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Upon A Fine HorseThough the subject is a young man's coming of age and the gentle comic formation of his sexual consciousness, I wonder if the subject isn't, in fact, a celebration of the incipient strength of women - their nascent boldness - simply ready to take up the cudgels with panache and pleasure, as indeed the book does in its episodic framework. It stylistic roots date back to Fielding, the early form of the novel as a series of adventures and challenges en-route to the hero's sentimental education. The stories are replete with wit. The author has a special skill with dialogue. The narrative shifts are wonderfully concise and precise often completely surprising the reader. The core of the stories/chapters lies within their generosity of spirit, their witty understanding of male-female sexuality and their capacity for tenderness. It would be very difficult not to fall in love with the young narrator. At its centre are the horses but, as a woman, the centre for this reader is the lovely coming of age of the unnamed young man -- from his encounter with Lisa Lockett Elsmendorf and by way of many others (I have a special fondness for the very fact of Desiree) and of course the inevitable reality of Miz Bonny. Professor Diane DeBell |
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