Lord of Misrule

By: Jaimy Gordon

Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor

National Book Award, Fiction, 2010

At the rock-bottom end of the sport of kings sits the ruthless and often violent world of cheap horse racing, where trainers and jockeys, grooms and hotwalkers, loan sharks and touts are all struggling to take an edge, or prove their luck, or just survive.

Equal parts Nathanael West, Damon Runyon and Eudora Welty, Lord of Misrule follows five characters -- scarred and lonely dreamers in the American grain -- through a year and four races at Indian Mound Downs, downriver from Wheeling, West Virginia. Horseman Tommy Hansel has a scheme to rescue his failing stable: He'll ship four unknown but ready horses to Indian Mound Downs, run them in cheap claiming races at long odds, and then gut out fast before anyone notices. The problem is, at this rundown riverfront half-maile racetrack in the Northern Panhandle, everybody notices -- veteran groom Medicine Ed, Kidstuff the blacksmith, old lady "gyp" Deucey Gifford, stall superintendent Suitcase Smithers, eventually even the ruled-off "racetrack financier" Two-Tie and the ominous leading trainer, Joe Dale Bigg. But no one bothers to factor in Tommy Hansel's go-fer girlfriend, Maggie Koderer. Like the beautiful, used-up, tragic horses she comes to love, Maggie has just enough heart to wire everyone's flagging hopes back to the source of all luck.

©2010 Jaimy Gordon (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Tough read

I'm a horse lover and was really looking forward to an enjoyable read. I was terribly disappointed to find it very hard going. Not being conversant with racetrack lingo I had a hard time understanding what was going on even when there were explanations because they were made using that same lingo. I gave up then returned to the book several times but have not yet been able to get into it. I feel like a hopelessly lost outsider struggling and failing to comprehend what's going on. Perhaps reading the actual book first will help but at present it seems a waste. I'm looking for entertainment not a study course in which I have to have reference books at hand.
On another note, the reader was a surprise, being female (If left up to me I would have opted for a male reader), but I felt she had a good grasp of the characters and an excellent range of voices and I quickly became comfortable with her.

Don’t buy this if you think it’s about horses

I got this because it was on a list of horse books. This is not a horse book. It is a good characterization of the denizens of a low end race track and their sordid lives.

Horrible Recording

I could not get past how bad the recording quality was. It is hard to hear, unclear, and unenthusiastic.

Over-wrought

What would have made Lord of Misrule better?

Muddy descriptions and language need a good, hard edit. So much going on, nothing stands out as authentic or interesting. The language is just plain hard to follow at times. And what, exactly, is Gordon trying to do with those occasional shifts to second-person perspective? A total fail.

Has Lord of Misrule turned you off from other books in this genre?

Books on horse racing? Not necessarily. But I won't be reading any more of this author.

Would you be willing to try another one of Myra Lucretia Taylor’s performances?

Yes. The reader is not the problem. It's the condescending dialect that Gordon saddles some of her characters with that gets under the skin.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Lord of Misrule?

Over-wrought sex scenes and scenes with second-person narration.

Any additional comments?

I can usually find something good in just about any book. But this one irritates me.

I Felt Like I Was Working at the Track

What did you love best about Lord of Misrule?

The dialogue and the voices of the characters was great; and the characters themselves were also fascinating and real in a "Runyonesque" sort of way.

What did you like best about this story?

I really liked the general flow of the story.

Which scene was your favorite?

There were many scenes that worked well, but one does not particularly stand out over the others.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, but I seldom do.

Any additional comments?

The narrator (or reader) did an excellent job with this book. She made the characters and the story feel very real.

Worthy of the National Book Award

Marvelous language, fully developed characters that draw you in instantly. Myra Lucretia Taylor is a masterful reader who has made each character distinctive. A great listen even if you aren't into horses or racing.