2022 book 63

 Molly Gloss' Falling from Horses

 I was a good quarter of the way into this before I realized it’s a sequel to The Hearts of Horses, in that the protagonist here is the son of the protagonist in that one. Anyway, the story starts with a nineteen year old boy on his way to Hollywood in 1938, where he wants to be a stunt rider in cowboy movies. Along the way he befriends a young woman who wants to be a screenwriter. I liked the narrative voice here a lot; he’s telling the story as a much older man, looking back on his year in Hollywood, and flashing back to his childhood and to a family tragedy. I did kind of want a little bit more from the friendship, or from his older years in general, but I liked seeing the bits and pieces of it that we did get. Note that movies in the 1930s did not care about animal safety and there are some grim scenes with horses (and riders). A/A-.