“In 1938… the year’s #1 newsmaker was not FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. Nor was it Lou Gehrig or Clark Gable. The subject of the most newspaper column inches in 1938 wasn’t even a person. It was an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse named Seabiscuit.”
I really liked Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken — not just the story (probably one of the most depressing things I’ve read all year) but the way she told it. I liked it enough to bump up another of her biographies on my TBR shelf: Seabiscuit: An American Legend. I think I liked this one even more — it still had some sad moments but like Unbroken, it tells an overall uplifting story about spirit and determination. Plus: horsies!
Hillenbrand tells not just the story of the big-hearted, crooked-legged Seabiscuit, but also the men who brought him up and made him a star. Her biographies on his trainer (Tom Smith), his jockey (Red Pollard), his owner (Charles Howard) and many others created a wonderful background on the horse. I will admit that the step-by-step retelling of the races got a little dull after a while (like the Quidditch matches in Harry Potter), but I still enjoyed them and since I really didn’t know much about Seabiscuit going in, the results of each match surprised me.
Even if you don’t particularly like horses (how could you not like horses??) or horse racing (yeah, I kind of get that), you should still read this one — really a great story.
