Horse by Geraldine Brooks

This is a time shifting tale that weaves together a modern, mostly invented, tale with an earlier story that is also invented but built upon the foundation of a true story. In the present Theo, a PhD student in art history rescues an oil painting of a racehorse from a pile of discarded stuff on a Georgetown sidewalk, and a researcher gets the skeleton of a horse unearthed in a Smithsonian attic. In 1850 Jarret, an enslaved boy, is present at the birth of a foal and becomes the only person that horse grows up to trust. These are the ingredients to some masterful storytelling. From the beginning, the weave of the narrative is clear: It’s no surprise that the horse in the painting is the same animal whose bones are collecting dust in the Smithsonian and the same again as the newborn foal who will find a devoted, lifelong companion in the boy, Jarret. The horse’s name is Lexington, and he was a real-life racehorse who won six of his seven starts and became a legendary thoroughbred sire whose offspring dominated American racing in the late 19th century. Brooks includes other figures from history: Lexington’s various owners; Thomas J. Scott, a Pennsylvania-born animal painter who served in the Union Army during the Civil War; and the modernist art dealer Martha Jackson. But the central characters — Jarret; the art historian Theo; and the Smithsonian zoologist Jess — are invented. Racism and racing are the prominent themes throughout, and neither are invented, but do form the basis of a tale well told. I very much enjoyed this book, even though the message is delivered with a mallet rather than with subtlety.