Book 23 Jan 2007 04:28 pm
Coal Black Horse
Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead… it was something. Definitely a Literary marvel, but 100% not my type of reading. It is set in the Civil War, and a boy is sent off by his mother to bring back his father. She basically tells him not to help anyone and not to get help by anyone. He gets help in the form of a horse, described as “coal black.”
A review from Publishers Weekly
Olmstead’s new work (after Stay Here with Me) is a convulsive, bloody Civil War tale that tracks a boy’s search for his father on the battlefield at Gettysburg. At 14, Robey Childs is on the cusp of manhood when he sets off from the family farm at his mother’s behest to find his soldier father and bring him home. A sympathetic farmer loans Robey an uncommonly beautiful and sturdy black horse. On the road, Robey passes carts carrying the maimed and dead, and bands of Native Americans and runaway slaves. A chain of horrific trials begins for Robey when a man dressed as a woman shoots him and steals the horse. He’s taken prisoner as a suspected spy, witnesses a girl’s rape and is caught up in a carnage-drenched raid. However, he survives the attack, is reunited with the stolen horse and sets out again, days later finding his father on the battlefield, mortally wounded. Robey can’t save his father, but he can try to save the raped girl, Rachel, from further violence. His return home and his testimony to what he saw forms a powerful, redemptive narrative.
I am also going to quote the Booklist blurb, because it gives a better idea of who would like this book. So, from Booklist,
Olmstead has fashioned an absorbing tale that is a cross between two of the most respected and widely read Civil War novels. Combining elements of the rite-of-passage motif employed by Stephen Crane in The Red Badge of Courage with the classic odyssey plot device recycled so effectively by Charles Frazier in Cold Mountain (1997), he has provided a fresh perspective on an old–but never timeworn–subject. When 14-year-old Robey Child is sent by his mother to search for his father, a doomed soldier, he witnesses the horrors of war both on and off the battlefield. Arrayed in a jacket (gray on one side, blue on the other) custom made by his mother and riding a talismanic coal black horse, he embarks upon a life-altering journey that will challenge him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Olmstead does not shy away from the brutal reality of warfare, and his starkly powerful descriptions of violence and carnage are harrowing. Civil War buffs will appreciate the attention to detail; general readers will be mesmerized by the powerfully evocative journey. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Basically he has a terrible lot and gets caught up in the Civil War. He sees rape, murder, horrible and terrible deaths, and through it all is set on a mission to find his father, and catch back up with the “Coal Black Horse.” I read this book because, first, what a gorgeous cover, and second, I am interested in horses. It was just not enough for me to like it overall. There were some amazing passages and the writing style was amazing, but definitely not my sort of book. If you like books that can be described as literary fiction, then you would like this. Additionally if you like Civil War fiction, you would like it. Check it out (at your local Independent bookshop!) on April 10th, 2007 when it goes on sale! See if you like it more than me!
Tags: Algonquin Books, Book, books, civil war, coal black horse, embargo, fiction, hardcover, laydown, murder, rape, robert olmstead