Staff Pick
Falling from Horses is a story of the Westerns boom in old Hollywood, where cowboys reworked their cowpoke skills as stunt riders. Talkies are new, and everyone scrambles to find a foothold in the burgeoning film industry. Threaded throughout is a family mystery of a lost little girl. Gloss's tale is both heartbreaking and heartful. Recommended By Tracey T., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
In 1938, nineteen-year-old ranch hand Bud Frazer sets out for Hollywood. His little sister has been gone a couple of years now, his parents are finding ranch work and comfort for their loss where they can, but for Bud, Echol Creek, where he grew up and first learned to ride, is a place he can no longer call home. So he sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies — and rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth.
On the long bus ride south, Bud meets a young woman who also harbors dreams of making it in the movies, though not as a starlet but as a writer, a real writer. Lily Shaw is bold and outspoken, confident in ways out of proportion with her small frame and bookish looks. But the two strike up an unlikely kinship that will carry them through their tumultuous days in Hollywood — and, as it happens, for the rest of their lives.
Acutely observed, Falling from Horses charts what was to be a glittering year in the movie business through the wide eyes and lofty dreams of two people trying to make their mark on the world, or at least make their way in it. Molly Gloss weaves a remarkable tale of humans and horses, hope and heartbreak, narrated by one of the most winning narrators ever to walk off the page.
Review
"Hollywood glamour has no place in the rough-and-tumble cowboy movies being churned out by studios in the late 1930s. That’s discovered by Bud Frazer, a young man from a ranching family looking to make his way as a stunt rider and, in the process, distance himself from personal tragedy. On the bus ride there, he strikes up what would become a lifelong friendship with an aspiring screenwriter. What follows are challenges for both Bud and his new friend Lily as they try to make their dreams reality. Gloss strips away any romantic notions of ranching life or moviemaking with detailed descriptions of long days of work and the tricks used on horses in the cowboy flicks. Bud is a marvelous narrator — direct, self-effacing, and descriptive, looking back with some bemusement at the brashness of his 19-year-old self. The emotions stirred by his tale are as honest as a hard day’s work during a roundup. The novel is sturdy in its simplicity, a send-up of the cowboy myth that replaces it with something more valuable — a cowboy with heart." Booklist
Review
“The acute sense of time and place, coupled with a cast of characters drawn with unsentimental but abiding affection, makes for a hypnotic read.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“I read Falling from Horses in two gulps. The writing is gorgeous, the setting so beautifully realized, both time and place, the narrative voice unforgettable, and all the characters so real and compelling. Tremendous, page-turning....I could not have loved it more.” Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and The Jane Austen Book Club
Review
“The story of a boy growing up into a man by way of ambition, adventure, catastrophe, love, and grief. A beautiful, moving novel, cut from the American heartwood." Ursula K. Le Guin, author of Lavinia and The Unreal and the Real: Selected Short Stories
Review
"Clear-eyed, breathtaking....A moving story filled with heart and insight." Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Samurai's Garden
Synopsis
From the bestselling author of The Hearts of Horses and The Jump-Off Creek, an absorbing, plainspoken, elegantly rendered novel about a young cowboy who escapes a family tragedy and travels to Hollywood to become a stunt rider in the movies.
Synopsis
In a new novel from the best-selling author of The Hearts of Horses and The Jump-Off Creek, a young ranch hand escapes a family tragedy and travels to Hollywood to become a stunt rider. In 1938, nineteen-year-old ranch hand Bud Frazer sets out for Hollywood. His little sister has been gone a couple of years now, his parents are finding ranch work and comfort for their loss where they can, but for Bud, Echol Creek, where he grew up and first learned to ride, is a place he can no longer call home. So he sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies -- and rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth.
On the long bus ride south, Bud meets a young woman who also harbors dreams of making it in the movies, though not as a starlet but as a writer, a real writer. Lily Shaw is bold and outspoken, confident in ways out of proportion with her small frame and bookish looks. But the two strike up an unlikely kinship that will carry them through their tumultuous days in Hollywood -- and, as it happens, for the rest of their lives.
Acutely observed, Falling from Horses charts what was to be a glittering year in the movie business through the wide eyes and lofty dreams of two people trying to make their mark on the world, or at least make their way in it. Molly Gloss weaves a remarkable tale of humans and horses, hope and heartbreak, narrated by one of the most winning narrators ever to walk off the page.
About the Author
MOLLY GLOSS is the best-selling author The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek, winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Oregon Book Award, The Dazzle of Day, winner of the PEN Center West Fiction Prize, and Wild Life, winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award.