What if
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
“Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town-riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.
Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds-against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn’t fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit.
One of my favorite books growing up was the Little House on the Prairie series. As a child growing up in an immigrant neighborhood in Queens, I was as far removed from the American West as could possibly be, but the resilient pioneer spirit of Laura and her family resonated in ways that even I couldn’t articulate back then. Two decades later, I’m glad I stumbled upon Half Broke Horses by chance in the library, because Lily Casey Smith is another pioneer woman worth knowing.
Part family lore, part biography, and part fiction, Half Broke Horses is a compelling account of Lily Casey Smith’s extraordinary life from the very first page. Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Lily had a hardscrabble childhood in the dry lands of East Texas, surviving flash floods, tornadoes, and brutal heat waves with her father, tempestuous mother, and two siblings. By her teens she was living on her own-“looking for a Purpose” as her father liked to say-and in fact journeyed solo five hundred miles on horseback to reach her first teaching job. Walls portrays her grandmother with a simple, forthright voice, one that perfectly captures Lily’s indomitable spirit in both the best of times and the worst of times. When Lily had to leave school because her father had spent her tuition money, she is at first devastated but is bolstered by what the nun tells her, “You’re luckier than most girls here-God gave you the wherewithal to handle setbacks like this” (42).
As fascinating as Lily’s life story is, Walls’ depiction of the times she lived through is equally compelling. Lily lived through two World Wars; Prohibition (which didn’t make much of an impact out West); the advent of the modern technology like telephones and indoor plumbing (which her parents were disgusted by, since who would want a lavatory inside the house?); and the rising popularity of cars and airplanes, both of which she learned how to operate. At times, I had to stop and wonder: Was there anything this woman couldn’t do? I borrowed this book from my library, but I think I’ll have to reserve a place in my own library, next to stories of other kick-ass women.
Just One Year by Gayle Forman
When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is-Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day-that girl-makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question whether the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought…
The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make the accidents that happen-and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.
Mild spoilers for Just One Day
Although a part of me was reduced to one hapless, fangirling puddle upon reading Allyson and Willem’s romantic one day in Paris, the other part of me couldn’t help but be coldly pragmatic. Girl, for real? You don’t know his full name; you let him call you a nickname instead of your actual name; you never even exchanged email addresses-and you fancy yourself head over heels in love? And when the inevitable abrupt ending happens, I was pissed at Allyson’s naiveté but also at Willem’s douche-ness: How could you do that to a girl?!
So, I’m glad Gayle Forman reminds us that there are two sides to every story, and gives Willem a chance to explain himself in Just One Year-and the picture that emerges is a more complicated, sobering one than I initially thought. According to the jacket copy, Willem is on a quest to reconnect with Lulu, but just like Allyson’s journey, he doesn’t realize he’s really on a quest to reconnect with himself. Living like a vagabond ever since his father’s sudden passing, Willem thinks he’s simply a carefree soul who goes “where the wind takes him,” but really he has been living adrift, isolated from everyone he knows and loves. His best friend Broodje accuses him of cutting their friendship out of his life, and wonders why he has become so closed off. His relationship with his mother is even more strained: Although he doesn’t admit it, he is deeply hurt when she immediately decides to sell the houseboat his father had built for the family, and moves promptly to India. In his quest to find Lulu, he realizes how barren his life had become before meeting her: “It was like she gave me her whole self, and somehow as a result, I gave her more of myself than I even realized there was to give. But then she was gone. And only after I’d been filled up by her, by that day, did I understand how empty I really was” (208). Willem’s journey to self-knowledge is hard-won: not only repairing the fractured relationships in his life, but also figuring out what makes him happy in life.
I’m glad I read Just One Year soon after Just One Day, or maybe this was a mixed blessing, because it was so full of agonizing, YOU-JUST-MISSED-EACH-OTHER moments. From the apologetic postcards Willem left in Allyson’s suitcase (which she doesn’t bother to check) to the supposed note he left for her before leaving (that he was going to get breakfast), there are plenty of hair-pulling moments that make you want to rail at the whimsy of fate (or at Gayle Forman’s meticulous plotting). (That scene in Mexico, on New Year’s Eve, was more painful than reading a whole page full of Missed Connections entries on Craigslist.) But when they finally find each other-I couldn’t help but download the epilogue, Just One Night-all is right with the world after all.
“Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town-riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.
Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds-against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn’t fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit.
One of my favorite books growing up was the Little House on the Prairie series. As a child growing up in an immigrant neighborhood in Queens, I was as far removed from the American West as could possibly be, but the resilient pioneer spirit of Laura and her family resonated in ways that even I couldn’t articulate back then. Two decades later, I’m glad I stumbled upon Half Broke Horses by chance in the library, because Lily Casey Smith is another pioneer woman worth knowing.
Part family lore, part biography, and part fiction, Half Broke Horses is a compelling account of Lily Casey Smith’s extraordinary life from the very first page. Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Lily had a hardscrabble childhood in the dry lands of East Texas, surviving flash floods, tornadoes, and brutal heat waves with her father, tempestuous mother, and two siblings. By her teens she was living on her own-“looking for a Purpose” as her father liked to say-and in fact journeyed solo five hundred miles on horseback to reach her first teaching job. Walls portrays her grandmother with a simple, forthright voice, one that perfectly captures Lily’s indomitable spirit in both the best of times and the worst of times. When Lily had to leave school because her father had spent her tuition money, she is at first devastated but is bolstered by what the nun tells her, “You’re luckier than most girls here-God gave you the wherewithal to handle setbacks like this” (42).
As fascinating as Lily’s life story is, Walls’ depiction of the times she lived through is equally compelling. Lily lived through two World Wars; Prohibition (which didn’t make much of an impact out West); the advent of the modern technology like telephones and indoor plumbing (which her parents were disgusted by, since who would want a lavatory inside the house?); and the rising popularity of cars and airplanes, both of which she learned how to operate. At times, I had to stop and wonder: Was there anything this woman couldn’t do? I borrowed this book from my library, but I think I’ll have to reserve a place in my own library, next to stories of other kick-ass women.
Just One Year by Gayle Forman
When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is-Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day-that girl-makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question whether the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought…
The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make the accidents that happen-and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.
Mild spoilers for Just One Day
Although a part of me was reduced to one hapless, fangirling puddle upon reading Allyson and Willem’s romantic one day in Paris, the other part of me couldn’t help but be coldly pragmatic. Girl, for real? You don’t know his full name; you let him call you a nickname instead of your actual name; you never even exchanged email addresses-and you fancy yourself head over heels in love? And when the inevitable abrupt ending happens, I was pissed at Allyson’s naiveté but also at Willem’s douche-ness: How could you do that to a girl?!
So, I’m glad Gayle Forman reminds us that there are two sides to every story, and gives Willem a chance to explain himself in Just One Year-and the picture that emerges is a more complicated, sobering one than I initially thought. According to the jacket copy, Willem is on a quest to reconnect with Lulu, but just like Allyson’s journey, he doesn’t realize he’s really on a quest to reconnect with himself. Living like a vagabond ever since his father’s sudden passing, Willem thinks he’s simply a carefree soul who goes “where the wind takes him,” but really he has been living adrift, isolated from everyone he knows and loves. His best friend Broodje accuses him of cutting their friendship out of his life, and wonders why he has become so closed off. His relationship with his mother is even more strained: Although he doesn’t admit it, he is deeply hurt when she immediately decides to sell the houseboat his father had built for the family, and moves promptly to India. In his quest to find Lulu, he realizes how barren his life had become before meeting her: “It was like she gave me her whole self, and somehow as a result, I gave her more of myself than I even realized there was to give. But then she was gone. And only after I’d been filled up by her, by that day, did I understand how empty I really was” (208). Willem’s journey to self-knowledge is hard-won: not only repairing the fractured relationships in his life, but also figuring out what makes him happy in life.
I’m glad I read Just One Year soon after Just One Day, or maybe this was a mixed blessing, because it was so full of agonizing, YOU-JUST-MISSED-EACH-OTHER moments. From the apologetic postcards Willem left in Allyson’s suitcase (which she doesn’t bother to check) to the supposed note he left for her before leaving (that he was going to get breakfast), there are plenty of hair-pulling moments that make you want to rail at the whimsy of fate (or at Gayle Forman’s meticulous plotting). (That scene in Mexico, on New Year’s Eve, was more painful than reading a whole page full of Missed Connections entries on Craigslist.) But when they finally find each other-I couldn’t help but download the epilogue, Just One Night-all is right with the world after all.