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Summary: I'm in "Horse Heaven"
Review: What a good book this is! I have never read Jane Smiley before and have nothing to compare this to, but I found the writing to be excellent, the characters to be extemely well-developed and accurate, and her grasp of horse-racing and the horse world in general to be masterful. The amount of research it must have taken for her to so correctly capture the little nuances of everyday life with horses is boggling, and perhaps that is why some -- people who are not "horse people", as we call them -- found the story and characters confusing and hard to follow. Ms. Smiley must have immersed herself in the racing scene to prepare for writing this book, and her readers do not have the same luxury. Those that already know what it's like (and that could mean from any "horsey" discipline, like the hunter/jumper world) have a head start and therefore a great advantage in reading this book. I found her characterizations of ALL creatures, be they human, equine, or canine, to be right on target. Wonderful reading for the equestrian-minded!
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Summary: "Horse Heaven" has a cast list the size of "War and Peace."
Review: I, too, loved "Moo," but only after several readings in order to fully "get" it. The same can be said of "Horse Heaven," as it may take a time or two around the racetrack to get a grasp on Smiley's reins. For starters, there are way too many characters, which accounts for the sheer mass of the book. The first twenty or so chapters are dedicated to introduction after introduction of new character after new character, some of whom never make an impression at all; others blend in with similar characters and become lost. Then there are the characters who work: Al and Rosalind Maybrick, and an exploration of the marriage as Rosalind embarks on an affair with Dick Winterson, Al's horse trainer; the horse psychic Elizabeth Zada, whom I simply adored as she read the mind of Mr. T (the horse), and her boyfriend Plato; the horse Epic Steam (if horses can be villains, he fits the feedbag) and little Jesse, son of a highly superstitious bettor. If Smiley had focused on only these, and a few of the others, the book would be a much easier read. But the fascinating tales of those above are lost amidst the shuffle, and makes it hard to slog through the less interesting characters, like Buddy Crawford. Still, those listed above are well worth a first, and most definitely a second glance. It's just to bad you have to make your way through Smiley's cast of thousands in order to find the diamonds in the rough.
Rating: 
Summary: Horse Heaven
Review: Horse Heaven is well paced novel about the thoroughbred horse racing industry. Jane Smiley skillfully relates her intimate knowledge of the business and it's eclectic owners, trainers, and hangers-on. Unique to the genre is her talent of relating the unvarnished nuances of the industry from the equine athlete's point of view.
A wonderful adult read especially appreciated by animal lovers and horse enthusiasts.
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Summary: The longest race
Review: For people who are looking for another A Thousand Acres, take a pass on this book. I was alternately engrossed and angry as I read this book. Jane Smiley is an engaging story teller with a huge writing talent but while reading this book I felt like I was supposed to be impressed by her knowledge of the horse world and her facility for research. Admittedly both are vast but frankly, I don't care. I can do without the excrutiating detail and it is, at times, truly excrutiating. Detail draws you in, it fills out the story, it takes you there. But in Horse Heaven there were many times when I found myself saying, "Alright already," and skipped 5 or 6 or 10 pages while she described the most minute details of surgery on a horse - the operation, the instruments, the horse's anatomy, the incision, each stitch, etc. Her characters are interesting and appealing but there are many to keep track of. Just when you think you have them all and have made friends with them she introduces a new one and tells you all about his grandfather's great aunt's horse farm and the horses she raised and the color of the the grass they ate... Ok, so I'm exaggerating. I wanted so much to love this book as I did A Thousand Acres and I feel like I could have if only it had been a couple hundred pages shorter. My advice: find an abridged version on tape and it will probably be perfect.
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Summary: Puts you Right into the Place of the Characters!
Review: Jane Smiley did a wonderful job on this book. I have never read any of her other novels, but I intend to do so now. I bought this book because I love horses and it had gotten good reviews in all different magazines and on television. I'm happy to say that I was not at all disappointed. The characters were introduced very slowly, and the chapters rotate through all the characters in turn, so you have to be paying attention to remember who everyone is. I thought it was brilliant how, throughout the novel, the characters were slowly tied in to one other. I especially liked how the narrative point of view changed so often. It made me feel as if I was the character, and I was feeling what they were feeling. The horses were portrayed with feelings and were also allowed to voice their opinions. Very interesting book and I loved the topic.
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Summary: Beyond Dick Francis¿
Review: While Jane Smiley's Horse Heaven is no simple whodunit, it does take on the mystery of the attachment of humans to horses. There's no real answer, other than that it is a lifetime obsession. Some are inspired, some are ruined, and some are saved by the love and devotion to these animals. I was a little overwhelmed at the beginning of the book - all these threads pulling at once, trying to keep the connections straight - even the chapter on Eileen the Jack Russell Terrier - but as time went on, those threads caught.
Characters that seemed to have nothing in common with each other came together in strange or serendipitous ways, enriching the plot and driving it forward. The breezy style of writing is fun, and each chapter moves to a new character in the list, so that you begin to see how it all overlaps. You see how much emotion is invested - not just in the animals but also in the relationships with all the other humans involved. Each plays a special role: the breeder, the trainer, the jockeys, and of course, the owners. And while I wasn't sure about the idea of the horses 'speaking', it made sense once you were on your way. I never gave much thought to the world of racing, other than the few days before the Derby. However, I find myself contemplating a trip to the track, just so that I can watch these magnificent animals do what Horse Heaven seems to be sure of - the beauty of running.
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Summary: Enough is enough
Review: This is possibly the most boring, uneventful, horrible book that I have had the misfortune to come across. The endless parade of new characters was mind-numbing and tedious. I didn't care about any of them because Smiley gave you no time to get to know anyone, she was too busy adding someone new. Ho Ho Ice Chill indeed. I feel like writing to Ms. Smiley myself and asking for my money back.
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Summary: Horse Heaven a Heavenly Read
Review: This is such a lovely, entertaining, fascinating, moving book that I hated to finish it. I got so fond of all the characters (including the horses) and wanted to continue to track them and their fortunes. I haven't had such fun since I was mad about Black Beauty as a child. And it stirred up my affection for horses, their intelligence, they fortitude, their dignity and their beauty and their close relationships with people -- that there is a whole world out there in which people are fixated on horses is rendered absolutely real and compelling in Smiley's novel. It made me sorry not to be a trainer or a groom or a horse masseuse or at the very least, an owner. This book has everything -- pathos, satire, great characters, wonderful insight into horses and people abound. This novel has it all.
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Summary: A Ponderous Thicket of Verbiage
Review: This novel might just pass as a time-killer for people who don't understand horse racing- but probably not even then. Jane Smiley has a few nice paragraphs of fancy on the consciousness of horses, but they are hardly worth the slog through this immensely long, meandering tome. As another reviewer noted, we are dragged through the lives of scores of dull people, & nothing ever really happens to drive the narrative. Many of the plot devices are frankly offensive to anyone who has a clue about horse racing. For example: the Psychic Friends Network harridan who can read horses' minds in order to win bets, a teenage girl who forms a psychosexual bond with a jockey, who then wins 8 races in a row, & a fatuous Greek capitalist who plays the stock market based on his erections. How painfully 90's. One can only gather that he's been flaccid for a number of years now. Throw in a leaden subplot sophmorically echoing Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
Is it any wonder this book is a rock bottom remainder?
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Summary: not just for horse lovers
Review: Like many women, I went through a horsey phase as a girl, but mine was mild-- I drew them incessantly for a while, and enjoyed my riding lessons at summer camp. I've never gotten into horse books, and I'd never have read this one had it not been a book club pick. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be one of my favorite reads of 2002, and one of my favorite books! The world of horse racing and trading is one Smiley knows inside and out, and she doesn't insult our intelligence by overexplanation-- she immerses the reader in it. With an unusual structure and multiple protagonist that centers more around the horses then the people, this book is Tolstoyan in its scope, warmth and humanity (and that includes the outlook on the horses) There are lots of characters and horses, but all are memorable. Generously drawn with some passages so thought-provoking, even profound, that I underlined and dated. Smiley tells a great story, but the pleasure is as much in her prose and her revelations (a passage about happiness being something that shimmers around you brought me up short) It's a big book-600 pages-but a real epic, and worth it. Smiley manages to do the pov of a couple of the horses without ever becoming maudlin and anthropomorphic. There's a horse psychic who describes how the horse sees the world beneath its feet as if rolling in waves-- what an arresting vision of what it must be like to move so fast on four feet. One of the characters finds herself inexplicably able to grant wishes for awhile. The book has elements of magic realism in the best tradition-- handled casually, as just another part of life. Through the journeys of the main horses we see vignettes of owners, traders, gamblers, riders-- all handled with humanity and heart. It's an incredible testament that she took a subject I'm not inherantly interested in (unlike, say the academic setting of MOO) and managed to captivate me so completely. The many threads intertwine in a satisfying brocade. A complete, fully realized world, and a wonderful, engrossing book.
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