My son has been going through a horse phase. He's often seen
riding his stick horse "Red" - a name he got from endless viewings of
this movie. On a recent trip to "Cowboy Town," he walked right up to
one man on a horse and asked, "Is this your job?" He'll wear his
cowboy boots with his jeans or swimsuit.
While my son admires the hat and boots side of horses, the novel Boleto takes a starker look at
the modern straits of ranching. Alyson Hagy takes us to Lost
Cabin, Wyoming and the struggling ranch of the Testerman family. Family members
have all had to take jobs in town to keep afloat. However, the youngest son,
Will, has his eye on raising horses. A chance encounter with Don Enrique, a
well-to-do horseman from Argentina,
convinces Will that raising polo horses might be just the ticket. And so he's off...to California.
Echoing the voices of Hemingway and McCarthy, Hagy's simple declarative sentences clearly convey Will's determination to make
something of himself and his horse. He's not going through a phase.
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