Walls wrote Half-Broke Horses about her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. She notes in the end that she was able to confirm most of the details of her grandmother's life even after her death.
The story starts out a lot like Laura Ingalls Wilder for grown-ups. The life is hard but the writing is simple, a recounting of events. The voice is a little idealized - the way kids remember events so differently from their parents.
By the time Lily is my age, she has: been a teacher, moved to Chicago, been married, had the marriage annulled, worked as a maid, dealt with the death of a friend, and says she is still figuring out what she wants out of life. She never seems to be afraid to be herself. She learns to drive and eventually to fly a plane. She isn't afraid of hard work. She plays poker. It's not until after her sister Helen dies that she decides to "settle down" and marries Jim Smith.
This must be a book for twenty-somethings because the lesson is to keep going. Don't forget your dreams - like learning to fly an airplane - but save them for the right time.
Favorite quotes:
"I realized that in the months since Helen had died, I hadn't been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn't really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it that was up to me." p. 113
"There was a big difference between needing things and wanting things - though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart - and at the ranch, I could see, we'd have pretty much everything we'd need but precious little else." p. 134
"Life came with as much adventure and danger as any one body needed. You didn't have to go chasing after them." p. 257
This must be a book for twenty-somethings because the lesson is to keep going. Don't forget your dreams - like learning to fly an airplane - but save them for the right time.
Favorite quotes:
"I realized that in the months since Helen had died, I hadn't been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn't really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it that was up to me." p. 113
"There was a big difference between needing things and wanting things - though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart - and at the ranch, I could see, we'd have pretty much everything we'd need but precious little else." p. 134
"Life came with as much adventure and danger as any one body needed. You didn't have to go chasing after them." p. 257
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