Is Anyone Else Reading "The Sport of Kings"?

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Patuxet
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Is Anyone Else Reading "The Sport of Kings"?

Postby Patuxet » Sun Jun 05, 2016 1:55 pm

I'm halfway through and mightily impressed by the author's eloquence, compassion and informed point of view. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading something written by our own Avalyn Hunter under a pen name. I wouldn't be surprised if the book ended up on the short list for a Pulitzer or National Book Award. Who would have thought that in this day and age a novel which centers its narrative on American racing could serve so aptly as a broad metaphor for our deeply conflicted national conscience? But after American Pharoah, why not?
"He is pure air and fire and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him; he is indeed a horse ..." Wm. Shakespeare - Henry V

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skeenan
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Re: Is Anyone Else Reading "The Sport of Kings"?

Postby skeenan » Mon Jun 06, 2016 8:32 am

Is it fiction or non-fiction? Tried googling it and got various results. :D
I've read The Horse That God Built, Secretariat's biography, which was great... and have the Joe Drape American Pharoah biography next.

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Patuxet
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Re: Is Anyone Else Reading "The Sport of Kings"?

Postby Patuxet » Mon Jun 06, 2016 9:47 am

It's a novel. This is from Amazon.

Hellsmouth, an indomitable Thoroughbred with the blood of Triple Crown winners in her veins, runs for the glory of the Forge family, one of Kentucky’s oldest and most powerful dynasties. Henry Forge has partnered with his daughter, Henrietta, in an endeavor of raw obsession: to breed the next superhorse, the next Secretariat. But when Allmon Shaughnessy, an ambitious young black man, comes to work on their farm, the violence of the Forges’ history and the exigencies of appetite are brought starkly into view. Entangled in fear, prejudice, and lust, the three tether their personal dreams of glory to the speed and grace of Hellsmouth.

A spiraling tale of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in shadow by the enduring legacy of slavery. C. E. Morgan, who received a 2016 Windham–Campbell Prize for Fiction, has given life to a tale as mythic and fraught as the South itself―a moral epic for our time.

I should add that their taproot broodmare is a Bold Ruler filly claimed out of a Florida race, which amused me since I used Bold Ruler as an example sire in another thread.
"He is pure air and fire and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him; he is indeed a horse ..." Wm. Shakespeare - Henry V

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skeenan
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Re: Is Anyone Else Reading "The Sport of Kings"?

Postby skeenan » Fri Jun 10, 2016 11:01 am

Cool, thanks!! I will have to check it out! :D

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Patuxet
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Re: Is Anyone Else Reading "The Sport of Kings"?

Postby Patuxet » Tue Apr 25, 2017 12:21 am

"The Sport of Kings", by C. E. Morgan, was among the three finalists for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Pulitzer is awarded for distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.
"He is pure air and fire and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him; he is indeed a horse ..." Wm. Shakespeare - Henry V