By Nicholas Evans
ISBN: 0440222656
Binding: Mass-Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
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Reviewed for Carbon County News by Gary Robson on 2/11/2002
Seeing the movie is no substitute for reading "The Horse Whisperer." Many scenes critical to the story and characters, including the surprise twist ending, are omitted from the movie, and reading the book is the only way to experience them. Despite the title, the book is a lot more about people and relationships than it is about horses. Don't expect much (if any) insight into equine behavior or training from this book.
"The Horse Whisperer" starts with a horrible accident. Thirteen-year-old Grace Maclean is riding her horse, Pilgrim, in the snow with her childhood friend when they slide down an embankment onto an icy road in front of a fast-moving semi. Grace and Pilgrim are badly hurt, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Her friend and her horse are killed.
Everyone tells Grace's mother, Annie, to have Pilgrim put down, but she refuses, feeling that the horse's recovery is tied to Grace's. She searches in vain for someone who can turn the raving, angry horse back into the gentle animal it once was. Finally, she hears of people called "whisperers," who can accomplish through gentleness what can't be done with ordinary training techniques. She finds a whisperer named Tom Booker, but after a look at Pilgrim, he refuses to help.
Thus, the stage is set. For Annie, nobody but Tom Booker will do, and she doesn't care what it costs. The rest of the book builds on relationships: Annie and Grace; Annie and Booker, Grace and Pilgrim, Pilgrim and Booker, Annie and her husband.
Evans does an extraordinary job of building and defining his characters. While parts of the plot are predictable (it's obvious from the moment he's introduced that Booker is going to work with Pilgrim), there are twists at the end that will take you completely by surprise.
Yes, "The Horse Whisperer" is a first novel, and there is a touch of the amateur about it, but I found it a very enjoyable read. It is definitely one of those books that keeps you thinking when you close the cover.