of a better word) that she literally doesn’t know what people mean when they speak to her. As she breaks the horses, so does the community gentle her into being one of their own.

There is some damn fine storytelling going on between the covers of both these novels. Highly recommended.

Book Review Monday Chatter Jack Schaefer Molly Gloss Monte Walsh The Hearts of Horses