A saga set in the world of international horseracing.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Long on plot and short on subtlety, this soap-operatic novel by the author of Raven and Born with the Century reads like a teleplay for a miniseries. Fifteen-year-old Annie Grebauer, born into a Kentucky family of impoverished, incestuous white trash, rescues from death a prize thoroughbred belonging to millionaire socialite horse breeder Sam Cumberland. She runs away to New York, learns about horse racing at Belmont, and thereafter rotates among glamorous lovers, horse farms and European countries, accumulating wealth, fame, thoroughbreds, surnames and scandals, but nonetheless preferring mucking out horse stalls to wearing mink coats and riding in limousines. Kinsolving depicts the international thoroughbred business and its socioeconomic hierarchy in quasi-Balzacian detail, injecting farfetched yet spicy subplots involving the Mafia underworld and Nazi war criminals. The contrived, formulaic plot relies on coincidences but improves considerably in the novel's less predictable second half, where symbolic parallels add psychological and literary sophistication. Kinsolving's likable heroine, high-minded and scurrilous, surprising and always human, is the novel's best asset. Movie rights to Warner Bros . ; Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Saving the life of a racehorse owned by the handsome and wealthy Sam Cumberland is 15-year-old Annie Grebauer's entree into the exciting and often precarious world of thoroughbred horse racing. Through sheer determination and will, this child/woman, bred in a shack in the hills of Kentucky, becomes a force to be reckoned with, whether fighting for the man she loves or outsmarting a gangster with a vendetta. What makes this rags to riches story more memorable than many is the excellent way in which Kinsolving manages to tell the history of thoroughbred racing within a contemporary framework. The episodes of life at a breeding farm in France are particularly good, giving the reader an inside story that is obviously the result of painstaking research. While Annie's adventures strain the imagination, the book is still a page turner. Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club alternate; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/90.
-Lydia Burruel Johnson, Mesa P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Lydia Burruel Johnson, Mesa P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For horse-lovers...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bred to Win (Hardcover)
It's a shame that this book is no longer readily available. It's one of the most entertaining stories I've read in a long time. The author really did his homework concerning thoroughbred horse racing. It is its own private world, not easily accessable to the general public. William Kinsolving did a wonderful job of weaving the factual world of racing and the fictional world of the characters together.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good read.,
This review is from: Bred to Win (Hardcover)
This book is for someone who likes books like Gone with the Wind- they go own for decades. The characters were very empathic.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A primer on the horse racing industry,
By
This review is from: Bred to Win (Hardcover)
Hidden in the exciting story is a primer on the horse racing industry.
It graphically details the history and breeding of Thoroughbreds and the sometimes seamy business side of this "Sport of Kings". Author William Kinsolving has obviously done a great deal of research and the reader will find himself becoming more informed about the whole business as the tale unfolds into what another reviewer said read like a teleplay for a miniseries - what's wrong with that?
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