Book Review: Half Broke Horses By Jeannette Walls 2/5 Stars

 OK readers, Hot Take incoming in 3,2,1.

I read this book with my library book club. I was prepared to like it, I'd been interested in reading some Jeannette Walls. 

I did not like it. I did not like it at all. 

This is a novel based on the life of the author's grandmother. The Grandmother was poised at a time in history where she could recall both world wars, and was raised in very remote parts of the United States. So, there was a lot of interesting events in the book- the transition from horses to automobiles, introduction of airplanes, women transitioning from the home to some workplaces etc. 

It started out fairly well, Lily is raised in remote West Texas.  She learns to break horses, and manage a small ranch until she's sent off to Catholic boarding school for some "finishing"  which she loves. Unfortunately she then has to return home, because her parents didn't save enough for her full tuition. And thus begins Lily's adventure. She lived in Chicago, got married to an already married man, (annulled) became a school teacher, got fired multiple times and eventually got married, sold hooch from her kitchen during prohibition, and basically got knocked down a lot and got back up. 

         What's not to like? This woman is celebrated as resilient and courageous, but 99 of her 100 problems and set backs, seemed to pretty much start with her.  One thing for certain, this lady never lacked confidence and didn't really doubt herself, and I feel a bit of introspection would have been very sanguine for this woman. 

The second thing that I loathed is there were multiple descriptions of very tough parenting, and teacher disciplining which involved the resilient Lily - an adult, beating a child to the point where she felt she lost control.  When she wasn't beating, she was ignoring, or minimizing pain. This is brushed off as "it was the times" BUT Lily was still the adult in all the situations where she resorted to beating on children and losing control over her own person. People did hit children much more often in the past, but I think it's important to note that it was still violence at that time, even if  "everyone did it" I just cannot see this woman as that resilient and strong, if she had to resort to using a belt on her daughter to gain some sort of control over a situation - so while the writing style was fine, and it was somewhat interesting, I'm not over the brushing of this violence under the rug of "the times".  I'm definitely not interested in any other books by the author. 

If one is interesting in this time frame, roughly there are other books about women on the frontier:  

 May I suggest instead:

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, it's not exactly the same time frame, but I'll say it's a lot more interesting than Half Broke horses.

I will say I read the book via Audiobook and it's read by the author.  Even before the main character starts beating on her children, I was off put by the flat and very jarring accent/tone of voice. So if you want to read Half Broke Horses, I'd recommend the print version to avoid that. 

So yes,  I did not like this book. I really took issue with the portrayal of this woman as some sort of paragon of resilience.  She survived, but most of her problems were brought upon by her own making. 

This is just my opinion.  Now, I've got to go to book club and try not to be too critical. We will see how that goes, so stay turned in a few weeks for In-person book club tea! I'll be dishing it right on up!

Source: 

• Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print)