mikerickson reviewed On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl
Review of 'On Swift Horses' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Every so often I'll come across a piece of media that reminds me that I don't know a goddamn thing about gambling or card games or what the hell "over/under" means, and this book sits squarely in that camp. But there's still a compelling story here that someone like me can enjoy despite my ignorance of vices.
This is the kind of book that I would've hated as a teenager but can now enjoy as an adult. Slow-paced with a ton of character introspection and not a lot of dialogue or dramatic action. The two main protagonists are very different from one another, but are given equal attention and development; neither outshines the other. And the geographic settings from San Diego to Las Vegas to Tijuana were given such distinct descriptions that even someone like me from the northeast - who would normally paint this whole area with the same …
Every so often I'll come across a piece of media that reminds me that I don't know a goddamn thing about gambling or card games or what the hell "over/under" means, and this book sits squarely in that camp. But there's still a compelling story here that someone like me can enjoy despite my ignorance of vices.
This is the kind of book that I would've hated as a teenager but can now enjoy as an adult. Slow-paced with a ton of character introspection and not a lot of dialogue or dramatic action. The two main protagonists are very different from one another, but are given equal attention and development; neither outshines the other. And the geographic settings from San Diego to Las Vegas to Tijuana were given such distinct descriptions that even someone like me from the northeast - who would normally paint this whole area with the same broad brush - could discern and appreciate their differences.
It's set in the 1950's, and I enjoyed the background mentions of "the satellite" (Sputnik) and "the dog" (Laika) and other historical tidbits that seem like a big deal to us now but were barely noteworthy to the people of the time just trying to get by. And somehow despite the setting, there isn't really any outright homophobia? (The only fist fights/beatings that happen occur between and among gay men for unrelated reasons.) It was refreshing to have a story about queer people set in the past that was allowed to stand on its own without solely being about acceptance and survival; there was enough happening to keep the plot moving and it didn't feel like any authenticity was sacrificed.
The very very end was a touch more open-ended than I would have liked, but I can read between the lines and imagine the ultimate fate of all these characters, and I understand that an author doesn't always need to hold the reader's hand to the end. Sometimes it's enough to just dip into a character's life for just the interesting bits, and this was certainly an interesting snapshot of these two siblings-in-law.