![]() ![]() ![]() “I won’t have you throw everything away for a heap of rhinestones,” rages Henry’s father, when his son blurts out his dream. The Forge family are corn famers: in the opening section, hot-headed young Henry Forge, classically tutored and prone to trading arguments in Greek or Latin with his tyrannical father, develops a rebellious ambition to transform their farm one day into a thoroughbred breeding business. In the maximalist stakes, Morgan’s novel is a muscular, confident entry.įor the first 200 pages, the book appears to be a conventional multigenerational saga set in the American south. Along the way, Morgan wrestles with subjects including the history of Kentucky, slavery and its legacies, the iniquities of American healthcare, Darwinism, geology and relations between the sexes. Shortlisted for the Pulitzer and now the Baileys prize, Morgan’s epic work builds to a climactic series of dramatic race scenes featuring a star filly named Hellsmouth. T his novel is about horse racing the way Moby-Dick is about a whale it has a similarly expansive scope, spiritual seriousness and density of grand themes. ![]()
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