I didn’t think I was going to like this book, and then it kind of grew on me. It calls itself “a true life novel,” but it seems more precisely a memoir. Author McFadden
tells of a few key years as a teenager in the 1960s. With a rocky home life and
school days full of misery, she has only a love of horses to keep her from
taking more dark turns than her life has already taken.
A friendly stable
owner and horse trainer befriends her, and before long she is accompanying him
as he packs groups of hunters into the Sierras in eastern California. Learning
how to pack horses, set up camp, and cook for them, she acquires the
self-confidence and independence to pass through a difficult adolescence.
We get to know some
of the horses she is responsible for, each with his or her own personality and
temperament. And we learn that hunters are rarely good at even finding game to
shoot. Drinking and playing cards are more their idea of enjoying the woods, and
she has little respect for them.
There is the
occasional crisis as when four horses disappear into the night, frightened by
something so terrifying that it takes days of searching to find them. Spending
time alone at the base camp, three miles off the highway, she is faced with
having to put down one of the horses with a broken leg. Another horse nearly
dies of snakebite, but her swift thinking keeps the animal alive.
California Sierras, 1972 |
This is not a
tell-all memoir. Her relationship with John, her mentor, for all his importance
to her, is not given much depth. A romance with an older boy is only implied. The many young friends who congregate off-season at the base camp are
simply names, only one of them emerging from obscurity by reason of all the
practical jokes played on him.
Readers interested
in the life of high-altitude trail packers should also look for Willard Wyman’s High Country (reviewed here a while ago). The
Longest Trail is currently available at
amazon and Barnes&Noble and for kindle and the nook.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Coming up: Gary J. Cook, A Murder of Wolves
Wow! Folks are really retweeting your post. (As they should, of course.)
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to live somewhere where many young women are still enamored with horses, and any given day I might see a couple out riding.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's a special love affair.
Deleteretweeting it? I am so out of touch.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what he's talking about either...
DeleteMake me a third member of the don't-get-tweeting crowd.
ReplyDeleteThe book does sound interesting. I've added it to my wish list on Amazon and will try to get to it soon.
Thanks for reviewing my book Ron. I am new to all of this. Your honest comments give me food for thought on character development for the next one!
ReplyDelete
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