Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

In Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls tells the story of Lily Casey Smith, her grandmother.  Walls calls the book "a true-life novel".  In the author's note she explains that she verified as many facts about Lily's life as she could, but there were places where people's stories could not be verified.  Thus, she decides it must be a novel.


Lily Casey Smith was born in West Texas in 1901.  Her father was a not-very-good farmer, squandering money on fanciful schemes.  His main occupation was training carriage horses.  Her mother was a "lady" who sat around doing not much while Lily helped her father and took care of the younger children.  Needing money, and a way off the farm, Lily left home at age 15 to teach in Northern Arizona.  She had an amazing number of adventures, set-backs, happiness and sadness.  Her life straddled the transition from the horse & buggy era to the automobile and airplane.


Told in first person, the prose is spare but dramatic.  Lily tells you her story in her own voice.  Walls does remember her grandmother, and says she tried to keep her way of speaking.  Once you start Lily's story, you do not want to put it down.  It would work well for a book club.  Now I want to read Well's first book, The Glass Castle, which is her own memoir.