FICTION

Boleto

Graywolf. May 2012. c.288p. ISBN 9781555976125. $24. F
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Living on his family's Wyoming ranch after his job on the Texas show-horse circuit ends badly, Will Testerman buys a beautiful filly he's seen—an expensive investment for this intermittently employed horse trainer. Putting some personal misadventures behind him, he has set his sights on California and the more lucrative world of polo horses. Although he has brief affairs with several young women, Will is careful to avoid any connections that might slow him down, and he refuses to name the filly he hopes he can train and eventually sell. Saying a reluctant good-bye to his ill mother, an ex-girlfriend, and the leaden expectations of his father, his brothers, and his small-town life, he tries to begin again, alone and friendless, with his horses on the West Coast. Vivid descriptions of horses and their caretakers' lives frame the novel and slowly draw readers into caring about the taciturn, cautious, yet unpredictable Will.
VERDICT Hagy (Ghosts of Wyoming) knows her territory, describing dude ranch employees, harnesses, trails, horses, and human conflict in lyrical but concise language. This realistic tale about a modern cowboy will be popular with lovers of literary fiction and American Western culture.
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