Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel image number 0

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.

Item Information Item Information

Format: TradePaperback
Author: Walls, Jeannette
ISBN: 9781416586296
Condition: Used
Dimensions: 7.90 x 0.70
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Year: 2010

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The insightful follow up to the book The Glass Castle

Elise P. - 2 years ago

I enjoyed this book which is a follow up to the memoir The Glass Castle. Half Broke Horses gives a background story to Jeannette Walls' grandmother's childhood and as a young woman. It would be easy to just say at first glance that Jeannette's mother was uncaring or unfit but it was so much more complicated than that and once I got into the book it was easier to see how she was very caring and at the same time unconventional leading up to a little bit of being misunderstood. I enjoyed this book because family dynamics can be fascinating when they are putting other families under the microscope - when it's your own family it's just sometimes way too close to home to be interesting.
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Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

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The insightful follow up to the book The Glass Castle