Book Review: "On Swift Horses" by Shannon Pufahl

It's late April and I can honestly say that there are some cool library books still about even though I think they've given up on my reservations (I have a lot of them and every time I go, they are never done). Anyways, I decided to pick up this book purely because I see it every time I go to the library, it's like it's calling me. On Swift Horses is a book about a woman called Muriel and her brother-in-law Julius, two people who live very separate lives in very separate places - neither definitely contented and both in an odd position in life. As they navigate their new-found lives, their hearts long for something else. I have to say that this book is something else and I am so glad I found it.

The book opens with Muriel who is from Kansas but is now newly married and works at a diner in San Diego. She mourns the loss of her mother who died just before her nineteenth birthday and on top of that, longs for the freedom she had before her marriage. At one point, we find out she once owned her own home outright and gave it up to move to San Diego with her husband (at that point, I would just divorce the guy, a good house is hard to find). When it came to those first few pages of the book I have to say the level of atmosphere was unreal. The writer seemed to capture every single sense, every single sight and every single little fleeting emotion or breath in the air. You guys know how much I love sinking into atmosphere and this is exactly what I'm talking about.

Julius is the strange brother-in-law who is first simply a force of nature and atmosphere, but as the book continues he starts to really have a character. He falls in love with a man called Henry and they begin a love affair. As this is going on, Muriel finds herself increasingly dissatisfied with her life and with her husband, Lee. She seeks to find a way out and begins to embark upon a secrecy of her own. I thought this was a well thought-out plot but I do have to say that there is something oddly convenient about these break outs from the ordinary (or even the dangerous) situations they are in. The great writing doesn't really pick up the story and I don't know whether this is subjectively good or not but I like it: there is not really a massive change or shift in pace. It doesn't feel like I'm being thrown around. It does shift slightly, but not enough to make it jarring.

As we do get into the book though I am sad to say that there are more instances of dialogue here and there, and not just one or two lines either - it's masses of back-and-forths. But, the book retains its ethereal quality because of the fact it is ordinary people trying to find a way to make their lives less ordinary even if that means risking absolutely all the stability they have. One thing I did love about this is that it feels like other really engrossing 20th century novels. I don't agree with one of the reviews in which it states the book feels like Brokeback Mountain because it doesn't. Brokeback Mountain feels more intense. This book feels more like a novel by Richard Yates or even by Larry McMurtry. Especially after reading something like Eleven Kinds of Loneliness.

I have not seen the film and after looking up the film on Wikipedia I will say that is not how I imagined the characters or the aesthetics of the scenes in my head and so, I'll pass. That's all I'm saying on that.

All in all, this book was pretty heavy on the atmosphere which is why I will have to give it full marks. When it comes to the ordinary people and extraordinary risks of the book again, I think it was a total gamble given what the author was writing about but it worked. I'm just very glad I gave this book a chance.