Half Broke Horses - A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls

 When I read the first page of this book, I sighed with pleasure. THIS is the kind of writing I've been yearning for! Interesting characters, insights, and engaging & exciting story. The first chapter about this amazing woman, Lily Casey Smith, immediately drew me in when she was caught in a flash flood and had to climb a tree to save her life. I loved the first-person narrative and her no-nonsense dealing with huge obstacles and seemingly impossible situations. She was brave. She was a problem-solver, she was direct and brazen. 

I knew Walls was a great writer from her first book, The Glass Castle. In it, she describes her childhood growing up with parents who were homeless and determined to stay that way. It is an incredible story, and her mother features prominently in the story. This book is about Walls' grandmother, the woman who raised her mother. Half Broke Horses also describes Walls' mother's childhood and we learn more about her unusual life and determined personality. Three generations of interesting, stubborn, courageous women and the forces that helped shape them come together in these two books. Both are enlightening and entertaining. I learned that the line between mental illness and sanity is very thin... There are only hints of the coming of mental illness in this book, however. 

The story of Casey's life is hard to believe. She was larger than life. She broke horses, even as a child, she taught school in very tough circumstances, she became a pilot, she raised two children, she asked for donations for gas on her travels, she fought for an education and did it piece-meal so she could be hired as a teacher, and she did it all during the Depression and under impoverished circumstances. This is the story of GRIT. When she was helping her husband manage the ranch, raising her children, and teaching school, I wondered if she slept at all. There is no mention of recreation of any kind. 

There is one troubling chapter about her encounter with early Mormons, which doesn't show them in the best light. And the granddaughter's knowledge of these and other events is surely limited, but still it all rings with truth. It's refreshing to read the story of a woman who fought back against so many of the dampers that society was putting on women at the time; yet it's not done in any sort of "cause" way. Lily seems to be the ultimate practical person who just used her own common sense to deal with obstacles. 

Another troubling aspect of the story is Lily's beating of her daughter, Rose Mary. It's told with a clear understanding of how she (Lily, the mother) was out of control. Yet she doesn't seem to wallow in guilt or shame about it. She doesn't dwell in remorse. She moves on quickly. This aspect of her personality called into question for me this mother's role in her daughter's later mental illness. And in the daughter's choice of husband who was clearly more of an adventurer and alcoholic than good family material... 

It's been awhile since I've read The Glass Castle, and I'd like to read it again now, knowing the history of the mother. Another enjoyable aspect of this book is Walls' descriptions of the difficulties of farming and raising cattle in arid areas of Texas and Arizona. The land and weather play a vital role in the challenges Lily faces. It's instructive to read about the way, for example, Lily's husband Jim deals with the water shortages. He figured out how to capture the water from the rain by building dams; something that wasn't typically thought of on private land. I really admired this character, Jim, for his quiet knowing ways with animals and nature in general, including human! 

All in all, this book is a keeper.