Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

The novel Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand is, simply, a masterful retelling of the life of a run-of-the-mill horse and his dramatic climb to stardom. More complexly, this book is the story of all of the lives that Seabiscuit touched. It is the story of the fading west and emergence of industry in America. It is the story of the depression era and the hope that a small, crooked legged horse inspired in people during a most dismal time across a stricken country.

The characters that Hillenbrand created with her writing (yes it is true that they already existed but not in the minds of most readers) are the definition of well developed. The reader knows every single detail about Charles Howard, Tom Smith, Red Pollard, and George Wolfe, from their eating habits to their physical tendencies. No detail is left out, no physical characteristic overlooked, no significant event in their lives neglected. The author takes painstaking care to never tell the reader why a character chooses to act a certain way but rather allows the reader to deduce that information from what we already know. A perfect example of this occurs in the beginning of the novel. Hillenbrand introduces George Howard and describes his life from a young man struggling to survive to his sudden rise to the top of the car industry. Having never met him, the reader is drawn into his charismatic attitude by words on a page. We are able to understand the motivations and hesitations behind his actions. When his son is killed in a car accident, we are not shocked by his regression into horse racing because we already knew about his early life cowboy desires. Every decision Howard makes from then on makes complete sense to the reader because we understand him on a personal level. Hillenbrand creates this same understand with each and every one of the main characters in Seabiscuit.

I loved the story of Seabiscuit the horse but there is a story behind a story within this novel. America had a changing landscape in the thirties and there were multiple elements that brought the men behind the horse together. First, there was the fading of the American west. The dream of being a rancher and a cowboy was becoming less and less financially possible. Tom Smith would probably never have left the plainsman life if he had not needed to in order to make a living. Smith was characterized a rancher in every way possible minus the ranch. It was the way he was brought up and the way he died. He had an understanding for horses that no book could provide and no school could teach. Howard loved the notion of the cowboy lifestyle but was unable to give up his success to fulfill his dream. Smith’s unparalleled ability to master horses could have been a secret desire of Howard’s. The two were a perfect match.

Then there were the jockeys. As much as Howard was the epitome of a “rags-to-riches” story, so was George Wolfe. Wolfe was one of the best jockeys in the country and one of the only out of thousands in that profession that was making enough money doing so to survive. But his wealth was attractive to many and loads of people pursued the sport to try to follow in his footsteps. Red Pollard was one of those many. Eventually the two became friends and their paths were inextricably linked.

The quartet of Howard, Smith, Pollard and Wolfe were mix of people that were destined to shine in the depression era. The public was facing a sense of growing hopelessness because of the severe poverty that had struck the country but they still held on tightly to the American dream of striking it rich. Together, those four men showed them that it was still possible to accomplish, not only for them but for a pathetic looking horse that no one believed it besides Tom Smith… at first.

One of the most incredible aspects of Seabiscuit is the amount of research Hillenbrand put into writing it. As a reader, I feel as if I appreciate the decade of Seabiscuit and the depression era in a whole new way but that knowledge came from a full understanding of the characters in the novel. Not once did Hillenbrand talk about the stock market or the amount of people starving in America, but the readers felt the need for a hero. And that hero was Seabiscuit.

Retreats & Recognitions by Grace Bauer

Retreats & Recognitions, by Grace Bauer, is a beautifully crafted book of poems in which the author recaps both the pivotal as well as the mundane moments of her life that, looking back has considerable significance. The short title summarizes Bauer’s intentions almost exactly. The word retreat suggests that she may be in a place where she feels safe enough to look back. After a close examination of the individual poems of the book I also believe that this word suggests that she is now able to step outside of herself to examine her past, present, and future. The word recognition refers to her vigilant inspection of specific moments. In each one of these lyrical masterpieces, Bauer invites the reader into her life and allows us to see what she is now able to see; how each individual moment is part of the greater treasure of her life.

The opening poem of the book is a powerful introduction entitled “Note from the Imaginary Daughter” (13) in which the author yearns to apply meaning to her father’s sudden disappearance from her life. As the collection is divided into three parts, this poem is simultaneously the introduction to part one. Part one could be loosely defined as the early years because the poems that are included in it seem to center a lot around the beginning stages of the author’s life. In this particular poem the reader is allowed a glimpse into the relationship author has with both of her parents.

The first lines read, “Mother always swore your plunge was faked/so you could vanish—unknown—into travel” (13). I find the choice of the word ‘plunge’ interesting in this sentence because it shows the author’s desire for her father to be part of a greater cause for which he had to immerse himself in and thus leave his daughter. What the father had to pretend to ‘plunge’ himself into is never identified, but it conjures the notion that he was very passionate (or at least the author wished him to be) about something. The use of this word instead of ‘run away’ or ‘leave’ gives insight into the hope the author has toward her father’s greater need to escape.

Although there are a few lines that are enjambed within the poem, the sound is basically fluid from beginning to end with the exception of lines 11 to 13 that read, “She said you’d only used/her love for art; still she wished you’d let her go/along” (13). These lines break the uniform sound of the poem. They are choppy and stand out. The overall theme of this poem seems to be about holding on but wanting to let go. The enjambment that ends line 12 as “she wished you’d let her go” (13) is interesting because it alludes to the need to let go. This is the only poem in the entire collection that mentions her father.

Further along in part one appears the poem entitled, “A Little Like Dorothy” (18-19). The connotations that come along with the name Dorothy include the movie The Wizard of Oz, specifically the phrase “There’s no place like home” which Dorothy repeats many times. Home is exactly what this poem is about. The author delves into the notion of never truly being able to return home again. She talks about the need people have to leave small towns and the way they seem to never change. But the truth is, they do. Dorothy, Oz, or anything about the movie is never mentioned within the poem, but still the parallel is drawn with the mere mention of the name.

The beauty of this particular poem is the simplicity of language and strong, exacting images. The somber tone of the poem is never questioned because no melodramatic or sensational words are used. Bauer uses poignant images to rouse nostalgia in the reader. Lines like, “Everything’s the same:/The cops giving tickets. The clerks giving change” (18) offer the readers still images, almost photographs, of the way she remembers the town in which she grew up. After describing the perfect simplicity of the town of her childhood, she returns to those images and disrupts them by saying, “that missing church, the town/houses where a field once bloomed, the store that’s changed/into a shoppe, the NO TURN sign where we’ve turned/our whole lives” (19). The reader is able to feel the same disturbance in the subtle changes that the author felt. Bauer is able to convey her feelings within these images in such a profound way that the poem is almost haunting.

As the reader moves in to part two of the collection, the poems become much more musical. Often they describe scenes from Bauer’s life in New Orleans. Throughout the second part, language is used in a much more ambiguous manner. Images are less exact and more dreamily conveyed. Bauer utilizes words that have multiple definitions to create more complex meanings.

The poem “Revising My Vita” (48-49) is a perfect example of Bauer’s clever use of language. A ‘vita’ is a short account of a person’s life. In the academic world, it can also be something like resume but much more concise. Within this poem, the author chronicles the writing of her vita as “a strange brand of fiction” (48); strange to her because of the way she is forced to shorten her life’s accomplishments into brief lines.

The first line of the poem is especially interesting because of the enjambment as well as the use of the word ‘justify’. The line reads, “I’m trying to get the years to justify” (48). As the line stands alone, it sounds as if the author is trying to validate her life somehow. The poem continues on to line two, “along the right-hand column of the page” (48). The word ‘justify’ in this sense is used to describe the alignment of her typing. In the two first lines, she gives the reader a solid image of her actions and while simultaneously conveying her contempt for what she must do, which is make her life fit into the prefect form of the resume.

Later in the poem, Bauer writes, “The narrative/leaves out joy and pain, love and loss—/all the spaces between events deemed pertinent/to this plot we call profession” (48). Within the vita, Bauer is forced to leave out parts of her life that she herself may consider important and just include the parts that pertain to her career or profession. In another sense, a profession could also be considered a declaration. Bauer seems to be using this word mockingly because she does not seem to consider this vita her affirmation of life, rather something that she is forced to do.

“Revising My Vita” (48-49) cannot be talked about without focus on the form as well as language. As in any type of resume, form is important. Arguably, poetry could be described similarly although rules are not always as strictly enforced. Within the context of this individual poem, Bauer crafted the page to resemble a resume. In the larger context of the collection of poems as a whole, this poem could possibly stand alone to summarize one of the overall themes of how one can chronicle their life.

Part three seems to contain the most nostalgic poems of the collection. Again we find poems in which the title plays an important role. “On Finding a Footnote to Truckin’” (62-63) is about what is lost in translation from generation to generation. In this case, Bauer finds that the meaning of particular generational language is confused or misrepresented. As the title suggests, the author found a footnote to the word ‘truckin’’ that we find out in the first line of the poem read “To roll along in an easy, untroubled way” (62). What is amusing about this is not only the simplicity in which the footnote describes the loaded word, but also that the entire poem exists as a footnote.

As in many of her poems, Bauer contextualizes her years by citing certain cultural icons that were significant during her life. Diane Wakoski and Jerry Garcia, artists who both utilized the word ‘truckin’, are both mentioned and quoted. She also identifies words that meant something very different to her during the sixties than they do to youth now. Words such as ‘freak’, ‘boomer’, ‘party’, and ‘X’ers’ have morphed into vanity.

What is Bauer captures so well in this poem is the slow passage of time. Not only does she illustrate the literal aging she feels in lines such as “But now/we’re long past the age we once thought we could never/trust anyone else beyond” (62) when she talks about the literal fact of age but she also demonstrates the change within herself. Lines like “most nights/I am too tired to party past ten” (62) tell the reader that she feels herself changing. What seems to have changed as well is her perspective on the past. She writes, “Garcia’s joined the really dead,/left his assets in litigation between two women/in suits and pearls” (62). This is interesting because Bauer is able to see these people that she once felt were almost god-like as humans. They no longer have the other worldly charm they once had over her in her youth. Garcia and Wakoski are “shape shifters/of language” (63) in their own kind. Their names, just as the word ‘freak’, have taken on new meanings over time.

Grace Bauer has masterfully combined a multitude of techniques within her collection of poems entitled Retreats & Recognitions. Her language is typically solid and the images she creates through her words are enchanting. Her language, at other times, is purposefully ambiguous but her words are chosen thoughtfully chosen that close reading is required. After the initial reading of each poem the audience beings to get a sense of the huge significance of the individual titles. This is a wonderful personal history in the form of poetry.