Falling from horses

No cover

Molly Gloss: Falling from horses (2014)

330 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 2014

OCLC Number:
867078147

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No rating (1 review)

"In 1938, nineteen-year-old ranch hand Bud Frazer sets out for Hollywood. His little sister has been gone a couple of years now, his parents are finding ranch work and comfort for their loss where they can, but for Bud, Echol Creek--where he grew up and first learned to ride--is a place he can no longer call home. So he sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies and rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth"--dust jacket.

4 editions

Review of 'Falling from horses' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I've loved all of Molly Gloss' novels, so it's no surprise that I gulped this one down within 2 days. I just fell into Bud's voice.

The book is told like a memoir, with a 50-ish artist looking back on the year when he was 19, and left ranching in eastern Oregon to head to Hollywood and ride stunts in westerns. The year in Hollywood is the late '30s. On the bus to California, he meets Lily, a young woman from Seattle who plans to be a big-shot scriptwriter. They become life-long friends, but there's no romance.

The two young people not falling in love is one of the ways the book tweaks your expectations. His parents on the ranch are as tough and hard-working as you'd expect, but don't quite fit into stereotype. Her characters are never cardboard. Bud talks about the movies, but also about growing up and …

Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Stunt performers
  • Horsemanship
  • Trick riding
  • Motion picture industry