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The Horse
Award-winning author Willy Vlautin explores loneliness, art, addiction, regret, love, and hard-won empathy in this poignant novel—his most personal to date—that captures the life of a journeyman musician unable to escape the tragedies of his past.
Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada fifty miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his sixties, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he’s lost, and his life as a touring musician. Hampered by insomnia, bouts of anxiety, and a chronic lethargy that keeps him from moving back to town, Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on—until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind, and utterly helpless.
Al hopes the horse will vanish as mysteriously as he appeared. Yet the animal remains, leaving him in a conundrum. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse’s existence—and what, if anything, he can do—his thoughts are interspersed with memories of his life as a musician, from the moment his mother’s part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his life as a traveling musician begins. He joins various bands—all who perform his songs once they discover his talent–playing casinos, truck stops, clubs, and bars. He falls in love, and finds pockets of companionship and minor success along the way. Never close to stardom or financial success, he continues as a journeyman for decades until alcoholism and a heartbreaking tragedy lead him to the isolation of the barren Nevada desert.
A poignant meditation on art, addiction, loneliness, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands, The Horse is a beautiful, haunting tale from an author working at the height of his powers.
Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada fifty miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his sixties, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he’s lost, and his life as a touring musician. Hampered by insomnia, bouts of anxiety, and a chronic lethargy that keeps him from moving back to town, Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on—until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind, and utterly helpless.
Al hopes the horse will vanish as mysteriously as he appeared. Yet the animal remains, leaving him in a conundrum. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse’s existence—and what, if anything, he can do—his thoughts are interspersed with memories of his life as a musician, from the moment his mother’s part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his life as a traveling musician begins. He joins various bands—all who perform his songs once they discover his talent–playing casinos, truck stops, clubs, and bars. He falls in love, and finds pockets of companionship and minor success along the way. Never close to stardom or financial success, he continues as a journeyman for decades until alcoholism and a heartbreaking tragedy lead him to the isolation of the barren Nevada desert.
A poignant meditation on art, addiction, loneliness, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands, The Horse is a beautiful, haunting tale from an author working at the height of his powers.
194 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2024
249 people are currently reading
8991 people want to read
About the author
Willy Vlautin
23 books1,069 followersWilly Vlautin (born 1967) is an American author and the lead singer and songwriter of Portland, Oregon band Richmond Fontaine. Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, he has released nine studio albums since the late nineties with his band while he has written four novels: The Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, and The Free.
Published in the US, several European and Asian countries, Vlautin's first book, The Motel Life was well received. It was an editor's choice in the New York Times Book Review and named one of the top 25 books of the year by the Washington Post.
His second, Northline was also critically hailed, and Vlautin was declared an important new American literary realist. Famed writer George Pelecanos stated that Northline was his favorite book of the decade. The first edition of this novel came with an original instrumental soundtrack performed by Vlautin and longtime bandmate Paul Brainard.
Vlautin's third novel, Lean on Pete, is the story of a 15-year-old boy who works and lives on a rundown race track in Portland, Oregon and befriends a failed race horse named Lean on Pete. The novel won two Oregon Book Awards: the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and the Peoples Choice Award.
As a novelist, Vlautin has cited writers such as John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver, Barry Gifford, and William Kennedy as influences. HIs writing is highly evocative of the American West; all three of his novels being set in and around Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico. His books explore the circumstances and relationships of people near the bottom of America's social and economic spectrum, itinerant, and often ailed by alcohol addiction.
Published in the US, several European and Asian countries, Vlautin's first book, The Motel Life was well received. It was an editor's choice in the New York Times Book Review and named one of the top 25 books of the year by the Washington Post.
His second, Northline was also critically hailed, and Vlautin was declared an important new American literary realist. Famed writer George Pelecanos stated that Northline was his favorite book of the decade. The first edition of this novel came with an original instrumental soundtrack performed by Vlautin and longtime bandmate Paul Brainard.
Vlautin's third novel, Lean on Pete, is the story of a 15-year-old boy who works and lives on a rundown race track in Portland, Oregon and befriends a failed race horse named Lean on Pete. The novel won two Oregon Book Awards: the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and the Peoples Choice Award.
As a novelist, Vlautin has cited writers such as John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver, Barry Gifford, and William Kennedy as influences. HIs writing is highly evocative of the American West; all three of his novels being set in and around Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico. His books explore the circumstances and relationships of people near the bottom of America's social and economic spectrum, itinerant, and often ailed by alcohol addiction.
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April 7, 2025
3 stars
short review for busy readers:
Another endlessly sad novel from one of the American West's best living writers.
Set in the world of small time touring bands. Stark, direct prose with many well-observed details of everyday life and the Nevada landscape. Hits on Vlautin's themes of people who start disadvantaged, and sink even lower. The horse itself makes up only about 10% of the novel. Unfortunately not as strong as many of this other works.
in detail:
I'm a Willy Vlautin fan. I've read all of his novels, but this one failed to grab me.
That's possibly because Vlautin, a consummate storyteller, has always included "stories within stories" in his novels. That is, one character will ask another to talk to them or to get their mind off their problems, and then follows page after page after page of an unrelated imaginary story.
That's the one thing I dislike about his work, those embedded stories, and I always skim or skip those parts.
Unfortunately, "The Horse" is one long embedded story. The current action is easily told. An old coot of a musician songwriter called Al is holed up on a desolate mining claim. One day, an injured and unresponsive horse shows up outside his cabin. Al doesn't know what to do -- everything he tries to do to help fails -- so he decides to walk the 30 miles to the next ranch to get help from a friend.
Breaking up that very basic story is an entire battery of flashbacks to Al's youth, his career as a musician, his love life, his friends, his enemies, his drinking problem, in an associative flow that's meant to copy how Al's songwriting inspiration works. Story after story after story.
Through those, we are treated to Al's entire life...and it's not very interesting.
This is the major problem of "The Horse". The life of a touring musician is very repetitive and full of routine just in general.
And what it amounts to in the end for kind-hearted, weak-willed Al is "same shit, different band." Same drug and alcohol problems. Same leaping for the big time and not making it. Same unreliable people. Same drunk and bored audience. Same cheap hotels. Same lies. Same tragedies. (Possibly based on Vlautin's own experiences as a touring musician)
The current time events - and the horse - seem to only be there to trigger that dull, extended stroll down memory lane. Which is a real shame, because a current time story focusing on Al and the horse would have made a much more interesting, dynamic novel.
Especially if we're never sure if the horse is real, or a reflective metaphor for Al's own broken-down, injured life.
Many other readers, even first time readers, enjoyed this one. For me as a fan, it's a decent but somewhat disappointing 3-stars.
short review for busy readers:
Another endlessly sad novel from one of the American West's best living writers.
Set in the world of small time touring bands. Stark, direct prose with many well-observed details of everyday life and the Nevada landscape. Hits on Vlautin's themes of people who start disadvantaged, and sink even lower. The horse itself makes up only about 10% of the novel. Unfortunately not as strong as many of this other works.
in detail:
I'm a Willy Vlautin fan. I've read all of his novels, but this one failed to grab me.
That's possibly because Vlautin, a consummate storyteller, has always included "stories within stories" in his novels. That is, one character will ask another to talk to them or to get their mind off their problems, and then follows page after page after page of an unrelated imaginary story.
That's the one thing I dislike about his work, those embedded stories, and I always skim or skip those parts.
Unfortunately, "The Horse" is one long embedded story. The current action is easily told. An old coot of a musician songwriter called Al is holed up on a desolate mining claim. One day, an injured and unresponsive horse shows up outside his cabin. Al doesn't know what to do -- everything he tries to do to help fails -- so he decides to walk the 30 miles to the next ranch to get help from a friend.
Breaking up that very basic story is an entire battery of flashbacks to Al's youth, his career as a musician, his love life, his friends, his enemies, his drinking problem, in an associative flow that's meant to copy how Al's songwriting inspiration works. Story after story after story.
Through those, we are treated to Al's entire life...and it's not very interesting.
This is the major problem of "The Horse". The life of a touring musician is very repetitive and full of routine just in general.
And what it amounts to in the end for kind-hearted, weak-willed Al is "same shit, different band." Same drug and alcohol problems. Same leaping for the big time and not making it. Same unreliable people. Same drunk and bored audience. Same cheap hotels. Same lies. Same tragedies. (Possibly based on Vlautin's own experiences as a touring musician)
The current time events - and the horse - seem to only be there to trigger that dull, extended stroll down memory lane. Which is a real shame, because a current time story focusing on Al and the horse would have made a much more interesting, dynamic novel.
Especially if we're never sure if the horse is real, or a reflective metaphor for Al's own broken-down, injured life.
Many other readers, even first time readers, enjoyed this one. For me as a fan, it's a decent but somewhat disappointing 3-stars.
May 1, 2025
A horse stood in the middle of the road outside the assayer’s office the next morning. It was a sorrel in color and stood motionless in the morning light. Even from inside, twenty yards away, Al could see that something hung from the horse’s left eye…The horse didn’t move, only its breath quickened as Al approached. He could now see its left eye completely swollen shut, the socket encrusted with dried blood and dirt and bits of sagebrush. The right eye was also swollen closed and caked with wet and dried yellow mucus. The horse was blind.--------------------------------------
I like writing songs and for a while I got in a couple of good bands…I guess there’s something about being in a band, even a casino band, when it’s good it feels…I don’t know, I guess it’s like being on a team. It just feels good when everyone is working together and you’re doing a song you like. The noise of it, the sound, feels good, too. It gets inside you and maybe, in a way, you get inside it. You can just sorta disappear from everything, and at the end if people are clapping, well, that’s a plus.Al Ward is sixty-seven years old, and approaching the end of his rope. He is living in the bare-bones assayer’s office on a spent mining claim he had inherited. It is freezing. Out of the blue one night he is faced with two problems. First, figure out if the damaged horse that has taken up residence outside his very humble abode is actually real, and second, what to do about it should he conclude it is not a product of his imagination. He is thirty miles from the nearest human contact. He is comms free and there is a real question whether the ancient car on the property can be teased into running.
Willy Vlautin - image from Oregon ArtsWatch - shot by Danelle Painter
The horse provides a frame for the novel, a place from which we can road trip through Al’s life and to which we can return to track his progress with the challenges at hand. The Horse is a character study of a musician. At fourteen, his mother’s boyfriend takes him to a Buck Owens concert, his first live music exposure.
It wasn’t the suits or the adulation that came from being onstage that attracted him. Nor the idea of money or fame. It was that when they played, he disappeared. When they played, suddenly Al wasn’t Al anymore. He was transported inside the noise and rhythm and melody and story. It was as though suddenly he understood that just by a song playing he was able to vanish from himself.The boyfriend seals Al’s smittenness a month later by gifting him with a 1959 Telecaster and Fender amp. A life in music begins.
Of course he practices constantly, reads everything he can find on music. Of course he has enough talent to matter. Not of course, he begins writing songs and finds he has a talent for that as well. But more importantly he has the drive. As seventeen he joins his first band. We track Al’s career through his frequent, if not entirely continuous, membership in bands specializing in playing casinos, a steady source of musical employment in Reno.
Where I started is the idea of why nobody quits. They keep playing regardless of their success or lack thereof. They just play in different kinds of bands, or they play whatever gigs they can get and they get old. Why does a guy keep chasing art? Or why does a guy keep writing songs when no one really cares about his songs? Why does a person write novels when they never get published? I was interested in that. - from the Oregon Arts Watch interviewWhat is it to be a working-class musician? To be a member of many bands, to be good, pretty good, but never good enough or lucky enough to make the big time? It is a hardscrabble existence, as Al struggles to scrape by, just like most of the people he knows and works with. Willy Vlautin is one of our best living authors. He writes beautifully about downscale characters facing real-world problems. His vibrant writing is where damaged, working-class characters come to be brought to life. Comparisons to Steinbeck are well-deserved. He has played this venue before, in his prior six novels, showing us lives roughly lived, a boxer, an Iraq War casualty, a nursing home attendant, a nurse, a teenage stable worker, high-school-dropout brothers, a soon-to-be-evicted woman gentrified into a lower ring of hell, and plenty more. They have hard lives, but Vlautin also sees the beauty in determination, kindness, the instances of caring and generosity, the spells of love that will touch your heart. These are bright lights in what can be a grim landscape.
It wasn’t until I read Carver’s stories that I realised you could write about the lives of beat-up, working-class Americans like the ones I saw around me in Reno. I wrote my first novel, The Motel Life, for all the guys I knew who didn’t read novels. I wanted to write a book you could read when you were dog-tired after a day’s work: short and really intense. - from The Guardian interviewWe tour Al’s romantic relationships, his great attractions and loves, his heartbreaks, successes and failures, and his ongoing battle with the bottle.
My nerves seem like they’ve always been shot and that don’t look like it’ll ever go away. And since my early twenties I’ve never been able to completely quit drinking. That motherfucker has always been around my neck and I’ve…I’ve never really been at ease anywhere. At least not for very long. Even running away, even out here, I couldn’t escape that. Even when I was in love.”Inspirational fodder for the novel comes from many places, not least Willy’s own life as a musician. The horse arose from a specific incident. He was traveling with a buddy when they came across a blind mustang in the middle of nowhere. A few days later they drove by an abandoned mining claim with only one structure that had not been shot up, and which showed signs of recent residence. At the time, Willy was thinking about packing it in with writing songs and stories, and this seemed like place he might like to hide out for a while.
I was like 45 at that point why I was still doing art like like why was I still writing songs obsessively when arguably you know there's no reason to so I kind of put those two together and started thinking about uh the life of a musician and and why I write songs his whole life why did I write songs my whole life um so it all kind of started there. - from the Poisoned Pen interviewWhile Al, and presumably Willy, did not get into the music biz for fame or riches, there are some characters here are of a different sort. It makes for a nice series of counterpoints.
Vlautin includes, in addition to the lyrics to a few songs, the titles of a vast number that Al had written. It is how he processes his existence. These song titles illuminate how he reacts to the experiences of his life.
Willy talks about disappearing into his art, and ascribes that to Al here, many times. When we first meet him, Al is on the verge of disappearing not so much into himself and the music, but from himself. Is the horse some manifestation of his inner Al, fueled by a lifetime of too-much booze and the impending possibility of a final curtain? Or is it real, and if it
Per usual, Willy Vlautin has written a deeply personal, deeply moving tale, giving us a character to care for and relate to, living a life in an occupation that is likely unfamiliar, and enduring challenges, successes, and failures that are likely to be far too familiar for many of us. It is a life recalled more than examined, painted in washed out colors, with little room for glitzy venues, life lived well enough. Will that prove to be enough to keep playing, keep creating, keep living?
I tried and tried and I disappeared into myself as hard as I could and suddenly it was there. Beauty.Review posted - 4/25/25
Publication date – 07/30/24
I received an ARE of The Horse from Harper in return for a fair review. Thanks, wife.
This review will soon be cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi!
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to Vlautin’s personal and FB pages
Profile – from New Literary Project
Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, Willy Vlautin is the author of seven novels and is the founder of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. Vlautin started writing stories and songs at the age of eleven after receiving his first guitar. Inspired by songwriters and novelists like Paul Kelly, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, William Kennedy, Lucia Berlin, and John Steinbeck, Vlautin works diligently to tell working class stories in his novels and songs.Last I saw he was editing his next book, tentatively titled Russell and Eddie
Vlautin has been the recipient of three Oregon Book Awards, The Nevada Silver Pen Award, and was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. He was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Three of his novels, The Motel Life, Lean on Pete, and The Night Always Comes have been adapted as films. His novels have been translated into fourteen languages. Vlautin teaches at Pacific University’s MFA in Writing program and lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, dog, cats, and horses.
Interviews
-----Time to Connect - Episode #68 – Willy Vlautin – August 19, 2024 - with John Krajicek – video – 1:05:17
-----The Poisoned Pen Bookstore - Willy Vlautin discusses The Horse with Patrick Millikin – video - 1:16:45
From 3:00 re inspiration
-----AmericanaUK - Interview: Willy Vlautin on novels, songwriting, guitars, and horses by Tim Martin
-----OPB - Willy Vlautin’s book ‘The Horse’ is a love letter to music and the American West by Sage Van Wing and/or Geoff Norcross
-----The Guardian - Willy Vlautin: ‘I had a picture of Steinbeck and a picture of the Jam’ by Sean O’Hagan – even though this interview is from 2016, it is as relevant today as it was then
-----Oregon ArtsWatch - A rare breed: Portland author Willy Vlautin talks about his new novel, ‘The Horse’ by Valarie Smith
Prior books by Vlautin I have reviewed
-----2021 - The Night Always Comes
-----2018 - Don't Skip Out on Me
-----2014 - The Free
-----2008 - Northline
Item of Interest from the author
-----HarperCollins - Print Excerpt Chapters 1-4
March 20, 2024
Think of this novel as a portrait of the artist as a Reno songwriter. Willy Vlautin offers up an exquisitely balanced story on the dignity of a life spent making meaning through songwriting. Al Ward never hits the big time, but his lifelong compulsion to write tunes gets him through a tough life. This book is an ode to the truth that artists make what they make--whether it's music or stories or paintings or whatever--whether they ever make a living off of it or not. Ironic that the merits of Al's songs go largely unsung, but we get the sense that that's okay, too. What matters is the making, the process, the craft.
Vlautin is an extremely rare human being in that he has succeeded in making music and writing fiction. This uniqueness lends him a privileged perspective in telling this story. He knows the world Al moves through so that the book reads like getting an insider's look at ways of life in the music industry a lot of us simply wouldn't get otherwise. Here is life on the road, the casino circuit, the small bars in towns you'll never visit.
The way Al mythologizes his and others' lives through songwriting shows somebody making something out of the stuff of life around them. He may be living off of condensed soup on his great uncle's mining claim far out in rural Nevada midwinter, but he is still making sense of things by working on lyrics. When a blind horse appears in need of help, and he makes heroic efforts to save it, the past--and the songs he wrote for himself and others along the way--come back to him. Maybe he didn't get rich and famous in his music career but his creative work affords him better things: dignity and the possibility of grace.
This is the best novel I've ever read about a life pursuing and making art. It just feels right. It also got me hooked on peanut butter and apricot jam sandwiches.
Vlautin is an extremely rare human being in that he has succeeded in making music and writing fiction. This uniqueness lends him a privileged perspective in telling this story. He knows the world Al moves through so that the book reads like getting an insider's look at ways of life in the music industry a lot of us simply wouldn't get otherwise. Here is life on the road, the casino circuit, the small bars in towns you'll never visit.
The way Al mythologizes his and others' lives through songwriting shows somebody making something out of the stuff of life around them. He may be living off of condensed soup on his great uncle's mining claim far out in rural Nevada midwinter, but he is still making sense of things by working on lyrics. When a blind horse appears in need of help, and he makes heroic efforts to save it, the past--and the songs he wrote for himself and others along the way--come back to him. Maybe he didn't get rich and famous in his music career but his creative work affords him better things: dignity and the possibility of grace.
This is the best novel I've ever read about a life pursuing and making art. It just feels right. It also got me hooked on peanut butter and apricot jam sandwiches.
June 28, 2024
This was right up my alley because of the poignant main character and his being a travelling musician/songwriter. Al Ward is in his early sixties, an alcoholic, former songwriter/guitarist, now living a solitary existence in a shack without heat or running water on a mining claim left by a relative.
This tragic figure spoke to me with his daily routine of drinking coffee, stoking the wood stove, heating up cans of soup for meals, writing songs in his notebook, and sleeping (when he could find that peace). One day he spotted a horse outside and wondered if he was hallucinating. Another stoic figure, its eyes were crusted over and presumed blind. As the horse stood in the snow refusing food and water, it became a gnawing point of concern for Al.
The book is a compact 208 pages, and was a quick but fulsome read. Al flashes back through his life, documenting an existence as an aspiring musician, drifting through different band lineups, romantic relationships, touring, and alcoholism. Ironically enough, I enjoyed reading about Al's present day introverted existence rather than being taken back into his past, meeting the numerous characters that touched his life. The sad and mysterious manifestation of the horse and Al's commitment to its well-being was like a burning flame in my heart as I traversed this unique story.
Thank you to the publisher Harper who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
This tragic figure spoke to me with his daily routine of drinking coffee, stoking the wood stove, heating up cans of soup for meals, writing songs in his notebook, and sleeping (when he could find that peace). One day he spotted a horse outside and wondered if he was hallucinating. Another stoic figure, its eyes were crusted over and presumed blind. As the horse stood in the snow refusing food and water, it became a gnawing point of concern for Al.
The book is a compact 208 pages, and was a quick but fulsome read. Al flashes back through his life, documenting an existence as an aspiring musician, drifting through different band lineups, romantic relationships, touring, and alcoholism. Ironically enough, I enjoyed reading about Al's present day introverted existence rather than being taken back into his past, meeting the numerous characters that touched his life. The sad and mysterious manifestation of the horse and Al's commitment to its well-being was like a burning flame in my heart as I traversed this unique story.
Thank you to the publisher Harper who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
August 20, 2024
This is my summer of the novella. I so appreciate a complete story in around 200 pages, especially one as well done as The Horse.
Al Ward is a songwriter and musician, in his 60s, living in a desolate shack near an old mine. He has a simple daily routine, a simple life, but also has quite the story to share. When a horse appears in his life, he doesn’t know if he’s imagining it, or if it’s real… but it begins to consume his days because the horse needs attention and is refusing food and water.
Al’s story dives deep into his past with equal time in his lonely present. As mentioned, this is a shorter, quieter story, but a complete one. Al is a character that will stay with me. It’s also a love letter to Reno in the 1980s.
I especially recommend The Horse for songwriters and musicians or for readers who just absolutely love music because the story is extra memorable in that way.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Al Ward is a songwriter and musician, in his 60s, living in a desolate shack near an old mine. He has a simple daily routine, a simple life, but also has quite the story to share. When a horse appears in his life, he doesn’t know if he’s imagining it, or if it’s real… but it begins to consume his days because the horse needs attention and is refusing food and water.
Al’s story dives deep into his past with equal time in his lonely present. As mentioned, this is a shorter, quieter story, but a complete one. Al is a character that will stay with me. It’s also a love letter to Reno in the 1980s.
I especially recommend The Horse for songwriters and musicians or for readers who just absolutely love music because the story is extra memorable in that way.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
August 7, 2024
Oh my. Willy Vlautin has done it again. He’s created a character – aging country songwriter Al Ward – who could walk off the pages. And with deft strokes, he’s set the character, Al Ward, into a world so authentic that it’s easy to forget he’s writing fiction.
You might say that Al Ward’s world is a petri dish for the emergence of country songs. As he heats up cans of Campell’s soup, gulps down instant coffee, turns to the bottle when things get too rough, and recalls seedy motels and casino lounges, he reflects on his glory days.
There was his interlude with an older and fading band member with who took his virginity, stole his heart, and then left him when Nashville beckoned. And his wife Maxine , a waitress with a troubled childhood whom he loved passionately but couldn’t save. There were the two young Sanchez Brothers, talented and tormented, who offered him a chance at musical immortality. And most of all, there was his guitar and his songs that pour forth with a burning intensity and separate him from the chaff.
These memories emerge in no chronological order but eventually it becomes clear that his life is stuck in a never-ending groove: short-lasting love, too much booze, promising ascension on the circuit followed by ignoramus falls.
When he’s most down and out, a horse appears in the snow outside, broken and possibly blind. The conceit reminds me in ways of a book I just read, Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor, where the whale becomes a metaphor for broken dreams. Like Al, the horse remains battered but standing and Al reflects, “he and the horse were the same…His mind has finally betrayed him by bringing him the saddest thing he could imagine.”
It bears noting that Vlautin is also a songwriter with the band Richmond Fontaine and the Delines. He knows whereof he speaks. This is a stunning book of redemption and reaffirms what a wonderful writer Willy Vluatin is.
You might say that Al Ward’s world is a petri dish for the emergence of country songs. As he heats up cans of Campell’s soup, gulps down instant coffee, turns to the bottle when things get too rough, and recalls seedy motels and casino lounges, he reflects on his glory days.
There was his interlude with an older and fading band member with who took his virginity, stole his heart, and then left him when Nashville beckoned. And his wife Maxine , a waitress with a troubled childhood whom he loved passionately but couldn’t save. There were the two young Sanchez Brothers, talented and tormented, who offered him a chance at musical immortality. And most of all, there was his guitar and his songs that pour forth with a burning intensity and separate him from the chaff.
These memories emerge in no chronological order but eventually it becomes clear that his life is stuck in a never-ending groove: short-lasting love, too much booze, promising ascension on the circuit followed by ignoramus falls.
When he’s most down and out, a horse appears in the snow outside, broken and possibly blind. The conceit reminds me in ways of a book I just read, Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor, where the whale becomes a metaphor for broken dreams. Like Al, the horse remains battered but standing and Al reflects, “he and the horse were the same…His mind has finally betrayed him by bringing him the saddest thing he could imagine.”
It bears noting that Vlautin is also a songwriter with the band Richmond Fontaine and the Delines. He knows whereof he speaks. This is a stunning book of redemption and reaffirms what a wonderful writer Willy Vluatin is.
April 9, 2025
I really enjoyed this novel despite the fairly depressing atmosphere. This snippet from the book’s description says it best: A poignant meditation on art, addiction, loneliness, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in small-time bands.
When we meet Al Ward, he’s an aging songwriter/musician living (though barely) in an abandoned assayer’s office on the site of an old mining claim in the high Nevada desert. His uncle had owned it once, but left it to Al when he passed. It’s not much, but Al lives simply. He’s got a Coleman stove to heat his canned soup, and a wood stove to keep him from freezing to death. Lately, all he’s been doing is “reminiscing”. In this way, we learn his story, bit by bit.
When he was 14, his mother’s boyfriend, Herb, took him to see Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. Herb could tell that Al caught the music bug that night so, soon after, he gave Al his old 1959 Telecaster and a Fender amp. Al could hardly believe his luck. He spent every moment he had learning to play that guitar. He ate with it in his lap, he slept with it, and spent hours playing along to songs on the radio. In general, he was never again seen without it. Before long, he was playing with bands all over the state and beyond.
Luckily, the book has a few light moments, too. My favourites are the lists of songs he’d written—sometimes for his band to record; sometimes for others who’d pay him a fair sum for the songs. But sometimes that would also include all rights to the songs. Maybe he didn’t have a great head for business—especially after discovering alcohol.🙄 Here’s an excerpt to show you some of his great song titles. They always put a smile on my face!😄:
I highly recommend this excellent read!! Two thumbs up!👍👍
4.5 “Where–words–fail–music–speaks” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When we meet Al Ward, he’s an aging songwriter/musician living (though barely) in an abandoned assayer’s office on the site of an old mining claim in the high Nevada desert. His uncle had owned it once, but left it to Al when he passed. It’s not much, but Al lives simply. He’s got a Coleman stove to heat his canned soup, and a wood stove to keep him from freezing to death. Lately, all he’s been doing is “reminiscing”. In this way, we learn his story, bit by bit.
When he was 14, his mother’s boyfriend, Herb, took him to see Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. Herb could tell that Al caught the music bug that night so, soon after, he gave Al his old 1959 Telecaster and a Fender amp. Al could hardly believe his luck. He spent every moment he had learning to play that guitar. He ate with it in his lap, he slept with it, and spent hours playing along to songs on the radio. In general, he was never again seen without it. Before long, he was playing with bands all over the state and beyond.
Luckily, the book has a few light moments, too. My favourites are the lists of songs he’d written—sometimes for his band to record; sometimes for others who’d pay him a fair sum for the songs. But sometimes that would also include all rights to the songs. Maybe he didn’t have a great head for business—especially after discovering alcohol.🙄 Here’s an excerpt to show you some of his great song titles. They always put a smile on my face!😄:
Al grabbed his guitar and the notebook of songs he’d written for Rex and sat at the kitchen table and sang them. “When the Clock Strikes Three and I’m Not Home”; “The Only Way I Know Is Down”; “At a Pay Phone in Baltimore”; “There’s a War Inside Me”; “Hard Times in Easy Town”; “I Hit It Big but It Hit Back Bigger (Now I’m Hitchhiking Home)”; “The Casino Robbery”; “The Big-time Swindle Shakedown”; “Loving Under Red Lights”; “Rundown Raquel’s Hiding in a Room at the Riverside”; “Hard Living, Hard Drinking, Hard Times”; “The Night Connie Came to Room 33.”Now, you might be wondering where “The Horse” comes in. Well, Al meets the horse very late in life, and though the horse doesn’t have what I’d call a “starring role” in the book, it is significant. And that’s all I’ll say about that. This is a terrific novel. And not only is Willy Vlautin a seasoned author, he’s also a seasoned singer/songwriter in his own right. While writing seven novels, he and his bands recorded 14 studio albums. I’d say that makes him uniquely qualified to have written this book!😉
I highly recommend this excellent read!! Two thumbs up!👍👍
4.5 “Where–words–fail–music–speaks” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
July 6, 2024
Five gigantic stars! This is so well done.
At age 67, Al Ward, a talented songwriter with moderate success, stays in a remote miner's shack, subsisting on Campbell's soup, when a lame near-death horse appears on his property. As he tries to save the horse by giving it food and scaring off the coyotes, he realizes that after a life filled with lousy luck and bad decisions, the only chance for redemption lies in risking his life to save the horse. As he battles his thoughts (and staying alive) during the snowstorm, the narrative flashes back to periods of his life that inspired the songs he wrote along the way.
Vlautin is a poetic writer, and this story has so much heart that it sometimes hurts. There are also pockets of humor, and some of the song titles are laugh-out-loud funny. Willy Vlautin is also a songwriter and singer in the Richmond Fontaine and The Delines bands. Readers who want to get a feel for how the songs in the book might sound may wish to listen to some of his albums. For more atmosphere, cue up a playlist of songs by Kris Kristofferson, and also check out the playlist on Faber Radio of songs Al may have played during his casino tours. https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/faber...
Having spent time in Reno during the 1980s, what made this novel so appealing were the Reno settings and the inclusion of many casinos and restaurants that no longer exist, including the now-defunct Landrum's Diner. This charming place had excellent chili-cheese omelets (Google it).
Valutin narrates this in audio, and although I seldom read a book twice, I may have to give this a listen.
This book deserves to be read by anyone wanting a moving redemptive story, and it is highly recommended for book groups.
This is due to be published in July 2024. I thank the publisher, HarperCollins, for the advance reading copy.
At age 67, Al Ward, a talented songwriter with moderate success, stays in a remote miner's shack, subsisting on Campbell's soup, when a lame near-death horse appears on his property. As he tries to save the horse by giving it food and scaring off the coyotes, he realizes that after a life filled with lousy luck and bad decisions, the only chance for redemption lies in risking his life to save the horse. As he battles his thoughts (and staying alive) during the snowstorm, the narrative flashes back to periods of his life that inspired the songs he wrote along the way.
Vlautin is a poetic writer, and this story has so much heart that it sometimes hurts. There are also pockets of humor, and some of the song titles are laugh-out-loud funny. Willy Vlautin is also a songwriter and singer in the Richmond Fontaine and The Delines bands. Readers who want to get a feel for how the songs in the book might sound may wish to listen to some of his albums. For more atmosphere, cue up a playlist of songs by Kris Kristofferson, and also check out the playlist on Faber Radio of songs Al may have played during his casino tours. https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/faber...
Having spent time in Reno during the 1980s, what made this novel so appealing were the Reno settings and the inclusion of many casinos and restaurants that no longer exist, including the now-defunct Landrum's Diner. This charming place had excellent chili-cheese omelets (Google it).
Valutin narrates this in audio, and although I seldom read a book twice, I may have to give this a listen.
This book deserves to be read by anyone wanting a moving redemptive story, and it is highly recommended for book groups.
This is due to be published in July 2024. I thank the publisher, HarperCollins, for the advance reading copy.
April 14, 2025
A Rough Ride... but Worth It
A review of the Harper eBook read concurrently with the HarperAudio audiobook read by the author, both released simultaneously with the Harper hardcover (July 30, 2024) preceded by the Faber & Faber (UK) releases (April 30/May 2, 2024).
This is perhaps the anti-Daisy Jones & The Six, especially if you want tales of bar and casino bands gigging from tavern to tavern, club to club, town to town scrunched together in vans with their equipment and staying in fleabag motels along the way. There are no superstars and million sellers here.
Written as if it was a flashback memoir with beaten-down songwriter/guitarist Al Ward eking out his apparent last days in a shack in mining country, surviving on tinned soup, warmed by a broken wood stove and reminiscing about the "glory" days of the road.
Then one day a broken down old horse appears outside Al's shack. The horse won't eat or drink what Al puts in front of him and from the pus in the horse's eyes Al suspects the horse is blind. He thinks he can save the horse if he can only get to his neighbour's place 30 miles away and obtain veterinary assistance. Al's car is broken down but in the process of trying to save the horse, he may just be able to save himself.
I started The Horse from an Audible Daily Deal (read by the author in a fine and rough world weary voice) and then discovered it available also as a Kindle Daily Deal, so I listened and read in parallel. The eBook allowed me to easily note Al Ward's fictional song titles for the research below.
The Horse is a tough ride, but worth the journey. My 5-star bias here is of course due to its music related content which includes probably 200 fictional song titles, several of them with full lyrics.
Soundtrack, Trivia and Links
Author Willy Vlautin reads from the novel and then performs Mr. Luck and Ms. Doom, one of the songs which he wrote after inventing its fictional title in the book. You can watch the clip on YouTube here.
Front cover of The Delines 2025 album "Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom." Image sourced from Discogs.
Author Willy Vlautin plays guitar and writes songs for the band The Delines (2012-ongoing) and the band's 2025 album Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom contains several songs written from fictional titles first used in The Horse. Amy Boone is the band's vocalist. You can listen to the album on YouTube here or on Spotify here.
Song Titles from The Horse and their page references are:
Track 1. Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (pg. 106)
Track 4. Sitting on the Curb (Watching Our House Burn Down) (pg. 156)
Track 5. There's Nothing Down the Highway (but the Darkness of the Road) (pg. 60)
Track 6. Billy and Lorraine (pg. 165)
Track 8. Nancy and the Pensacola Pimp (pg. 165)
A review of the Harper eBook read concurrently with the HarperAudio audiobook read by the author, both released simultaneously with the Harper hardcover (July 30, 2024) preceded by the Faber & Faber (UK) releases (April 30/May 2, 2024).
This is perhaps the anti-Daisy Jones & The Six, especially if you want tales of bar and casino bands gigging from tavern to tavern, club to club, town to town scrunched together in vans with their equipment and staying in fleabag motels along the way. There are no superstars and million sellers here.
Written as if it was a flashback memoir with beaten-down songwriter/guitarist Al Ward eking out his apparent last days in a shack in mining country, surviving on tinned soup, warmed by a broken wood stove and reminiscing about the "glory" days of the road.
Then one day a broken down old horse appears outside Al's shack. The horse won't eat or drink what Al puts in front of him and from the pus in the horse's eyes Al suspects the horse is blind. He thinks he can save the horse if he can only get to his neighbour's place 30 miles away and obtain veterinary assistance. Al's car is broken down but in the process of trying to save the horse, he may just be able to save himself.
I started The Horse from an Audible Daily Deal (read by the author in a fine and rough world weary voice) and then discovered it available also as a Kindle Daily Deal, so I listened and read in parallel. The eBook allowed me to easily note Al Ward's fictional song titles for the research below.
The Horse is a tough ride, but worth the journey. My 5-star bias here is of course due to its music related content which includes probably 200 fictional song titles, several of them with full lyrics.
Soundtrack, Trivia and Links
Author Willy Vlautin reads from the novel and then performs Mr. Luck and Ms. Doom, one of the songs which he wrote after inventing its fictional title in the book. You can watch the clip on YouTube here.
Front cover of The Delines 2025 album "Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom." Image sourced from Discogs.
Author Willy Vlautin plays guitar and writes songs for the band The Delines (2012-ongoing) and the band's 2025 album Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom contains several songs written from fictional titles first used in The Horse. Amy Boone is the band's vocalist. You can listen to the album on YouTube here or on Spotify here.
Song Titles from The Horse and their page references are:
Track 1. Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (pg. 106)
Track 4. Sitting on the Curb (Watching Our House Burn Down) (pg. 156)
Track 5. There's Nothing Down the Highway (but the Darkness of the Road) (pg. 60)
Track 6. Billy and Lorraine (pg. 165)
Track 8. Nancy and the Pensacola Pimp (pg. 165)
August 2, 2024
A novel like a country song. Full of big emotions and great drama taken in a resigned, matter of fact way. I was afraid it would veer into sentimentalism but it didn't and I came to care for Al, the main character. I had wanted to read something by Willy Vlautin for a long time and am glad I finally did.
Al Ward, a songwriter, is in his sixties and lives alone in an isolated shack somewhere in Nevada, with no electricity and just an old Fender under his bed. He reminisces about his life, the bands he played in, the friends he made, the women he loved. When a blind horse shows up outside, he starts worrying and drinking again.
I listened to the audiobook read beautifully by the author.
Al Ward, a songwriter, is in his sixties and lives alone in an isolated shack somewhere in Nevada, with no electricity and just an old Fender under his bed. He reminisces about his life, the bands he played in, the friends he made, the women he loved. When a blind horse shows up outside, he starts worrying and drinking again.
I listened to the audiobook read beautifully by the author.
October 28, 2024
I don't feel it necessary to review since it's one of most depressing stories I've read which coupled with the overuse of flash backs failed to engage my tastes. But writing is art and individual tastes vary.
"... And that's all I'm gonna say about that.." Forrest Gump
"... And that's all I'm gonna say about that.." Forrest Gump
August 20, 2025
Thank you Harper Perennial for sending me a free copy!
THE HORSE is an interesting read about a man named Al. Now in his 60s, he’s living on an isolated mining claim, miles and miles from civilization. A blind and sickly looking horse shows up on his property one day and Al, on his own for so long, questions whether it’s a figment of his imagination or if he should attempt to get help for the animal.
The story doesn’t go in chronological order. He reflects on his life as a touring musician and all the highs and lows throughout the years. I liked how the author would drop an important revelation about Al but you’d need to wait awhile before more details were revealed. There’s a feeling of sadness throughout the story but it’s also quite beautiful in its own little way. Al’s songwriting was key to providing a good balance so it’s not just a depressing tale about addiction and regret.
A book worth reading if you understand life doesn’t always turn out how you expected.
THE HORSE is an interesting read about a man named Al. Now in his 60s, he’s living on an isolated mining claim, miles and miles from civilization. A blind and sickly looking horse shows up on his property one day and Al, on his own for so long, questions whether it’s a figment of his imagination or if he should attempt to get help for the animal.
The story doesn’t go in chronological order. He reflects on his life as a touring musician and all the highs and lows throughout the years. I liked how the author would drop an important revelation about Al but you’d need to wait awhile before more details were revealed. There’s a feeling of sadness throughout the story but it’s also quite beautiful in its own little way. Al’s songwriting was key to providing a good balance so it’s not just a depressing tale about addiction and regret.
A book worth reading if you understand life doesn’t always turn out how you expected.
April 23, 2024
Well, many of the Vlautin hallmarks are present in The Horse; the spare writing, the downbeat tone, the protagonist on the edge, the dreary Nevada setting.
But this one's a bit of a mess structurally. Most of the novel is told in flashbacks, with the present story about Al finding a horse outside his shack making up hardly any of the book. I can see what Vlautin was trying with this but it just doesn't work and I found it more and more frustrating as the book wore on. It was just too short to pull that off - maybe it would have worked out better if this was longer.
Anyway, even an average Vlautin novel is better than most things out there, and I'm a fan for life, but this was a bit of a disappointment.
But this one's a bit of a mess structurally. Most of the novel is told in flashbacks, with the present story about Al finding a horse outside his shack making up hardly any of the book. I can see what Vlautin was trying with this but it just doesn't work and I found it more and more frustrating as the book wore on. It was just too short to pull that off - maybe it would have worked out better if this was longer.
Anyway, even an average Vlautin novel is better than most things out there, and I'm a fan for life, but this was a bit of a disappointment.
October 1, 2024
I’d never read Willy Vlautin before, though he was highly recommended by several reading friends, so I picked up “The Horse”, and Oh My! I was blown away by this simple, rich, subtle, poignant, deep story.
I realized that it has all the things that make up a great ballad! Which makes sense since both Vlautin and his protagonist Al Ward, are musicians and song writers.
After an eventful (but mostly heartbreaking) life as a musician and alcoholic, Al now in his mid-60s, lives alone in a remote shack near an abandoned mine in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. His car won’t start and he’s 30 miles from civilization. His days are routine (he doesn’t do much) and his diet consists entirely of Campbell’s Soups.
One day a blind and starving horse shows up at his front door. The horse won’t eat or drink, and coyotes have been after it.
What will Al do about the horse?
As Al ponders what he should do about the horse, he reflects on his past; his life and loves, his successes and his mistakes. It makes for a wonderful story, I couldn’t put it down!
I realized that it has all the things that make up a great ballad! Which makes sense since both Vlautin and his protagonist Al Ward, are musicians and song writers.
After an eventful (but mostly heartbreaking) life as a musician and alcoholic, Al now in his mid-60s, lives alone in a remote shack near an abandoned mine in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. His car won’t start and he’s 30 miles from civilization. His days are routine (he doesn’t do much) and his diet consists entirely of Campbell’s Soups.
One day a blind and starving horse shows up at his front door. The horse won’t eat or drink, and coyotes have been after it.
What will Al do about the horse?
As Al ponders what he should do about the horse, he reflects on his past; his life and loves, his successes and his mistakes. It makes for a wonderful story, I couldn’t put it down!
December 20, 2024
Another quiet heartbreaker from the master of the down- and-out.
October 2, 2024
Al is a musician, song writer and, for most of his life, a hard drinking alcoholic. As the narrative progresses, we find Al living on a mining claim that his uncle Mel left him. It is isolated, with no one living closer than 30 miles away. Al has a vehicle but since he hasn't cared for it, it won't start.
One day, a horse appears in the front of Al's home. It is blind and won't eat the food that Al puts out for him. The coyotes come and try to kill the horse but Al chases them away. Al feels that the kindest thing he can do is shoot the horse and put it out of its misery. However, even with his loaded shotgun armed and ready, he can't bring himself to shoot the horse.
As the days go by on the mining claim, Al drinks and reminisces about his past. He thinks about the bands he's played in, the women he knew and loved, the friends he's made, and the songs he's written. He is filled with a lot of guilt, thinking that his life hasn't amounted to anything. "Even hiding out on the claim, away from everything and everyone, he had caused pain to others and his past had continued to haunt him."
Al's life may not have amounted to much in the traditional sense but he's been kind to others, has a moral center and a good heart. Willy Vlautin has painted a clear and deep portrait of a troubled man, most likely with a serious anxiety disorder that he tries to keep in check with alcohol. However, the alcohol takes over and he is on a downward spiral for most of his years.
Al is a man who has known love and loss, friendship and fellowship, and has traded in his life for 'one more drink'. Despite his song writing talent, he is never able to make it big, but he is a gentle and caring man. That's more than many people can say for themselves.
One day, a horse appears in the front of Al's home. It is blind and won't eat the food that Al puts out for him. The coyotes come and try to kill the horse but Al chases them away. Al feels that the kindest thing he can do is shoot the horse and put it out of its misery. However, even with his loaded shotgun armed and ready, he can't bring himself to shoot the horse.
As the days go by on the mining claim, Al drinks and reminisces about his past. He thinks about the bands he's played in, the women he knew and loved, the friends he's made, and the songs he's written. He is filled with a lot of guilt, thinking that his life hasn't amounted to anything. "Even hiding out on the claim, away from everything and everyone, he had caused pain to others and his past had continued to haunt him."
Al's life may not have amounted to much in the traditional sense but he's been kind to others, has a moral center and a good heart. Willy Vlautin has painted a clear and deep portrait of a troubled man, most likely with a serious anxiety disorder that he tries to keep in check with alcohol. However, the alcohol takes over and he is on a downward spiral for most of his years.
Al is a man who has known love and loss, friendship and fellowship, and has traded in his life for 'one more drink'. Despite his song writing talent, he is never able to make it big, but he is a gentle and caring man. That's more than many people can say for themselves.
August 25, 2024
I have to admit I really do like the fact Willy Vlautin is trying new things with his books. The Horse is another step in that direction.
The Horse’s main protagonist is Al Ward: a country musician who has had many ups and downs in his life. Presently he is living in a shack with no electricity or running water. One day a beat up horse appears out of nowhere. Al then remembers all the events in his past from his childhood influences, stints in bands and his marriages. All are told in non chronological order.
What clever is that throughout the book we see a lot of song titles and some lyrics and the majority of them link to events in the novel, It’s up to us to spot the linking title. Most are about Al’s wife Maxine and the wild Mora.
By the book’s conclusion, the horse/Al metaphor becomes clear.
At a brief 200 pages Willy Vlautin provides quite a lot about the country music industry, which I guessed is semi autobiographical as Willy Vlautin played in the influential alt country band Richmond Fontaine and is currently in the more gentle The Delines.
The Horse could posssibly be Vlautin’s strongest work to date: varied , different and eye opening it’s quite a punch of a book.
The Horse’s main protagonist is Al Ward: a country musician who has had many ups and downs in his life. Presently he is living in a shack with no electricity or running water. One day a beat up horse appears out of nowhere. Al then remembers all the events in his past from his childhood influences, stints in bands and his marriages. All are told in non chronological order.
What clever is that throughout the book we see a lot of song titles and some lyrics and the majority of them link to events in the novel, It’s up to us to spot the linking title. Most are about Al’s wife Maxine and the wild Mora.
By the book’s conclusion, the horse/Al metaphor becomes clear.
At a brief 200 pages Willy Vlautin provides quite a lot about the country music industry, which I guessed is semi autobiographical as Willy Vlautin played in the influential alt country band Richmond Fontaine and is currently in the more gentle The Delines.
The Horse could posssibly be Vlautin’s strongest work to date: varied , different and eye opening it’s quite a punch of a book.
October 19, 2024
If you've listened to or read the lyrics to some old country western music sung by Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Waylon Jennings and others, you'll get a grasp on how depressing this book is.
As I did enjoy the atmosphere and recurring themes of recollection of mistakes and the damage it caused, I found myself feeling angry that this broken man kept getting handouts throughout his life. Perhaps there's an iota of truth in that, but also know that is a rarity among broken people.
Good writing, but a bit bothered by the outcome. 3 solid stars.
As I did enjoy the atmosphere and recurring themes of recollection of mistakes and the damage it caused, I found myself feeling angry that this broken man kept getting handouts throughout his life. Perhaps there's an iota of truth in that, but also know that is a rarity among broken people.
Good writing, but a bit bothered by the outcome. 3 solid stars.
August 28, 2024
Willy Vlautin writes in a spare style that hits through to the bone. His characters, even the minor ones, share a grace and strength causing a reader to root for them even as they act deplorably. Here we have a talented musician/songwriter who has never gotten over his demons and finds himself in the Nevada desert with a helpless, blind horse at his doorstep, and the overwhelming need to help it even while doubting its very existence. This audio version gains even more weight by being read in Vlautin's own voice.
September 22, 2024
The Horse was a little too much on Crazy Heart’s corner for its own good (it can’t live up to any comparisons with CH). I liked it and don’t really have anything bad to say about it but I don’t like to engage with depressing art very often and when I do, I need a little more than this book had to offer
The Horse reminded me of Under the Volcano with its main character who just won’t get out of his own way and I have a lot of trouble spending time with those types of characters
The Horse reminded me of Under the Volcano with its main character who just won’t get out of his own way and I have a lot of trouble spending time with those types of characters
May 15, 2024
'We want to be Simon & Garfunkel but punk rock and pissed off.'
RTC later.
May 7, 2024
4.5
Oh Willy V, how I love thee.
It's always such a joy to read Willy's books, to know you're in the hands of a great storyteller.
The Horse follows Al, a man in his 60s living on old mining land in Nevada, when he finds a blind horse on his land. Al becomes desperate to save the horse - feeding him spaghetti, fending off coyotes, and traipsing 30 miles to the nearest neighbour for help. As he does so, his mind drifts to years gone by spent writing songs, performing in one band after another, and drinking far too much booze.
The novel ultimately shows the importance of friendship, of humanity's need for company and love, for compassion and understanding. Life can be hideously messy and it never turns out quite how we think it might, but that's not a reason to give up. There is always something to live for.
The Horse isn't as hard hitting or emotional as Willy's other books but there's still a lot to love here. I don't think I'll forget Al and his horse for a while yet.
Oh Willy V, how I love thee.
It's always such a joy to read Willy's books, to know you're in the hands of a great storyteller.
The Horse follows Al, a man in his 60s living on old mining land in Nevada, when he finds a blind horse on his land. Al becomes desperate to save the horse - feeding him spaghetti, fending off coyotes, and traipsing 30 miles to the nearest neighbour for help. As he does so, his mind drifts to years gone by spent writing songs, performing in one band after another, and drinking far too much booze.
The novel ultimately shows the importance of friendship, of humanity's need for company and love, for compassion and understanding. Life can be hideously messy and it never turns out quite how we think it might, but that's not a reason to give up. There is always something to live for.
The Horse isn't as hard hitting or emotional as Willy's other books but there's still a lot to love here. I don't think I'll forget Al and his horse for a while yet.
December 17, 2024
Damn Willy. He did it again. And my thought was : friends are so important. And dogs. And horses.
Je referme ce livre avec une pensée pour Al et comment un ami sait ce qu’il faut faire pour vous aider. Et quelle vie. Et toujours Reno et le Nevada. Amusant de reconnaître toutes les villes.
Je referme ce livre avec une pensée pour Al et comment un ami sait ce qu’il faut faire pour vous aider. Et quelle vie. Et toujours Reno et le Nevada. Amusant de reconnaître toutes les villes.
March 11, 2025
I've never heard of Vlautin, but I know him now. This book focuses on Al - an alcoholic, musician and songwriter (not necessarily in that order). Al is living on a plot of land in the middle of nowhere Nevada. He survives on soup and minimal necessities. When a horse shows up out of nowhere, Al is determined to save him.
We get Al's life told in flashbacks. His highs and his many lows. Even when he isn't performing on stage, he is always writing songs. He seems to just write them in his sleep. You get to imagine what the songs may sound like with just the title.
Al's struggles with alcohol feel honest and true. His inability to clean up makes him all the more human. I wanted him to stay sober and help that horse live. The story has an edge of direness the entire time, but offers some hope at the end.
I've already requested another book from the library by Vlautin.
We get Al's life told in flashbacks. His highs and his many lows. Even when he isn't performing on stage, he is always writing songs. He seems to just write them in his sleep. You get to imagine what the songs may sound like with just the title.
Al's struggles with alcohol feel honest and true. His inability to clean up makes him all the more human. I wanted him to stay sober and help that horse live. The story has an edge of direness the entire time, but offers some hope at the end.
I've already requested another book from the library by Vlautin.
December 19, 2024
Nu știu de unde să mă apuc… Nu știu ce să fac mai departe. Am dat din nou de una din cărțile acelea la finalul căreia nu știu ce să fac cu mine. Mi-a dat un K.O. emoțional neașteptat, așa că dau aviz diabeticilor să nu citească această recenzie :)
Deși abia m-am întors veselă și cu bateriile încărcate dintr-o vacanță de 2 săptămâni, The Horse m-a desfăcut. Nu în sensul că m-a deprimat. Nu, nu. Efectiv m-a desfăcut. A atins toate corzile mele sensibile. M-a pufnit plânsul la finele cărții. Pur și simplu mi-au cedat ochii.
The Horse – what a ride… Pentru mine, una din cele mai sinestezice lecturi din ultimii ani – amestecând muzică, imagistică, senzații fizice vii într-un vârtej din acela care îți ia suflul pentru câteva secunde. O poveste despre zdrobire, disperare, adicție, pierdere și răscumpărare spusă în mai puțin de 200 de pagini, dar surprinzător de completă.
Willy Vlautin ne duce într-un colț al Americii pe care îl vedem rar în literatură, dar care pulsează de o autenticitate copleșitoare. Al Ward, protagonistul, un muzician ajuns la apogeul disperării, e portretizat cu o sinceritate brutală, dar plină de compasiune. În peisajul dezolant al unui fost oraș minier din Nevada, viața lui izolată și încărcată de regrete ia o turnură neașteptată când găsește un cal orb și rănit. Acest animal devine un simbol al luptei lui interioare – pentru a se salva pe sine și a găsi, poate, o urmă de sens în tot haosul.
Romanul e o simfonie a trăirilor umane. În fiecare pagină, Vlautin te duce în mintea unui om frânt de greutăți, dar care încă încearcă să găsească frumusețe în lume. Muzica, atât de importantă în viața lui Al, își lasă ecoul în fiecare frază. Se simte viața pe drumuri, amărăciunea viselor pierdute, dar și micile momente de grație care te fac să nu renunți.
Și calul… calul acela! Vulnerabilitatea lui, dar și lupta pentru supraviețuire, oglindesc perfect starea lui Al. Este o metaforă puternică despre fragilitate și curaj, despre cât de profund ne putem conecta cu alții – oameni sau animale – atunci când ne regăsim în durerea lor.
Stilul simplu al lui Vlautin este înșelător de profund. Fiecare cuvânt cântărește enorm, iar emoțiile curg prin text ca un râu subteran pe care îl simți chiar dacă nu-l vezi. The Horse este o meditație asupra vieții, a pierderii și a șansei de a o lua de la capăt.
Dacă ești în căutarea unei povești care să te scuture, să te facă să plângi, dar care să-ți lase în același timp un sentiment de speranță și să te inspire să vezi lumea dintr-o perspectivă nouă, The Horse este alegerea perfectă. Un roman despre cât de greu este să te salvezi pe tine însuți, dar și cât de frumos poate fi atunci când încerci. E, de asemenea, un roman sadea american, cu acel aer inconfundabil al peisajelor, personajelor și sentimentelor pe care eu una nu văd să existe nicăieri altundeva.
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I don’t even know where to begin… or what to do with myself now. I’ve stumbled upon one of those books again—the kind that leaves you completely at a loss by the time you turn the last page. It blindsided me with an emotional knockout punch, so consider this a fair warning to the emotionally fragile: proceed with caution! :)
Fresh off a two-week vacation, feeling cheerful and recharged, I didn’t suspect the weight that the book could have on me. The Horse completely floored me. Not in a depressing way—no, not at all. It unraveled me in the best and rawest way possible, tugging on every sensitive string I didn’t even know I had. By the time I finished, I couldn’t hold back the tears. My eyes just gave out.
The Horse – what a ride… For me, it’s one of the most synesthetic reads of recent years – blending music, imagery, and vivid physical sensations into a whirlwind that takes your breath away for a few seconds. A story about brokenness, despair, addiction, loss, and redemption, told in less than 200 pages but surprisingly complete.
Willy Vlautin takes us to a corner of America that we rarely see in literature, a place brimming with overwhelming authenticity. Al Ward, the protagonist, a musician at the peak of his despair, is portrayed with brutal honesty but also with deep compassion. In the desolate landscape of a former mining town in Nevada, his isolated life, weighed down by regret, takes an unexpected turn when he finds a blind and injured horse. This animal becomes a symbol of his inner struggle – to save himself and, perhaps, to find a shred of meaning amidst the chaos.
The novel is a symphony of human emotions. With every page, Vlautin takes you inside the mind of a man shattered by life’s challenges, yet still striving to find beauty in the world. Music, so integral to Al’s life, resonates through every sentence. You feel the life on the road, the bitterness of lost dreams, and those small moments of grace that make you keep going.
And the horse… that horse! Its vulnerability, yet its fight for survival, mirrors Al’s own state. It’s a powerful metaphor for fragility and courage, showing how deeply we can connect with others – be they humans or animals – when we recognize our pain in theirs.
Vlautin’s simple style is deceptively profound. Every word carries immense weight, and the emotions flow through the text like an underground river you can feel even if you can’t see it. The Horse is a meditation on life, loss, and the chance to start over.
If you’re seeking a story that will touch your soul, bring you to tears while still leaving you with a sense of hope, and inspire you to see the world through a fresh perspective, The Horse is the perfect choice. It’s a novel about how hard it is to save yourself, but also about how beautiful it can be when you try.
Deși abia m-am întors veselă și cu bateriile încărcate dintr-o vacanță de 2 săptămâni, The Horse m-a desfăcut. Nu în sensul că m-a deprimat. Nu, nu. Efectiv m-a desfăcut. A atins toate corzile mele sensibile. M-a pufnit plânsul la finele cărții. Pur și simplu mi-au cedat ochii.
The Horse – what a ride… Pentru mine, una din cele mai sinestezice lecturi din ultimii ani – amestecând muzică, imagistică, senzații fizice vii într-un vârtej din acela care îți ia suflul pentru câteva secunde. O poveste despre zdrobire, disperare, adicție, pierdere și răscumpărare spusă în mai puțin de 200 de pagini, dar surprinzător de completă.
Willy Vlautin ne duce într-un colț al Americii pe care îl vedem rar în literatură, dar care pulsează de o autenticitate copleșitoare. Al Ward, protagonistul, un muzician ajuns la apogeul disperării, e portretizat cu o sinceritate brutală, dar plină de compasiune. În peisajul dezolant al unui fost oraș minier din Nevada, viața lui izolată și încărcată de regrete ia o turnură neașteptată când găsește un cal orb și rănit. Acest animal devine un simbol al luptei lui interioare – pentru a se salva pe sine și a găsi, poate, o urmă de sens în tot haosul.
Romanul e o simfonie a trăirilor umane. În fiecare pagină, Vlautin te duce în mintea unui om frânt de greutăți, dar care încă încearcă să găsească frumusețe în lume. Muzica, atât de importantă în viața lui Al, își lasă ecoul în fiecare frază. Se simte viața pe drumuri, amărăciunea viselor pierdute, dar și micile momente de grație care te fac să nu renunți.
Și calul… calul acela! Vulnerabilitatea lui, dar și lupta pentru supraviețuire, oglindesc perfect starea lui Al. Este o metaforă puternică despre fragilitate și curaj, despre cât de profund ne putem conecta cu alții – oameni sau animale – atunci când ne regăsim în durerea lor.
Stilul simplu al lui Vlautin este înșelător de profund. Fiecare cuvânt cântărește enorm, iar emoțiile curg prin text ca un râu subteran pe care îl simți chiar dacă nu-l vezi. The Horse este o meditație asupra vieții, a pierderii și a șansei de a o lua de la capăt.
Dacă ești în căutarea unei povești care să te scuture, să te facă să plângi, dar care să-ți lase în același timp un sentiment de speranță și să te inspire să vezi lumea dintr-o perspectivă nouă, The Horse este alegerea perfectă. Un roman despre cât de greu este să te salvezi pe tine însuți, dar și cât de frumos poate fi atunci când încerci. E, de asemenea, un roman sadea american, cu acel aer inconfundabil al peisajelor, personajelor și sentimentelor pe care eu una nu văd să existe nicăieri altundeva.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t even know where to begin… or what to do with myself now. I’ve stumbled upon one of those books again—the kind that leaves you completely at a loss by the time you turn the last page. It blindsided me with an emotional knockout punch, so consider this a fair warning to the emotionally fragile: proceed with caution! :)
Fresh off a two-week vacation, feeling cheerful and recharged, I didn’t suspect the weight that the book could have on me. The Horse completely floored me. Not in a depressing way—no, not at all. It unraveled me in the best and rawest way possible, tugging on every sensitive string I didn’t even know I had. By the time I finished, I couldn’t hold back the tears. My eyes just gave out.
The Horse – what a ride… For me, it’s one of the most synesthetic reads of recent years – blending music, imagery, and vivid physical sensations into a whirlwind that takes your breath away for a few seconds. A story about brokenness, despair, addiction, loss, and redemption, told in less than 200 pages but surprisingly complete.
Willy Vlautin takes us to a corner of America that we rarely see in literature, a place brimming with overwhelming authenticity. Al Ward, the protagonist, a musician at the peak of his despair, is portrayed with brutal honesty but also with deep compassion. In the desolate landscape of a former mining town in Nevada, his isolated life, weighed down by regret, takes an unexpected turn when he finds a blind and injured horse. This animal becomes a symbol of his inner struggle – to save himself and, perhaps, to find a shred of meaning amidst the chaos.
The novel is a symphony of human emotions. With every page, Vlautin takes you inside the mind of a man shattered by life’s challenges, yet still striving to find beauty in the world. Music, so integral to Al’s life, resonates through every sentence. You feel the life on the road, the bitterness of lost dreams, and those small moments of grace that make you keep going.
And the horse… that horse! Its vulnerability, yet its fight for survival, mirrors Al’s own state. It’s a powerful metaphor for fragility and courage, showing how deeply we can connect with others – be they humans or animals – when we recognize our pain in theirs.
Vlautin’s simple style is deceptively profound. Every word carries immense weight, and the emotions flow through the text like an underground river you can feel even if you can’t see it. The Horse is a meditation on life, loss, and the chance to start over.
If you’re seeking a story that will touch your soul, bring you to tears while still leaving you with a sense of hope, and inspire you to see the world through a fresh perspective, The Horse is the perfect choice. It’s a novel about how hard it is to save yourself, but also about how beautiful it can be when you try.
May 28, 2024
I’m a Vlautin stan for sure and this hits the classic storytelling mode of the man whether it be through prose or song.
Al Shaw is in his mid-sixties and living on his uncle’s old mining claim when a blind horse rocks up. Al tries to care for it but struggles and unable to start his car sets off to get help to save the poor creature. Amid this he is looking back on his life as a guitarist/songwriter for a variety of country bands in Nevada whether they were cover bands, young upstarts or those looking for him to write them some songs to get out of where they are at.
There are plenty of peaks and troughs along the way for Al, who somehow always finds himself being sabotaged from taking the leap into being what might be considered a proper musician and falling back on working as a cook in local diners, even owning a diner at one point in the novel. Al knows what he wants but doesn’t have the confidence to grab it. He sells original songs to folks and gives up any claim to them even going on to hearing on the radio.
There is something discomfiting about the structure of the novel, but for me it came together in the end. I like to think Vlautin had a blast producing the song titles attributed to Al and there was a notable line about how his songs just came out sad with no intention for it to be thus. There was also allusion to the period where Vlautin tried putting prose to song, which was a mixed success I’d say.
I am sure a lot of the small tales of life on the road touring and the way the various bands drift or fall apart come from his experiences, but he attributes influence to a few other songwriters in the acknowledgements, so it is likely more of a melange of things.
Another wonderful novel from a guy who definitely sits on my reading Mount Rushmore.
Al Shaw is in his mid-sixties and living on his uncle’s old mining claim when a blind horse rocks up. Al tries to care for it but struggles and unable to start his car sets off to get help to save the poor creature. Amid this he is looking back on his life as a guitarist/songwriter for a variety of country bands in Nevada whether they were cover bands, young upstarts or those looking for him to write them some songs to get out of where they are at.
There are plenty of peaks and troughs along the way for Al, who somehow always finds himself being sabotaged from taking the leap into being what might be considered a proper musician and falling back on working as a cook in local diners, even owning a diner at one point in the novel. Al knows what he wants but doesn’t have the confidence to grab it. He sells original songs to folks and gives up any claim to them even going on to hearing on the radio.
There is something discomfiting about the structure of the novel, but for me it came together in the end. I like to think Vlautin had a blast producing the song titles attributed to Al and there was a notable line about how his songs just came out sad with no intention for it to be thus. There was also allusion to the period where Vlautin tried putting prose to song, which was a mixed success I’d say.
I am sure a lot of the small tales of life on the road touring and the way the various bands drift or fall apart come from his experiences, but he attributes influence to a few other songwriters in the acknowledgements, so it is likely more of a melange of things.
Another wonderful novel from a guy who definitely sits on my reading Mount Rushmore.
Read
July 13, 2024jo-booksy
Titta vad jag hittade!
Enligt Bokus finns den på svenska 7/6 :-)
Titta vad jag hittade!
Enligt Bokus finns den på svenska 7/6 :-)
October 20, 2024
The right book at the right time. Gonna make a playlist and I'm sure I'll be back to reread this before the year is out
Edit Oct 2024: waugh
Edit Oct 2024: waugh
March 11, 2025
I have a fondness for the melancholy and this book fits the bill. The story in its 194 pages is the epitome of the word poignant and there were times I just had to put it down because of sadness overload. The ending was affecting - this was a book I won't forget. It might end up being my favorite book of the year when the long days of December run their course.
The main character in The Horse is Al Ward, a sixty-something ex-musician living in a shack in an abandoned mining camp which he inherited from a relative. He survives on cases of Campbells soup, has no running water or electricity, and his old car will not start. As the novel opens, winter has set in and Al has all but given up on caring about anything.
One day a horse shows up on the gravel path by his shack. The horse is very old, its hide is scarred, its eyes are covered in crust, and it won't move. Al brings water and spaghetti to it but it won't eat what he brings. It just stands there day and night and eats snow. Al takes pity on the horse and feels helpless as he is miles away from the next home and has no way to contact anyone to come to the horse's aid. Plus, he can hear coyotes and night and the horse would be an easy target if they find it.
The novel is told in a series of flashbacks which outline the trials, tribulations, and successes of Al's life from boyhood until he arrived in his present situation. Al made a living as a prolific and successful songwriter, and played in and toured with a number of small-time bands in between low paying manual labor jobs. He struggled with alcoholism, family issues, and with relationships. Despite the novel being on the short side, Al and the characters that shaped his life are thoroughly fleshed out and memorable.
So you read a chapter about this sad, elderly horse and then flash back to read about how Al's life is unraveling and how broken he is. It was all so well told. I can't stop thinking about it.
After I finished the book I searched podcasts for The Horse and found author Willy Vlautin interviewed on "Book Nook". In the episode Willy talks about the book was inspired by his encounter with a elderly, beat up, and scarred horse in the desert and also by his experiences being in a band, he is in the band the Delines. He states that John Steinbeck is one of his influences and I would say that the tone and setting of The Horse felt very Steinbeck-ish to me.
Absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure how I heard about this novel or who recommended this to me but I owe that person. I couldn't like this any more.
The main character in The Horse is Al Ward, a sixty-something ex-musician living in a shack in an abandoned mining camp which he inherited from a relative. He survives on cases of Campbells soup, has no running water or electricity, and his old car will not start. As the novel opens, winter has set in and Al has all but given up on caring about anything.
One day a horse shows up on the gravel path by his shack. The horse is very old, its hide is scarred, its eyes are covered in crust, and it won't move. Al brings water and spaghetti to it but it won't eat what he brings. It just stands there day and night and eats snow. Al takes pity on the horse and feels helpless as he is miles away from the next home and has no way to contact anyone to come to the horse's aid. Plus, he can hear coyotes and night and the horse would be an easy target if they find it.
The novel is told in a series of flashbacks which outline the trials, tribulations, and successes of Al's life from boyhood until he arrived in his present situation. Al made a living as a prolific and successful songwriter, and played in and toured with a number of small-time bands in between low paying manual labor jobs. He struggled with alcoholism, family issues, and with relationships. Despite the novel being on the short side, Al and the characters that shaped his life are thoroughly fleshed out and memorable.
So you read a chapter about this sad, elderly horse and then flash back to read about how Al's life is unraveling and how broken he is. It was all so well told. I can't stop thinking about it.
After I finished the book I searched podcasts for The Horse and found author Willy Vlautin interviewed on "Book Nook". In the episode Willy talks about the book was inspired by his encounter with a elderly, beat up, and scarred horse in the desert and also by his experiences being in a band, he is in the band the Delines. He states that John Steinbeck is one of his influences and I would say that the tone and setting of The Horse felt very Steinbeck-ish to me.
Absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure how I heard about this novel or who recommended this to me but I owe that person. I couldn't like this any more.
May 31, 2024
The horse is Vlautins most personal work to date.
Following an old washed up musician, living alone with all his regrets , on his uncles mining claim, until he meets a horse that's even more broken than he is.
But within this simple premise Vlautin manages to craft a vivid picture of a sweet, broken, deeply sad man, whose never caught a break.
It tackles alot of stuff. Why people carry on even when they know they're not getting anywhere?
Why people play music?
And why are some people just born sad?
It doesn't answer any of these questions. But it makes you think.
Recency bias aside this might be my favourite of his 7 novels.
I was very lucky to hear him speak about the experiences he's been through that helped shape the novel in Manchester.
Basically a book that just goes to further confirm why willy vlautin Is one of my favourite authors working today.
Following an old washed up musician, living alone with all his regrets , on his uncles mining claim, until he meets a horse that's even more broken than he is.
But within this simple premise Vlautin manages to craft a vivid picture of a sweet, broken, deeply sad man, whose never caught a break.
It tackles alot of stuff. Why people carry on even when they know they're not getting anywhere?
Why people play music?
And why are some people just born sad?
It doesn't answer any of these questions. But it makes you think.
Recency bias aside this might be my favourite of his 7 novels.
I was very lucky to hear him speak about the experiences he's been through that helped shape the novel in Manchester.
Basically a book that just goes to further confirm why willy vlautin Is one of my favourite authors working today.
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