Customer Reviews

Horse's Neck

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You wish Pete would cut through the crap on his records. Here, he finally does. Very courageous writing. Filled with vivid sexual fantasies, somewhat funny somewhat skewed, filled with pain and passion of unrequitted love. He doesn't justify his actions in these stories. He simply expresses what he's feeling and tells it like it is. You can take him or leave him. He's in too much torment to care. A very gutsy set of stories. Well worth the read. I wish the big time novelists would have even half the guts.

I've long been very appreciative of Pete's literate writing for the Who, and his impressive, more personal solo work. No one in rock's history had been able to express the highs and lows of growing up, becoming an adult, and existing in modern society quite like Pete Townshend. In "Horse's Neck", you receive even more of a literate expression - this time without the restraints of music. The literature forms music of its own. It's a joy to read and read again. If you're a fan of the Who, rock, modern culture or great modern literature, this is a "must read"!

Whether you are a fan of Townshend or not, it would be hard to ignore the talent that lies within the pages of this book. The stories unfold just as his music does...enigmatic and full of genuine emotion. From the sorrows of being a misunderstood superstar to early memories of a child searching for love, Pete weaves master tales interlaced with biological threads. I highly recommend this book to all readers, and to fans of Townshend this is definitely a must-read.

A very good read, lots of creative imagery. I think you should know a bit about Pete before you read the book or you might be a little shocked! I used to be very confused by Pete Townshend, but this clears it all up for me. Really fun stories that compare to nothing I have every read before! Get it now...

I consider this book in two ways: As a reader and as a lifelong fan of the Who.
As a reader, I am fascinated at the use of language. Townshend's literary voice is as unique and as potent as his musical voice.
As a fan, I am struck by the connections between some of the stories in Horse's Neck and Townshend's music. Read "Ropes" and "Fish Shop" to find connections (thematic and character-based) back to Pete's solo work and his writings for the Who.

Sadly, these stories, though well-reviewed at the time, have been forgotten. Townshend does an show enormous lack of self-restraint (but then again, so does his music).
However, many of these stories are touching,particulcarly 'Champagne on the Terraces' The writing is at times poetic, the themes are fascinating, and if it had sold, maybe we would get to read more of his prose.
The rap against Pete Townshend ahs always been pretentiousness, but with the execption of the title story, there's a shocking lack of that here. I recommend this book highly.

Having been a fan of Pete Townshend and The Who since I was old enough to rebel, I came into reading Horse's Neck with high hopes. After all, Townshend was the brain of The Who, its impassioned writer who made generations of teens to WANT to experience angst, and who made battling personal demons fashionable. But unfortunately, this collection of vignettes illustrates why Pete made it as writer of lyrics rather than prose. Horse's Neck, like James Joyce's Dubliners, is a sort of a chronological hodgepodge of character studies, rather than a set of short stories. Only unlike Joyce, Townshend is really only studying one character--his own. While traces of humor and poignancy present themselves in these semi-autobiographical tales, the writing is often clunky and pointless, particularly in one unnecessarily long detective drama. The true fan will, however, benefit from the book if only to see oft-used Townshend themes and phrases used in a different format. Take the lyrics of "Who By Numbers," have a dime-store novelist with a penchant for the perverted translate the lyrics, and you get the idea of what Horse's Neck is like.

Perhaps if Townshend had been a prose writer from the beginning, his work would have blossomed like his music writing did. After all, amazingly well-written gems like "The Song is Over" and "The Sea Refuses No River" were proceeded by deservedly less known songs like "I Can't Reach You" and "Faith in Something Bigger." That being said, the feeling here is that Pete would have been better off taking a shot at another concept album rather than writing Horse's Neck.