Schwartz's meticulously detailed story of the life and death of the Thoroughbred racehorse Ruffian is troubled by a disjointed style and ultimately damages the book beyond redemption.
The timeline bounces all over the place, from the night before the match race in which she sustained fatal injuries, back to her birth, wandering around the realities of breeding, rearing, and early schooling, back to the early morning of the race, off into histories of the men who worked with her, dropping in on early track victories, off to outline the backstory of her track opponents, and on and on and on for nearly 300 pages. The result is a nearly incoherent mess, which pulls together only in the last few heartbreaking pages as Ruffian's on-track breakdown and the valiant but failed battle to save her life play out.
Racing fans who remember the filly's career still have a bad case of the what-ifs regarding this superstar whose career was cut short so disastrously, but readers seeking to understand just what made her so special will be disappointed.
The timeline bounces all over the place, from the night before the match race in which she sustained fatal injuries, back to her birth, wandering around the realities of breeding, rearing, and early schooling, back to the early morning of the race, off into histories of the men who worked with her, dropping in on early track victories, off to outline the backstory of her track opponents, and on and on and on for nearly 300 pages. The result is a nearly incoherent mess, which pulls together only in the last few heartbreaking pages as Ruffian's on-track breakdown and the valiant but failed battle to save her life play out.
Racing fans who remember the filly's career still have a bad case of the what-ifs regarding this superstar whose career was cut short so disastrously, but readers seeking to understand just what made her so special will be disappointed.
A beautifully written, emotional story of a courageous athelete.
I cried when Ruffian had to be put down. She had such a promising future, and her owner/trainer threw it all away for a match race. I'm not quite old enough to have seen Ruffian race, but my mom bought me a book about her when I was a horse crazy kid. It was more of a picture book, so it didn't have all of the backstory that this one goes into. Ruffian was an amazing horse, as are all the great racers, Man o' War, Secretariat, Seabiscuit, et al. I don't watch the racing, I just like to read about the horses. Recommend.
