Walls, Jeanette. Half Broke Horses.

Walls, Jeanette. Half Broke Horses.
Simon & Schuster/Little Brown 2009 272p 26.00 978-4165-8628-9 hs/adult Subtitled “A True-Life Novel,” this is the story of Wall’s grandmother’s life in the southwest as a rancher, mother, teacher, flyer, and rebel. Lily Casey Smith is a character that readers will not soon forget as she relates the adventures, hardships, and triumphs of her memorable life in a spellbinding manner that keeps the pages turning. The book is subtitled “A True-Life Novel” and is the story of Wall’s grandmother’s life in the southwest as a rancher, mother, teacher, flyer and rebel. Lily Casey Smith is a character that readers will not soon forget. Told through Lily’s expressive voice, she relates the adventures of growing up on a ranch in the hard scrabble West and becoming a rancher’s wife. Lily suffers many hardships along the way, the cad of a first husband and the death by suicide of her beloved sister but manages to overcome her sorrows. She always works hard and does what is necessary to make a living and raise her children the way she sees fit. In addition to being a wife, mother, and rancher, Lily teaches in one room school houses and learns to fly airplanes. Her triumphs over adversity are rollicking and at times very humorous. At the end of the book, the author explains why this is categorized as a work of fiction even though most of it is true. After reading this story, I want to go back and read Crystal Palace, the memoir of the author’s life as the child of Lily’s own rebellious daughter. Half Broke Horses is wonderfully written, spell binding, and hard to put down as the reader will want to find out what will happen next in Lily’s quest to live life to its fullest. Recommended for Tristate Books of Note. Weinraub, Tina