PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewGaffney has a breathtaking and at times nearly otherworldly ability to read horses by closely studying their bodies, and then to capture what she sees with her prose ... Memoir is not journalism, but since the mode of this book is one of intimate observation, the use of composite characters feels a little dismaying; if you read that author’s note and then follow along as Gaffney draws characters like Tony, Randy, Eliza and Joey with tremendous sensitivity and sympathy, it brings you up short to realize that in fact there may be no Joey, the defeated young man who forms a bond with the wounded horse, Luna, after she watches him rescue a litter of feral kittens ... A gift for documenting infinitesimal gradations of fear, anger or sheer sensory joy animates Gaffney’s scenes of the interactions of the residents and the horses ... But the book moves sometimes disjointedly between these deeply perceptive parts and Gaffney’s emphasis on what she describes as her own brokenness ... you can’t help wanting Gaffney to stay with the horses, with her truly transcendent writing about them and their world, honoring them as creatures with exquisitely refined and attuned senses, and a silent yet visible language that will reward those who learn to read it.
