Great storytelling. Lovely beach read. Nothing deep, but good character development- enough to make me want to read more from the author.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.5/hollywood-horse-havoc

Hollywood Horse Havoc

Modern movie directors are expected to go to extremes to earn the disclaimer that “No animals were harmed” in the making of their films. It’s easy to chuckle at the thought of studios hiring, say, cockroach wranglers. But the latest novel by Oregon writer Molly Gloss might make readers appreciate the need to enforce standards for humane treatment, not just for animals but for human beings as well.

Falling From Horses is set largely in Hollywood in the late 1930s, when the movie industry cared little for the welfare of animals or even human stuntmen. In a folksy, easy cadence, narrator Bud Frazer looks back on his life, recalling the months he spent trying to succeed as a movie cowboy when he was 19 years old. “Well, I was foolheaded in those days, looking for ways to get myself into trouble — carrying too much sail, as we used to say,” Bud reports.

Bud grew up in Echol Creek, Oregon, on a ranch that his parents later lost. His little sister died for reasons that become clear as Bud’s story unfolds, in chapters that alternate between his life in Oregon and in Hollywood.

On the bus to Hollywood, Bud meets Lily Shaw of Seattle, who is determined to become a great screenwriter, an aim she only achieves after many hard knocks. As Bud and Lily scramble to gain a toehold in the movie industry, they maintain their platonic friendship, which is based mostly on seeing movies together and discussing them.

Bud learns that the cowboy film heroes he grew up admiring aren’t what they appear to be — many of them are “fakes who couldn’t ride worth applesauce.” He also discovers how dangerous filming horse scenes is, especially on shots of battlefields rigged with trip wires and cliff-jumping scenes. Dozens of horses are killed in the business, and several riders are severely injured.

Gloss’ detailed picture of Hollywood’s Golden Age is rich and enlightening, capturing the struggles of low-level movie cowboys as well as those of ambitious women like Lily. Bud’s family’s ranch life and hardships serve as a stark counterpoint to the glossy Western myth that filmmakers created. It’s as though Gloss has flipped over the burnished surface of classic Hollywood Westerns to show the messy stitching underneath.­

This book is told more than finely written: Many chapters are told first person by the protagonist, Bud Frazer, a rancher turned stunt rider in the movies in the 1930s. And even the interspersed third-person sections have a meandering "telling a story" feel.

I've never really thought about old Western movies, but after reading Falling from Horses (an Advanced Reading Copy), I never want to watch a Western of any era again. The violence against horses is hard on the stomach. There is violence against people as well, but the people chose to participate in it; the horses did not. And the book is, in many ways, about the commonplace violence that is often a part of living. Author Molly Gloss says it a lot better than I can (from chapter 33):

. . . I always seem to be looking at the hard knot that is our myth of the cowboy West: the violence on the movie screen and behind it and the way the humanity has been hollowed out of our movie heroes and villains, the poverty, isolation, and precariousness of ranch work, the dignity and joy of it, and the necessary cruelty. At the start I thought that if I could get everything right, people would see where the cowboy stories went wrong, what we have missed or lost, and they might see that the cowboy life doesn't have to be so goddamn brave and bloody and lonesome as the movies make it out to be. But I have learned over the years that all I can do is reach for something difficult--try to get the colors right and the negative space, the angle of the light. And if a few people can see it, that has to be enough.

I can see it, Ms. Gloss. I'm glad I read this, but it was tough on the emotions.

https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2022/04/2022-book-63.html

I was a good quarter of the way into this before I realized it’s a sequel to The Hearts of Horses, in that the protagonist here is the son of the protagonist in that one. Anyway, the story starts with a nineteen year old boy on his way to Hollywood in 1938, where he wants to be a stunt rider in cowboy movies. Along the way he befriends a young woman who wants to be a screenwriter. I liked the narrative voice here a lot; he’s telling the story as a much older man, looking back on his year in Hollywood, and flashing back to his childhood and to a family tragedy. I did kind of want a little bit more from the friendship, or from his older years in general, but I liked seeing the bits and pieces of it that we did get. Note that movies in the 1930s did not care about animal safety and there are some grim scenes with horses (and riders). A/A-.

This wasn't a bad story, just a little slow.

I have heard Molly Gloss described as an amazing writer, but the only book of hers that I had previously picked up and tried to read (Wild Life) was not my cup of tea. This year, her latest book was chosen as the "city read" for my town. I was on the committee that picks the annual "reads" book from 2008 through 2014, and this year, when I heard it was a Molly Gloss book that was chosen, I wasn't very enthused, and decided not to read it. Then a week before the author presentation, I changed my mind and got it from the library.

Molly Gloss is definitely an exceptional writer, and the book kept my interest, even though the subject matter, movie stunt riding, is not something I am interested in. What puzzled me, though, is that I didn't really feel much for the main characters, Bud and Lily, or, for that matter, Bud's back story, which certainly had its devastating events. All in all, the story seemed as dry as the desert scenes where the action took place. The plot point that affected me the most was the callous and despicable treatment of the horses used for the movie stunts depicted in the book. I'm sure Ms Gloss wanted to make this point, but it seems strange to me that I cared more for the horses in the story than I did for the human characters.

I have to admit that there is one other factor that may be influencing my opinion of the book. Two days before the author presentation—which I was planning to attend—I received an email saying that it had been cancelled. I know these things happen, often because of illness, death in the family, or other circumstances beyond the author's control, but I was disappointed and I also felt bad for my former colleagues on the committee. I'm pretty sure that the cancellation affected my opinion of the book, which I was still reading at the time of the cancellation.

So, definitely a well-written book, but only three stars from me.

A haunting tale and a hard read for those who love horses. I will not be able to watch old movies with action scenes involving horses again without getting sad and angry.