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Mar 26, 2011
I found several of Jaimy Gordon's previous books to be impossibly convoluted, so was skeptical and curious when it was announced that "Lord of Misrule" was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction this year. This one is different - I am totally gripped by the eccentric characters and their oddball community of errors. Gordon's attention to physical detail, personal mannerisms, and nuances of speech make them sometimes uncomfortably real. And it's very hard to not fall in love with the horses - downtrodden as they are, their spirits are still very powerful. If you like this book, I highly recommend Willy Vlautin's "Lean on Pete," another tale about the dark underbelly of the horse racing world's lowest tier and the odd community of owners, jockeys, trainers, misfits and horses who inhabit it.