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Review: The Filly by Mark R Probst
From the author's page: Escaping into the fantasy of his books when he’s not working in the general store, Ethan Keller has lived a sheltered life in his mother’s boarding house. One day, an enigmatic cowboy passing through the small Texas town takes an immediate liking to the shy seventeen-year-old. Ethan is intrigued by the attention, and the cowboy eventually charms him into signing on to a 900-mile cattle drive. Ethan soon finds that his feelings for this cowboy run deeper than just friendship. He never knew that this kind of love even existed; and now for the two of them to make a life together in the untamed west, they must face nearly insurmountable odds if they are to survive.
As this book has already reviewed favourably on Speak Its Name I'm putting my review here.
This book has the warm, technicolour feel of one of John Ford's later films. The author admits to being a fan of the big Hollywood films, and if you are too, you will love this, because there are touches of them all here. You can feel the sun beating on your neck, the tamed frontier towns, the grit from the summer heat, and the fresh wind of a stranger who blows into town.
As is said in the blurb, Ethan is bookish and a very naive young man. He's often a little bit too naive from time to time, as he doesn't even know of the existence of male love. I wondered if this actually possible - surely young men in school together would tease about this sort of thing, even in this age. But he's a very likeable character with his own passions - books and horses - and a trusting soul. It was, however, refreshing to read a book where a young man isn't angsting about his sexuality so I'm choosing to go with the fact that he's simply a late bloomer. He visits a whore house at the insistence of his older reprobate brother and is very sweet about it, wants to sit and talk - and he doesn't question his sexuality here, he simply says to himself that he's "not ready," which makes sense.
I particularly liked the section that dealt with the cattle drive; it gave the young men the opportunity to become friends and then take their friendship further to its obvious conclusion at a beleivable and gentle pace, and as inexorably as each step of the cattle across the country. There's obvious knowledge/research of that country shown, too. Not too much description of the daily life of the cattle drive to bore you and to make you wonder where the main plot has gone, but enough to keep it real and to emphasise the obvious dangers of such a long-haul endeavour for anyone brave enough to sign on. One thing I did wonder, though - seeing as how obsessed with horses Ethan is at the beginning of the book, is that he doesn't mention the horse he gets given for the cattle-drive at all. As a horse obsessed child (still am, only i don't have the time and money to indulge my passion) I found this odd - if I were in his position I would have made some mention of him, his faults, his virtues, the brief partnership they must have forged. But we don't even learn his name, which is dissapointing.
The relationship between Ethan and Travis is quite lovely (there's no graphic sex in this so don't buy if you want an erotic romance) and the title of the book really comes into its own when you see how Travis "gentles" Ethan rather than scaring him away before he's ready.
My only gripe about this book is a simple one - not a bad one, and one I repeated to myself over and over as I read it. It's simply not long enough. It's the standard size for a first novel at around 200 pages, and as an enjoyable read it's very good. But it gripped me, intrigued me and damn it all I wanted something the size of Michener here. I wanted more of the cattle drive - I wanted more of Ethan's experiences in San Anthone and what happened to him there. I wanted .. oh MORE! Which isn't a bad thing, I guess! I found it hurtful that Travis would have cut Ethan off without getting in touch - and I would have imagined that Ethan would have been very resentful of that perceived abandonment. I would have liked to have seen more of that, rather than the swift race towards the end - but I guess the author was tied by length constraints. I wave my fist at the "tradition" that first novels should be a set length.
However, this is a very nice little book and I thoroughly enjoyed it and was totally convinced by it. There's some romantic scenes, but hell, I like romantic cowboys, and there's no ignoring that being gay, even out on the range amongst "real men" could be a dangerous thing to be.
I reckon that if John Ford was alive today, he'd make this into a film. I'd like to think he would. Recommended.
As this book has already reviewed favourably on Speak Its Name I'm putting my review here.
This book has the warm, technicolour feel of one of John Ford's later films. The author admits to being a fan of the big Hollywood films, and if you are too, you will love this, because there are touches of them all here. You can feel the sun beating on your neck, the tamed frontier towns, the grit from the summer heat, and the fresh wind of a stranger who blows into town.
As is said in the blurb, Ethan is bookish and a very naive young man. He's often a little bit too naive from time to time, as he doesn't even know of the existence of male love. I wondered if this actually possible - surely young men in school together would tease about this sort of thing, even in this age. But he's a very likeable character with his own passions - books and horses - and a trusting soul. It was, however, refreshing to read a book where a young man isn't angsting about his sexuality so I'm choosing to go with the fact that he's simply a late bloomer. He visits a whore house at the insistence of his older reprobate brother and is very sweet about it, wants to sit and talk - and he doesn't question his sexuality here, he simply says to himself that he's "not ready," which makes sense.
I particularly liked the section that dealt with the cattle drive; it gave the young men the opportunity to become friends and then take their friendship further to its obvious conclusion at a beleivable and gentle pace, and as inexorably as each step of the cattle across the country. There's obvious knowledge/research of that country shown, too. Not too much description of the daily life of the cattle drive to bore you and to make you wonder where the main plot has gone, but enough to keep it real and to emphasise the obvious dangers of such a long-haul endeavour for anyone brave enough to sign on. One thing I did wonder, though - seeing as how obsessed with horses Ethan is at the beginning of the book, is that he doesn't mention the horse he gets given for the cattle-drive at all. As a horse obsessed child (still am, only i don't have the time and money to indulge my passion) I found this odd - if I were in his position I would have made some mention of him, his faults, his virtues, the brief partnership they must have forged. But we don't even learn his name, which is dissapointing.
The relationship between Ethan and Travis is quite lovely (there's no graphic sex in this so don't buy if you want an erotic romance) and the title of the book really comes into its own when you see how Travis "gentles" Ethan rather than scaring him away before he's ready.
My only gripe about this book is a simple one - not a bad one, and one I repeated to myself over and over as I read it. It's simply not long enough. It's the standard size for a first novel at around 200 pages, and as an enjoyable read it's very good. But it gripped me, intrigued me and damn it all I wanted something the size of Michener here. I wanted more of the cattle drive - I wanted more of Ethan's experiences in San Anthone and what happened to him there. I wanted .. oh MORE! Which isn't a bad thing, I guess! I found it hurtful that Travis would have cut Ethan off without getting in touch - and I would have imagined that Ethan would have been very resentful of that perceived abandonment. I would have liked to have seen more of that, rather than the swift race towards the end - but I guess the author was tied by length constraints. I wave my fist at the "tradition" that first novels should be a set length.
However, this is a very nice little book and I thoroughly enjoyed it and was totally convinced by it. There's some romantic scenes, but hell, I like romantic cowboys, and there's no ignoring that being gay, even out on the range amongst "real men" could be a dangerous thing to be.
I reckon that if John Ford was alive today, he'd make this into a film. I'd like to think he would. Recommended.