In what seems to be the latest literary vogue, Brooks uses a combination of time periods to tell her story. As the novel opens, the reader meets Theo, a black graduate student in Washington, D.C. who discovers a painting of Lexington in the trash that a neighbor has discarded. He is taken by the photo and begins to research its provenance. On this journey he meets Jess, a white osteologist who is working on articulating the bones of a horse at the Smithsonian, soon to be identified as Lexington.
Flashback to 1850 and the readers is introduced to enslaved Jarrett who assumes the last name of his master throughout the book. Jarrett is present at the birth of Darly (Lexington's original name) and stays with him throughout the novel. Theo's father has bought his own freedom, but could not afford Theo's. It is that goal to which the young lad works. Although Theo, Jess, and Jarrett are all fictional characters who move the story along, Brooks' research also introduces Richard Ten Broeck and artists Thomas J. Scott, and Jackson Pollock, all historical figures.
The book is a not so veiled treatise on racism from early on when Brooks quotes Frederick Douglass' argument about white artists have never been able to capture a true portrait of Africans. It recounts Jarrett's struggles and the relationship attitudes of Jess and Theo, culminating in a tragic turn of events.
Horse is a complex novel and one that begs to be read. The only fault that I would find in it is the ending where it seems that she was ticking all the boxes for her publisher to create a treatise on current events. Any book of hers should be put on personal reading lists.
