Lord of Misrule

October 11, 2010
National Book Award-finalist Gordon's new novel begins and ends at a backwoods race track in early-1970s West Virginia, where horse trainer Tommy Hansel dreams up a scam. He'll run four horses in claiming races at long odds and get out before anyone realizes how good his horses are. But at a track as small as Indian Mound Downs, where everyone knows everybody's business, Hansel's hopes are quickly dashed. Soon his luminous, tragic girlfriend, Maggie, appears, drawing the eye of everyone, including sadistic gangster Joe Dale Bigg. Though Maggie finds herself with an unexpected protector in family gangster Two-Tie, even he can't protect her from her own fascination with the track and its misfit members. While Gordon's latest reaches for Great American Novel status, and her use of the colloquial voice perfectly evokes the time and place, constant shifts in perspective make the novel feel over-styled and under-plotted. And Maggie's supposed charisma clashes with her behavior, leaving the feeling that something's missing whereas Hansel is more witnessed than examined, his character developing almost entirely through the eyes of others, creating uncertainty that often borders on indifference.

Myra Lucretia Taylor's combination of drawl and twang immediately transports us to backwoods West Virginia. Author Jaimy Gordon tells the story of a small-time racetrack in the early '70s, populated by an excitingly original cast of characters, including two noteworthy horses, Lord of Misrule and Pelter. Indian Mound Downs is a small world within the larger world, crowded with horse trainers, grooms, scam artists, and deadbeats. And if an innovative plot and unique characters aren't enough, Gordon shows a remarkable ear for regional speech. Taylor's tone and pace, her lilting cadences, are exactly right through several alternating points of view. Vivid writing and a narrator whose voice slips seamlessly across gender, racial, and regional lines make this 2010 National Book Award winner high-quality listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine