Exploring ‘The Horse’ by Willy Vlautin: A Reflection on Life

The Horse by Willy Vlautin
Genre: literary fiction
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 194 pp 
Her Grace’s rating: 3.5 stars 

Reading Challenge tasks: 
Her Grace’s: 13 – A book with a yellow spine
TND: 7 – A new to you author
PS: 8 – Under 250 pages

Al Ward is a 60-something alcoholic guitar player and songwriter who has hit rock bottom. He’s living in basically a shack with no electricity or running water on an old mining claim in the desert outside of Reno, NV, which he inherited from his uncle. Naturally, he’s wondering why he should bother to carry on when a random horse shows up at his door. The horse is blind, obviously old, and starving. It is also the middle of winter and Al worries that the horse will freeze to death. He decides it is his job to save the horse, but given that he has only canned condensed soup and no working vehicle, he’s in a quandary. He decides to walk 30 miles to the nearest neighbor’s farm to seek help for the animal, hoping that it will still be alive when he returns. Also, he’s hoping it’s a real horse and not a product of alcoholic hallucinations. 

In some ways, this book reads like a depressing case study in poor decisions and a life that has never had anything really go right. But it is also a deep reflection on the lived experiences of so many Americans. So many people live hand to mouth, no money, no savings, floating from one job to the next, wondering where they will sleep next or where their next meal will come from. Often it isn’t any fault of their own; they just lacked the necessary support systems to get a leg up. It also is about loneliness and people trying to make a connection with another living being, whether that is another human or a horse or something else. 

Al is a good man and sympathetic character. He never intentionally hurts anyone, he truly does try his best. He is also a highly unreliable narrator. His alcoholism becomes part of his identity and, try as he might, he is never able to totally dry out. This leads readers to question how much of his story is accurate or even real. It colors the portrayal of all the other characters in the story as well, whether they, too, are addicts in some way or not. 

The horse is more a place to hang the plot rather than being part of the plot itself. Its presence in the story is minimal and serves mainly as a way for Al to begin looking back over his own life and the choices he’s made. Anyone looking for an actual story about a horse will be disappointed. Initially, that was me, but the writing was excellent and I felt bad for Al. I wanted to know more about him and how it would end, so the lack of actual horses in the story quickly became irrelevant to its enjoyment.