Riding Lessons: A Novel (Paperback)

by Sara Gruen (Author)
Key Phrases: riding lessons, kill pen, wash rack, Sara Gruen, Annemarie Zimmer, New Hampshire (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Like The Horse Whisperer, Gruen's polished debut is a tale of human healing set against the primal world of horses. The Olympic dreams of teenaged equestrian Annemarie Zimmer end when her beloved horse, Harry, injures her and destroys himself in a jumping accident. In the agonizing aftermath, she gives up riding and horses entirely. Two decades later, she returns to her family's horse farm a divorcee, with her troubled teenaged daughter, Eve, in tow. There, her gruff Germanic mother struggles to maintain the farm and care for Annemarie's father, who is stricken with ALS. Although Annemarie decides (disastrously) to manage the farm's business, her attention quickly turns to an old and ostensibly worthless horse with the same rare coloring as Harry. Her long-denied passion for riding reawakens as she tracks the horse's identity and eventually discovers it to be Harry's younger brother. She must heal both horse and herself as she struggles with her father's deterioration, Eve's rebellion and her attraction to both the farm's new trainer and her childhood sweetheart Dan. Impulsive and self-absorbed, Annemarie isn't always likable, but Gruen's portrait of the stoic elder Zimmers is beautifully nuanced, as is her evocation of Eve's adolescent troubles. Amid this realistically complex generational sandwich, the book's appealing horse scenes—depicted with unsentimental affection—help build a moving story of loss, survival and renewal.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Annemarie, 18, is a world-class equestrienne who is sure to be a contender in the next Olympics. Then, a terrible jumping accident causes the death of her magnificent horse, Highland Harry, as well as severe injuries to Annemarie herself. Damaged as much in spirit as in body, she marries Roger, moves to another state, and gets a degree in English, vowing never to ride again. Twenty years of a more or less emotionally empty life go by until one fateful day when Annemarie loses both her job and her husband. With her defiant 15-year-old daughter in tow, Annemarie returns to her parents' riding school in New Hampshire, where her father is dying from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Suddenly, Annemarie is bombarded with all sorts of emotions and responsibilities, including the rekindling of an old romance and the discovery of a broken-down horse that looks remarkably like Highland Harry. Fans of Nicholas Evans' The Horse Whisperer (1995) and Jessica Bird's impressive debut, Leaping Hearts (2002), will also enjoy this emotion-packed book, which is so exquisitely written it's hard to believe that it's also a debut. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061241083
• ISBN-13: 978-0061241086
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #168,826 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story of broken families and broken dreams, June 18, 2007

By	Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

AnneMarie Zimmer was a contender, destined for the high circuits of horse jumping, with her precious Highland Harry. But when Harry breaks a leg on a jump and sends AnneMarie to the hospital, paralyzed with a broken neck, her dreams, and her family's dreams, are shattered.

Years later, Annemarie is recovered, married with a 15 year old daughter, and has never ridden a horse since the death of Harry. Then her life falls apart again, one-two-three. One, she loses her job. Two, her daughter is failing school and her husband announces he's leaving her for a mistress. Three, Annemarie discovers her vital father has advanced ALS. Broken and in shock, Annemarie returns with Eva, her daughter, to the farm where she was raised to see and help care for her father.

With Eva out of control at fifteen (getting piercings, tattoos, smoking, wanting to date, running away, etc), her father deteriorated to barely functional in a wheelchair, and her husband shacked up with a much younger woman, Annemarie loses control of her life. She takes over management of the stables and discovers her mother (Mutti) was right when she said Annemarie couldn't handle the responsibility.

But in the midst of the chaos of her life comes a ragged horse saved by veterinarian and old boyfriend Dan, a liver colored brindle as rare as Annemarie's beloved Harry. Annemarie adopts the recalcitrant horse, rescued from a slaughter pen, and begins to work with him. But when she finds out the one-eyed horse is none other than Harry's brother Highland Hurrah, pronounced dead by former owner to collect a cool million-plus in insurance, she fears that Hurrah may be taken away from her.

Sara Gruen is a talent to be reckoned with. Not only are her characters fully fleshed and unique, but they breathe with the life she has put into them. You'll feel like they are your own friends or neighbors, someone you know intimately. Annemarie is a person you can relate to, making mistake after mistake but always finding a way to deal with the problems, even if her resolutions are late at times. Eva is far from a perfect child, making her own mistakes and showing herself to be her mother's daughter.

'Riding Lessons' is a story of human triumph and defeat, of mistakes made and corrected, of real life slapping you across the face when you least expect it. The pains of losses are balanced by family, friends, and personal drive to become something before life passes swiftly by. Not to mention, the love of the great, beautiful beasts we call horses. When love overcomes tragedy, there are tears and smiles and sighs to experience. 'Riding Lessons' give us all of that and more.

I highly recommend picking up Sara Gruen's other book, 'Water For Elephants', especially if you liked riding lessons. 'Water For Elephants' has even more maturity in Gruen's writing, but this first book is an amazing accomplishment for a novice writer. I highly recommend 'Riding Lessons'. Enjoy!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riding into my heart, March 7, 2006

By	Becca Shields (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riding Lessons (Mass Market Paperback)

RIDING LESSONS has to be just about the best novel I've ever had the fortune to read. It has all the aspects of good-quality literature: First is the fact that it is a story about a real-type person, and not just a glamorized success story of "How it Took Me 2 Seconds to Get A Gold Medal". Annemarie, the main character, is insecure in herself instead of just being bold and blazing past everyone and everything in her way to achieve great victories.

Next is the fact that author Sara Gruen makes you feel the emotions of Annemarie. You feel melancholy when she is faced with another heartbreak, share her excitement when she thinks she's made a new discovery, and experience her confusion as she attempts to decide what's best to do.

Last, the entire tone of the novel doesn't fall into the characteristic mold of most popular novels today (most of which I find dull and uninteresting), like Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events. This is one of the very few books I have read and wholly enjoyed. I like it enough that I've read it about five times, and I have never read any book over three times over. So all I have to say to all you folks at Amazon.com: BUY THIS BOOK!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best new novelist I've read this year, March 30, 2004

By	L.K. Kiernan (naples, florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riding Lessons (Mass Market Paperback)

Riding Lessons is so well crafted and written that it's astonishing to realize it's Gruen's first novel. The book is worth reading for the first breathless scene alone, but Gruen managed to keep me hooked throughout. I read it in two sittings (a girl's gotta eat), and it's now on my shelf of books that I look forward to reading again.

Annemarie's contemporary family issues ring painfully true, especially her relationship with her difficult mother and her rebellious daughter. But Gruen respects her reader and never resorts to typical solutions. Her father's illness is so poignantly rendered that I found myself biting my thumbnail as I read, aching for Annemarie. Gruen also manages a few deftly written comic scenes when Annemarie gets in over her head. The ending was perfect, no overwrought melodramatic scenes that first novelists can't seem to help, but a profound and moving, even elegant, wrap-up that left me fully satisfied.

I haven't been around horses very much, but the riding and stable scenes show that Gruen certainly has, and though the book appeals to everyone, horse people are going to absolutely love it. After a string of disappointing new novels on the shelves this year, Riding Lessons was a rare treat. Definitely looking forward to Gruen's next.