Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." <br><br>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 <I>The Glass Castle</I>.<P>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 that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. <I>Half Broke Horses </I>is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen€s <I>Out of Africa </I>or Beryl Markham€s <I>West with the Night. </I>Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.