The Hearts of Horses [Paperback]

Molly Gloss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2008

An elegant, heartwarming story about the profound connections between people and animals

 

In the winter of 1917, nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen saddles her horses and heads for a remote county in eastern Oregon, looking for work “gentling” wild horses. She chances on a rancher, George Bliss, who is willing to hire her on. Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but strong-willed girl with a serious knowledge of horses. So begins the irresistible tale of a young but determined woman trying to make a go of it in a man’s world. Over the course of several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk witness Martha talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair—getting miraculous, almost immediate results. It's with this gift that she earns their respect, and a chance to make herself a home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gloss's austere latest (after Wild Life) features a wandering taciturn tomboy who finds her place in rural Oregon while the men are away at war. After she leaves home in 1917, 19-year-old Martha Lessen plans to travel from farm to farm in Elwha County, Oregon, breaking horses left behind by owners away fighting. She winds up in small town Shelby, where farmers George and Louise Bliss convince her to stay the winter with them after she domesticates their broncos with soft words and songs instead of lariats and hobbles. While breaking the town's horses, Martha meets a slovenly drunk, a clan of Western European immigrants and two unmarried sisters running a ranch with the help of an awkward, secretive teenager. When Martha's not making the rounds or riding through the Clarks Range, Louise tries her hand at socializing (or, perhaps, breaking) her, but Martha chafes at town dances, social outings and Louise's hand-me-down church dresses. Gloss's narrative is sometimes as slow as Martha's progress with the more recalcitrant beasts, but following stubborn, uncompromising Martha as she goes about her work provides its own unique pleasures. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Molly Gloss’s affecting fourth novel turns the Western genre on its head with a woman as the mysterious stranger appearing on horseback, but Gloss is known for her independent, self-sufficient heroines. The Hearts of Horses is perhaps the most sentimental of all her works. Though the plot is more a collection of linked stories than a single, continuous narrative—a stylistic technique that most reviewers commented on but did not criticize—Gloss’s simple, unadorned prose and stark portrayal of the West during the first two decades of the 20th century create a moving, wistful memorial to a lost way of life. Shy, self-effacing Martha captivates her fellow humans in much the same way she charms wayward horses. Only USA Today suggested that the story lacks a certain warmth. However, Martha will no doubt beguile most readers.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (December 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547085753
• ISBN-13: 978-0547085753
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

How I got started writing, etc., is a long story you can read on my website. But here are the highlights of my writing life: In 1996 I received a prestigious Whiting Writers Award--sort of a MacArthur grant in a minor key. But nobody knows what the heck it is, so how did it come to be prestigious?! Probably it's the substantial chunk of change they drop on your head without warning. ("Substantial" of course being a relative term. It's not MacArthur substantial. But we paid off our house!) The Jump-Off Creek is usually referred to as "a Pacific Northwest classic" and was winner of an Oregon Book Award and a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. The Dazzle of Day, which is a science fiction novel, received the PEN West Fiction Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fairly unusual for a science fiction novel to win a major PEN prize, but the Notable Book thing, not so much--it was Notable only within the ghetto of science fiction. Go figure. Wild Life, set in the woods and mountains of Washington State at the turn of the 20th century, won the James Tiptree Award for literary fantasy, although at the time I wrote it I didn't think I was writing anything fantastical. My newest, The Hearts of Horses, has been the most popular of any of my works. Not sure why. Is it that attention-grabbing cover? or "horses" in the title?!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Heart, February 8, 2008

By 

Senjiwe Al-Muhadinis (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hearts of Horses (Hardcover)

I chose this book because of the plurality in the title, I thought I would learn about the character and soul of non-verbal beings, and the cover photo, clearly female, riding swiftly, freely with purpose, accomplishment and joy. These are superficial reasons for choosing a book and what a splendid surprise I had in the world of this book. I am an urban woman, no country or wide open spaces or large animals in my life but I loved the language of this book, how it made a place, a time, and its people live for me. Thank you Molly Gloss for a read so engrossing I reached the end of the line and the bus driver did not shoo me out; waited until I came back to my world and hopped off! I apologized, he said he noticed me reading through the week, watched me intent, smiling, weeping, frowning. That day he knew I was at the end, and could not bear to disturb me.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Heart, Too, November 10, 2007

By 

Dixie Myers "bookaholic" (Port Angeles, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hearts of Horses (Hardcover)

I loved this book. It's set during WW1 when so many young men were gone to the trenches, that one over-tall, painfully shy young woman got to live the life her unique skills suited her for: horse trainer, horse gentler--the life of a cowboy. The heroine makes a place for herself in a new community that can accept and value her for what she has to offer. So much more than a take on history, so much more than a romance, this is a story of time and place and people still on the frontier of American life. A book to keep, a book to share--just make sure you get it back!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book, December 15, 2007

By 

2sequoyah (Eastern Washington) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hearts of Horses (Hardcover)

Like the previous reviewer, I intended to limit myself to one or two chapters a day. That was very difficult to do, as I savored every word of this book. It was the inner world of Martha Lesson that I most identified with, and my hat is off to Molly Gloss for capturing so well the patience and humility it takes to make a horse as well as Martha. "The horse doesn't care how much you know until he knows how much you care" are the words from the wisest man I ever knew. I picked this book off the counter at the Powell's Bookstore stand in the Portland airport and I am so glad that I did. Read this book, you won't be sorry you did.