I read a review of this book when it first came out a few years ago and immediately put it on my wishlist. I finally got a copy of it from an online book trading site and have now read this really powerful and superb novel. The novel reads like a Shakespearean tragedy with a very heart-wrenching conclusion.
The novel has two main characters: Horace Hopper, a 21-year-old half-Paiute, half-Irish who works for 72-year-old Eldon Reese on a sheep ranch near Tonopah, Nevada. Horace was abandoned by his mother when he was 12, and was then raised by Reese and his wife, Louise. Horace has grown up in a loving family with a good life on the sheep ranch but he strives to better himself and become more. He admires Mexican boxers and his dream is to become a champion "Mexican" boxer even though he is not Mexican. To achieve his goal, he moves to Tucson, Arizona when he gets trained by a less than reputable former boxer. He's good enough to participate in a Golden Gloves competition and decides to go pro after winning some fights in Salt Lake City, El Paso, and Tijuana. However, these fights took a lot out of him. Meanwhile, Reese wants him to return to the ranch and hopes to have Horace run it as Reese's health is on the decline. The narrative switches between Reese and Horace in what becomes a very tragic story.
This was overall a very engaging story. It wasn't happy and it was full of melancholy but the characters were very well-written as it shows their hardships and struggles. I would give this one a very high recommendation. As a side note, the author of this book, Willy Vlautin, is also a singer and songwriter for the band Richmond Fontaine and they actually made an album for the book of seventeen instrumental songs called Don't Skip Out on Me. I found it on Spotify and enjoyed listening.
The novel has two main characters: Horace Hopper, a 21-year-old half-Paiute, half-Irish who works for 72-year-old Eldon Reese on a sheep ranch near Tonopah, Nevada. Horace was abandoned by his mother when he was 12, and was then raised by Reese and his wife, Louise. Horace has grown up in a loving family with a good life on the sheep ranch but he strives to better himself and become more. He admires Mexican boxers and his dream is to become a champion "Mexican" boxer even though he is not Mexican. To achieve his goal, he moves to Tucson, Arizona when he gets trained by a less than reputable former boxer. He's good enough to participate in a Golden Gloves competition and decides to go pro after winning some fights in Salt Lake City, El Paso, and Tijuana. However, these fights took a lot out of him. Meanwhile, Reese wants him to return to the ranch and hopes to have Horace run it as Reese's health is on the decline. The narrative switches between Reese and Horace in what becomes a very tragic story.
This was overall a very engaging story. It wasn't happy and it was full of melancholy but the characters were very well-written as it shows their hardships and struggles. I would give this one a very high recommendation. As a side note, the author of this book, Willy Vlautin, is also a singer and songwriter for the band Richmond Fontaine and they actually made an album for the book of seventeen instrumental songs called Don't Skip Out on Me. I found it on Spotify and enjoyed listening.
