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Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
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Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel Paperback - 2010

by Jeannette Walls

Walls reimagines the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey, who by age six was helping her father break horses. At 15, she left home to teach in a frontier town--riding 500 miles on her pony to get to her post. She learned to drive a car, fly a plane, and with her husband, managed a vast ranch in Arizona, surviving tornadoes, droughts, floods, and the Great Depression.


Summary

Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did. So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Wallss no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier townriding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one who is Jeannettes memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kindsagainst women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didnt fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesens Out of Africa or Beryl Markhams West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.

From the publisher

Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa or Beryl Markham's West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere."Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls's no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town--riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one who is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle. Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds--against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa or Beryl Markham's West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.

Details

  • Title Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
  • Author Jeannette Walls
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Scribner Book Company, New York
  • Date 2010-09-07
  • ISBN 9781416586296 / 1416586296
  • Weight 0.55 lbs (0.25 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 in (20.07 x 13.21 x 1.78 cm)
  • Themes
    • Topical: Coming of Age
  • Library of Congress subjects Biographical fiction, Autobiographical fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2009018781
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

[Jeannette Walls is] the third generation of a line of indomitable women whose paths she has inscribed on the permanent record, enriching the common legend of our American past.Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review (cover review)

Citations

  • Entertainment Weekly, 09/17/2010, Page 142
  • New York Times Book Review, 09/26/2010, Page 24
  • People, 05/28/2012, Page 51
  • People Weekly, 12/12/2011, Page 61

About the author

Jeannette Walls graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, has been a New York Times bestseller for more than eight years. She is also the author of the instant New York Times bestsellers The Silver Star and Half Broke Horses, which was named one of the ten best books of 2009 by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Walls lives in rural Virginia with her husband, the writer John Taylor.
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