For an Australian who lives in Massachusetts, author Geraldine Brooks has a remarkable ability to chronicle the American South, as she did with her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “March.”
“March” tells the story of “Little Women” from the point of view of the March girls’ father who joins the Union army as a chaplain during the Civil War. Brooks conveys the horrors of the battlefield and the human suffering of racism along with the personal stories of the idealistic March patriarch and the family he left behind. In “Horse,” Brooks again picks up in the South, this time on a Kentucky horse farm in 1850, where Jarret, an enslaved groom, witnesses the birth of an extraordinary foal who will change his life — and make history.
Jarret’s father, Harry Lewis, was a renowned horse trainer who used all his savings to purchase his freedom. Unable to do the same for his son, Harry put all his energy into teaching Jarret about horses: how to gain their trust, what they’re afraid of, what makes them want to win on the racetrack. It’s the young colt Darley, soon to be renamed Lexington, who’s Jarret’s ticket to freedom, if only the humans in his world would not interfere.
Brooks alternates Jarret’s story with a modern counterpart: Theo, a Nigerian American art historian whose research into the portrayal of enslaved people in equestrian art brings him to the Smithsonian. He runs into Jess, the manager of the vertebrate osteology lab, who’s been tasked with unearthing a horse skeleton from the Smithsonian’s collections. The skeleton belongs to Lexington, the “greatest racing stallion in American turf history” — who happens to be the subject of a painting Theo found on a curb outside his apartment.
Lexington was a real horse, renowned for his stature and speed and his impressive record as a stud sire resulting in 575 foals. Four of Lexington’s progeny went on to win the Belmont Stakes and three won the Preakness. His skeleton is now proudly displayed at the International Museum of the Horse in Kentucky.
Many of the human characters in Brooks’ novel are based on real people, although Jarret is a mashup of several famous Black horsemen. Jarret’s father, Harry Lewis, is well documented, as is artist Thomas J. Scott. One of Scott’s paintings of a thoroughbred mare and foal was discovered on a curbside giveaway pile.
Horses and fascinating thoroughbred racing history aside, this book is an exploration of the ways white Americans treated enslaved and free Black people in the 1850s and continue to treat them today. Despite being an educated son of African diplomats living more than 150 years after the Civil War, Theo faces many of the same indignities and discrimination that Jarret did. His budding and complicated relationship with Jess, a white Australian, and the lingering legacy of racism and prejudice make for an ending that is poignant and unforgettable.
Your local public libraries have copies of “Horse” available in every format at wcls.org. There are numerous physical copies of the book available; but a wait for the electronic versions. In the meantime, try “Lexington: the Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America’s Legendary Racehorse” by Kim Wickens, “Secretariat” by William Nack or “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Laura Hillenbrand.
Christine Perkins is executive director of the Whatcom County Library System, wcls.org.
