The Horse Whisperer (Paperback)

by Nicholas Evans (Author) "THERE WAS DEATH AT ITS BEGINNING AS THERE WOULD BE death again at its end..." (more)
Key Phrases: creek house, doing clinics, prosthetic leg, New York, Tom Booker, Great Falls (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Horse Whisperer is a story made in Hollywood heaven. The novel was written by a first-time author, and the film option was snapped up by aging heartthrob Robert Redford for 3 million smackers. Why take such risks on a brand-spanking-new author? The answer becomes clear upon reading the touching tale.

One morning while teenage Grace Maclean is riding Pilgrim, her goofy, loveable pony, she has a horrendous glass-shattering, bone-splintering, ligament-lynching meeting with a megaton truck that leaves her and her four-legged friend damaged in mind, body, and spirit. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, her jaded, brilliant, bitchy mom, Annie Graves (Kristin Scott Thomas in the 1998 film) is working out a wrinkle in her self-absorbed existence when she gets a call at her plush, Manhattan office about Grace's accident. Racked with guilt, Graves makes it her calling to find the mythical horse whisperer, an equine Zen master who has the ability to heal horses (and broken souls) with soothing words and a gentle touch. Just when it seems he can't be found, what do you know, she finds him. He arrives in the form of Tom Booker-- a rugged, sensitive, dreamy cowboy who helps Pilgrim and Grace repair their fractured selves. To add more mesquite to fire, Booker has a way with not-so-injured, attractive, married women--like Annie. As the plot thickens, so does the familial strife, which threatens to undo Booker's healing work.

Like an expert cinematographer, Evans deftly crafts each scene with precision and clarity, sprinkling in ominous signs and foreboding images. For example, in the opening paragraphs, as Annie starts out on the tragic ride, she comes across a bloody bird wing that seems to have fallen out of nowhere. The weight of impending doom is further strengthened by the truck driver's bad luck--he has a run-in with the highway patrol just moments before his meeting with Grace and Pilgrim. These not-so-subtle subliminal messages are masterfully stitched in throughout the story and may compel readers to act as if they were watching a B-grade horror movie, shouting aloud, "Don't go there!" However sentimental, The Horse Whisperer is an engaging read, sort of like a finely tuned, well-edited film. --Rebekah Warren --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Screenwriter Evans's debut novel spent 38 weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Dell; Later Printing edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440222656
• ISBN-13: 978-0440222651
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (639 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #128,610 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The movie only hinted at doing justice to this story., November 16, 2000

By	LMB (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Horse Whisperer (Hardcover)

Unlike some other reviewers I wasn't expecting this book to be a great work of modern literature but rather a beautiful story that everyman could relate to with a bit of thought. I wasn't disappointed. Maybe the author was a screenwriter and maybe the sentimental story itself is set out to read like a movie plot unfolding, none of that, to my way of thinking, diminished the simple zen beauty of the authors prose which reflected the search for an inner calm in each of the main characters.

Others here have commented on the gore and adrenalin surging accident of Grace and the conveniently named Pilgrim and I from similar experiences found it traumatic - for the horse, but not for Grace herself because her story is really the means by which she and her mother find grace. Her mother Annie is forced to take stock of a life that she fears is not satisfying and which casts an effect on her child and her marriage.

If Tom, in a typical display of the western horseman, seems wooden through a lack of dialogue it is because he relates to the world through the horses he works with, espousing the simple wisdoms of a man who has learned to read what is subtle and unspoken. His loneliness is echoed in the souls of Pilgrim, Grace and Annie.

That Annie and Tom predictably fall in love and betray her marriage vows, in a different rendition of Graces relationship with Pilgrim, is not an issue. It is that only through the catalyst for change in Tom and the nature of his work with Pilgrim we find the key to the characters, that they too must sacrifice the instinct for self preservation to be remade with maturity.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save Me From Books Like This!, May 29, 2001

By	J. Eng (Mount Laurel, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Talk about characters that nauseate a person! A married woman, living in trendy NYC, with a high-powered job, an educated and loyal husband, a spirited daughter, and what does she do? She sleeps with a man (who happens to be a rugged BUT gentle cowboy) because the novelty of someone new is enough to convince her that she needs this passionate fling to fulfill some emotional hole in her pity-pooh life. Oh, cry for me...my life is empty and I am blue, blue, blue, boo-hoo! Nay, she even feels somewhat justified in undertaking this betrayal of her promises and her responsibilities to her family and herself. After all, this is the land of get everything and when you've got everything, get some more. This women's needs supersede everyone else's, including her emotionally and physically wounded daughter's. This book is exactly the kind of garbage that convinces people that fantasy is reality and that consequence means nothing if the short-term satisfaction is attained. Should I even use the word, "satisfaction," since this never seems to be gotten? Save me from any more books like this one!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling, engrossing, and utterly brilliant novel..., June 22, 2000

By	Elana (Florida) - See all my reviews

A powerful and wonderfully written book, "The Horse Whisperer" tells the tragic story of a girl who has been physically and emotionally wounded during a violent horseback riding accident. In addition, her horse, Pilgrim, is also hurt very badly. Annie Maclean, the girl's desperate mother, contacts Tom Booker, a horseman who is able to communicate with the animals that he works with. Soon after, Annie and her daughter Grace head out to Tom's ranch, with their mad horse in tow. As the story unfolds, Tom and Annie fall in love. However, will the girl (Grace) and her beloved horse ever recover? Find out for yourself by reading this amazing novel. I recommend "The Horse Whisperer" to anyone looking for a sensational read.