My sister recommended this book, which is a mostly-true story about the author’s grandmother, Lily. Walls is best known for her memoir The Glass Castle, a book I haven’t read but am now very interested in. In Half Broke Horses, she writes a somewhat fictionalized story imagined from her grandmother’s point of view. Lily Casey was born in rural Texas around 1900. Her father trains carriage horses and by the age of 5 Lily is working with horses. When she’s denied a formal education, Lily travels on her own to Northern Arizona to take a teaching job during World War I. Her life takes many twists and turns, from serving as a maid in Chicago to becoming a horse racer and selling bootleg liquor during Prohibition.
It’s also a fascinating look at the early 1900s on the Western frontier, from Texas to New Mexico to Arizona. I grew up in Arizona, though far from the rural areas she describes. I often gravitate to stories that focus on nature, and this book was no exception. At one point Lily is talking about war and she says they were much more concerned with whether they would get enough rain for their cattle.
Walls remembers her grandmother as someone with an indomitable spirit and a positive, make-anything-work attitude. While she has many admirable qualities, including helping out her sister in a time of trouble, she’s also stubborn and opiniated. I was put off quite a bit by two incidents where she quite viciously beats children, one time in her classroom and one time her own daughter. Those incidents aside, I didn’t always like Lily Casey but I always admired the way she dealt with poverty and oppression. I also appreciated that while she loves the physical work of ranching, she also loves teaching and learning. She also doesn’t have much patience for cooking and laundry – I laughed at her descriptions of turning clothes inside out instead of washing them, and making giant pots of beans for her family to eat. I loved her strength and the way she always looked for solutions to problems.
The audiobook is narrated by Walls, and I appreciated both her voice and the interview with her at the end of the audiobook. Of course the downside to any memoir on audio is you don’t get photos, but for this book I think it’s worth listening to. I think readers who liked The Glass Castle should definitely look at this one, as it explains the upbringing of Walls’ mother. I also think readers who like historical fiction and books that blend fiction and nonfiction will enjoy this very much.
This book meets my 15 Books of Summer challenge, as well as the Backlist Reading Challenges at Austine Decker and The Bookwyrm’s Hoard.
