The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book. Then the last 1/3 was all about adultery. It just didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the story. And the conclusion totally destroyed the message I got from the first part of the book.
However, I did find it to be written well and the characters felt real (through the first 2/3 of the book). I would probably read another book by this author because of that.
Setting: The story is set in New York for much of the first act of the book. They end up in Wyoming for the rest of the book. The author did not spend a lot of time on descriptions except to say something was beautiful or snowy or whatever, but that let me imagine on my own.
Plot: A girl and a horse learn to trust each other again with the help of a persistent mother and a patient cowboy who has a special way with horses. There were other subplots too – job difficulties, marriage difficulties, the adultery, overcoming pride.
Conflict: There was the girl and horse conflict, the inner conflicts of both of them, the conflict between the parents and girl, the mom and girl, the girl and the cowboy, the mom and the cowboy, the mom and the dad, the cowboy’s relatives and the outsiders, the horse and just about anyone who interacted with him, the law suits, the mom’s job situation . . .
This is what really kept the book moving along – there were so many conflicts at many different levels.
Characters: They all felt very real, and I loved how I was able to get into the head of the horse through the cowboy. I totally got teared up at that point.
Text: The writing was fluid and easy to follow.
