What do you think?
Rate this book
Boleto
An unforgettable story of men and horses, the American West, and the dream of a ticket out
* A May 2012 Indie Next Pick * Will Testerman is a young Wyoming horse trainer determined to make something of himself. Money is tight at the family ranch, where he's living again after a disastrous end to his job on the Texas show-horse circuit. He sees his chance with a beautiful quarter horse, a filly that might earn him a reputation, and spends his savings to buy her. Armed with stories and the confidence of youth, he devotes himself to her training -- first, in the familiar barns and corrals of home, then on a guest ranch in the rugged Absaroka mountains, and, in the final trial, on the glittering, treacherous polo fields of southern California. With Boleto , Alyson Hagy delivers a masterfully told, exquisitely observed novel about our intimate relationships with animals and money, against the backdrop of a new West that is changing forever.
* A May 2012 Indie Next Pick * Will Testerman is a young Wyoming horse trainer determined to make something of himself. Money is tight at the family ranch, where he's living again after a disastrous end to his job on the Texas show-horse circuit. He sees his chance with a beautiful quarter horse, a filly that might earn him a reputation, and spends his savings to buy her. Armed with stories and the confidence of youth, he devotes himself to her training -- first, in the familiar barns and corrals of home, then on a guest ranch in the rugged Absaroka mountains, and, in the final trial, on the glittering, treacherous polo fields of southern California. With Boleto , Alyson Hagy delivers a masterfully told, exquisitely observed novel about our intimate relationships with animals and money, against the backdrop of a new West that is changing forever.
251 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
826 people want to read
About the author
Alyson Hagy
11 books107 followersAlyson Hagy, a novelist and short story writer, was raised on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and now lives and teaches in Laramie, Wyoming.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
March 9, 2019
Last night I finished a book a bit earlier than expected and I chose this as my next read. As usual I began the first few pages, just to get a feel of the story before turning out the light and going to sleep.
Except that when I finally came up for air and turned out the light, the sun had come up and I had finished the book!
Most of the time I claim insomnia as a reason for such a thing, but this time I simply got so caught up in the story of Will and his life that I had no idea of the passing of real time. This was a story about a young man trying to become what he wants to be. Trying to figure out what that is each day. He is not perfect, but other reviewers will tell you more about that. I didn't mind his flaws, I wanted to see how he handled himself as the story unfolded.
Would he be able to live his dream? What would he learn from his experiences? How badly shaken (or maybe how much more mature) would he be by the end of the book? And what about that horse? Nameless until nearly the final pages, she eventually earns the name Boleto, which means Ticket. But ticket to what? Fame and fortune? A new life, successful beyond Will's wildest dreams? Or a new way of thinking that should be of more value to him than any amount of riches?
Thanks very much to GR friend Lucille for recommending this book to me. It was worth every sleepless moment!
Except that when I finally came up for air and turned out the light, the sun had come up and I had finished the book!
Most of the time I claim insomnia as a reason for such a thing, but this time I simply got so caught up in the story of Will and his life that I had no idea of the passing of real time. This was a story about a young man trying to become what he wants to be. Trying to figure out what that is each day. He is not perfect, but other reviewers will tell you more about that. I didn't mind his flaws, I wanted to see how he handled himself as the story unfolded.
Would he be able to live his dream? What would he learn from his experiences? How badly shaken (or maybe how much more mature) would he be by the end of the book? And what about that horse? Nameless until nearly the final pages, she eventually earns the name Boleto, which means Ticket. But ticket to what? Fame and fortune? A new life, successful beyond Will's wildest dreams? Or a new way of thinking that should be of more value to him than any amount of riches?
Thanks very much to GR friend Lucille for recommending this book to me. It was worth every sleepless moment!
November 14, 2012
I know from reading Alyson Hagy in the past--following her developing career, in fact--that her books are not to be missed. Fundamentally, she's a poet who writes novels: her thoughtful, penetrating, crystalline images are to be savored. This is not a book to rush through, looking for a thrill, with an eye on The Plot. There is a plot (what a plodding word that is), and a forward momentum to the story, but the deepest rewards for the reader are moment by moment, as Will moves through his days and his memories, listening to his conscience and his heart. This is where the thrills lie, quiet thrills born of Haggy's perfect concision. I didn't recognize, until well after I'd finished the book, how much Will Testerman's name reveals about him: the man he will test is himself. His story resolves, unfolds and comes into focus, in its final moments, with heart-breaking grace and beauty--making the book a fine and rare example of a sad story that is nourishing, satisfying, and complete--a tragic tale that makes me very happy as a reader.
September 3, 2012
You know that old saying "Still waters run deep"? Well, sometimes water is still because it's a damn mud puddle. That's our protagonist in this book. Will Testerman. Cowboy. Moron. Misogynist. Supposed horse whisperer. Possibly a murderer--I was really hoping for that, but that could be just because he reminded me so much of Edward Norton in Down in the Valley or Eddie Redmayne in Hick--but that alas is not addressed in the book.
The prose is written with no quotation marks, which didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would, mainly because Will is the kind of character that you don't much mistake what he's saying for what he's thinking. The inner monologue is marred at times by him using metaphors I can't see a Wyoming cowboy using (sailing metaphors for example) and words that seem off compared to his more down home lingo at other times. On the other hand, the writer is clearly skilled--she kept me reading even if I wanted to bean this character over the head with a cast-iron frying pan for being stupid and a general dick.
And his attitude toward women? Well, there's the sainted mom, cancer stricken of course, who he tends like a freakin' angel. There's a series of short and mostly ugly sexual encounters. There's the friend who he can't forget who's mysteriously disappeared before the book begins and he was a "person of interest" in that disappearance (I so wanted the book to end with the cops pulling up and arresting him.) And then there's the filly. The love of his life. The metaphor--a rather sick one, frankly--for the woman he'll someday finally fall in love with and really respect and who he'll take care of forever and not ride till she's ready . You with me still? Yeah. If the author hit this any harder, there would be anvils flying out of the sky.
The moral of this story unfortunately seems to be that while men can be saved and bad ones keep showing up like bad pennies, women tend to leave you or you leave them and really it doesn't matter because they're just women. And it's never your fault, even if you're a moronic cowboy who can't see trouble coming even when it's come THE EXACT SAME WAY only half a day before.
Safe to say I won't be looking for this author again.
The prose is written with no quotation marks, which didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would, mainly because Will is the kind of character that you don't much mistake what he's saying for what he's thinking. The inner monologue is marred at times by him using metaphors I can't see a Wyoming cowboy using (sailing metaphors for example) and words that seem off compared to his more down home lingo at other times. On the other hand, the writer is clearly skilled--she kept me reading even if I wanted to bean this character over the head with a cast-iron frying pan for being stupid and a general dick.
And his attitude toward women? Well, there's the sainted mom, cancer stricken of course, who he tends like a freakin' angel. There's a series of short and mostly ugly sexual encounters. There's the friend who he can't forget who's mysteriously disappeared before the book begins and he was a "person of interest" in that disappearance (I so wanted the book to end with the cops pulling up and arresting him.) And then there's the filly. The love of his life. The metaphor--a rather sick one, frankly--for the woman he'll someday finally fall in love with and really respect and who he'll take care of forever and not ride till she's ready . You with me still? Yeah. If the author hit this any harder, there would be anvils flying out of the sky.
The moral of this story unfortunately seems to be that while men can be saved and bad ones keep showing up like bad pennies, women tend to leave you or you leave them and really it doesn't matter because they're just women. And it's never your fault, even if you're a moronic cowboy who can't see trouble coming even when it's come THE EXACT SAME WAY only half a day before.
Safe to say I won't be looking for this author again.
August 3, 2012
I've read many coming-of-age love stories, but this is one of the best yet -- and not even romantic. Will Testerman, a young man just settling into his manhood, loves his horse and his mom, and author Alyson Hagy makes these relationships so real, so primary, that there's no whiff of cliché anywhere. Loss defines us, as the saying goes, and hard times grow us up, and Boleto is a gorgeous rumination on just that, with some fine writing helping it along. Definitely recommended.
June 22, 2012
Looking for a wonderfully well-written, delicately drawn book that perfectly captures the atmosphere of horse culture and Wyoming? Well, here it is. I picked this book up because it was recommended by the New York Times, because there was a horse on the cover. (Not my most sophisticated decision ever), and because I was looking for something absorbing to read on the beach.
It took me a while to get into it at first because of the very simple sentence structure. There are very few complex or compound sentences and for a while that bothered me. However, I was eventually subsumed by the story, and then the sentence structure seemed apt and evocative. On its surface, this is the story of a young man and his horse. But it's also a graceful coming of age story about a young man discovering what's important in life.
The ending is unexpected, but thought-provoking. The book perfectly captures the sense of living in the West, and Hagy paints characters, scenes, and atmospheres amazingly well. An entirely beautiful, satisfying book; sad, and happy and funny, and entirely life-like. I loved it. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It made me feel like I was in Montana.
It took me a while to get into it at first because of the very simple sentence structure. There are very few complex or compound sentences and for a while that bothered me. However, I was eventually subsumed by the story, and then the sentence structure seemed apt and evocative. On its surface, this is the story of a young man and his horse. But it's also a graceful coming of age story about a young man discovering what's important in life.
The ending is unexpected, but thought-provoking. The book perfectly captures the sense of living in the West, and Hagy paints characters, scenes, and atmospheres amazingly well. An entirely beautiful, satisfying book; sad, and happy and funny, and entirely life-like. I loved it. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It made me feel like I was in Montana.
February 1, 2014
Horse people are in some ways crazy........I can say that as I used to be one. Horse people can also be the most down to earth, self connected, rooted, salt of the earth beings. This book highlights both sides of that coin. It's NOT solely a book about horses, or the vivid western landscapes, or the cowboys that mingle the animals and that landscape into everyday lives that most of us think only exist in movies.
The story also attempts to describe the crossroads moments we all face when trying to balance what we feel with what we want and what we need. For me, while the author is certainly a gifted writer, it missed the mark slightly. It was in places entertaining and drew you in, only to decrescendo with the next twist or sideline plot. While my background with horses helped with the translation that might confuse readers with no background, I certainly think the untrained could still navigate.
If you LOVE horses, you might love this novel more than I did, but there were too many flavors mixing in the recipe for me to wholeheartedly endorse this one. To each his own.
The story also attempts to describe the crossroads moments we all face when trying to balance what we feel with what we want and what we need. For me, while the author is certainly a gifted writer, it missed the mark slightly. It was in places entertaining and drew you in, only to decrescendo with the next twist or sideline plot. While my background with horses helped with the translation that might confuse readers with no background, I certainly think the untrained could still navigate.
If you LOVE horses, you might love this novel more than I did, but there were too many flavors mixing in the recipe for me to wholeheartedly endorse this one. To each his own.
February 8, 2024
Written & set in Wyoming about a man and a horse. Hadn't read anything about Wyoming or horses since My Friend Flicka when I was 12. Not sure I totally bought the authenticity of the protagonist's voice in relation to other people, but his relationship with his horse yes. Contemporary worlds about which I knew nothing: poor farmers in Wyoming, the slavery of Latinos working on polo ranches in California. As a person with incipient dementia I haven't forgotten a word of this book and just warning you this will be my highest praise for the rest of my life.
June 9, 2012
This book rambles a bit like the landscape that nurtured it. Part I takes place on Will Testerman's home turf, where he has a reputation to live up to or live down, depending upon how you look at it. He's a quiet, introspective, young man...traits which set him apart from his brothers and Wyoming cohorts. It is that quiet manner, though, that allows him to slip deftly into the head of the horses in his care. We learn that he stood quietly and solidly behind his mother as she battled cancer and that he has somehow been implicated in the disappearance of a local woman. We never learn much about that issue. I'm not sure how the incident relates to the story, other than providing a way of describing his reactions or lack of reactions to other people's suspicions. We also wonder if there is some darker part of him lurking just under his quiet surface.
In Part II, we see Will dealing with dudes, kids, horny women, and jealous old cowboys on a dude ranch near the Tetons. He handles himself about as well as anyone his age could be expected to.
In Part III, Will moves to California to learn the ropes of the polo pony world. For some reason which seemed rather far stretched to me, he brings along a 2 year old filly for whom he has high hopes of what? Making his fortune or cementing his trainer's credentials? That is rather muddy. It is here that Will peeks behind the outer facade of a cut throat industry where animals and people are mere pawns in the hands of wealthy Patrons.
Hagy's strong suite is her lovely descriptions of people and of the relationships between people and horses and the mysteries of the western landscape. Those descriptions carried me through a long, slow development in which Will's story unfolds in his quiet conversations with his filly.
The payoff is understated. Will's first-hand experience with the underbelly of human frailties and conceit trap him into a compromise he is loathe to make, but one he feels unable to resolve in any better manner.
In Part II, we see Will dealing with dudes, kids, horny women, and jealous old cowboys on a dude ranch near the Tetons. He handles himself about as well as anyone his age could be expected to.
In Part III, Will moves to California to learn the ropes of the polo pony world. For some reason which seemed rather far stretched to me, he brings along a 2 year old filly for whom he has high hopes of what? Making his fortune or cementing his trainer's credentials? That is rather muddy. It is here that Will peeks behind the outer facade of a cut throat industry where animals and people are mere pawns in the hands of wealthy Patrons.
Hagy's strong suite is her lovely descriptions of people and of the relationships between people and horses and the mysteries of the western landscape. Those descriptions carried me through a long, slow development in which Will's story unfolds in his quiet conversations with his filly.
The payoff is understated. Will's first-hand experience with the underbelly of human frailties and conceit trap him into a compromise he is loathe to make, but one he feels unable to resolve in any better manner.
June 22, 2012
I gave this book 4.15/5 stars at InsatiableBooksluts.com.
Review excerpt:
"Hagy did something else that I found very impressive: she wrote about the business of, uh, horsery (that’s totally a word isn’t it? No? Well, it is now) without boring me to death. Despite my love of Cormac McCarthy, I may be the only person from Kentucky who isn’t a sucker for a good horse story. Remember the movie Seabiscuit? Well, I don’t, because I never saw it. I’m generally that disinterested in horses. Hagy used character to make the business of horses interesting; even the filly had a great character, and I thought it fitting that she didn’t have to compete with a human love interest. (Not that she would have stood for that.)
I appreciated Hagy’s deft use of foreshadowing, as well. I hate books that excessively foreshadow; it’s an unfortunate trend that seems to be cropping up in a lot of books. “The reader didn’t know it then, but she would learn that each major plot point would be easily predictable until the end of the book because the author would loudly predict each event to make sure it wasn’t missed.” Hagy gave the reader a modicum of credit and left us with only a growing sense of foreboding–just enough to properly set the mood."
See the full review at our site.
Review excerpt:
"Hagy did something else that I found very impressive: she wrote about the business of, uh, horsery (that’s totally a word isn’t it? No? Well, it is now) without boring me to death. Despite my love of Cormac McCarthy, I may be the only person from Kentucky who isn’t a sucker for a good horse story. Remember the movie Seabiscuit? Well, I don’t, because I never saw it. I’m generally that disinterested in horses. Hagy used character to make the business of horses interesting; even the filly had a great character, and I thought it fitting that she didn’t have to compete with a human love interest. (Not that she would have stood for that.)
I appreciated Hagy’s deft use of foreshadowing, as well. I hate books that excessively foreshadow; it’s an unfortunate trend that seems to be cropping up in a lot of books. “The reader didn’t know it then, but she would learn that each major plot point would be easily predictable until the end of the book because the author would loudly predict each event to make sure it wasn’t missed.” Hagy gave the reader a modicum of credit and left us with only a growing sense of foreboding–just enough to properly set the mood."
See the full review at our site.
June 18, 2012
Boleto is divided into three parts. I think that each part has the potential to be a really good story and that all three parts could be connected to make an incredible novel. As it is, I felt unfulfilled by each story and the book as a whole was weakened by the connections that weren't made.
The synopsis tells us that this is more than just the story of a man and a horse. While this is true, I feel as though the scenes with Boleto, as she comes to be called, are very short and not very interesting or meaningful. Other human characters take on a little more depth, yet their stories are also presented too shortly. The reader is given plenty of material for imagination, but at the expense of having a less powerful narrative within the novel.
Lastly, dialogue with no punctuation does not read very smoothly. The dialogue of the Latinos in the novel seems to lack research into what grammar Hispanic speakers of English actually use, which employs more caricature than this reader was comfortable with.
The synopsis tells us that this is more than just the story of a man and a horse. While this is true, I feel as though the scenes with Boleto, as she comes to be called, are very short and not very interesting or meaningful. Other human characters take on a little more depth, yet their stories are also presented too shortly. The reader is given plenty of material for imagination, but at the expense of having a less powerful narrative within the novel.
Lastly, dialogue with no punctuation does not read very smoothly. The dialogue of the Latinos in the novel seems to lack research into what grammar Hispanic speakers of English actually use, which employs more caricature than this reader was comfortable with.
June 10, 2013
I had a really hard time giving this book a star rating. Do I rate on quality of writing or entertainment value? Do I rate on my own level of entertainment or its potential to entertain? I guess the point of this rambling is to give no weight to whatever star rating I give, if I give one at all.
Let's start off by saying that Alyson Hagy is a great writer and from a writers perspective, there is much to be learned from this novel. That said, this book is not at all my style of story. I found it extremely boring.
However, I do think that if this is within your preferred genre, you should read this book. If you like gentle, quiet stories with subtle tension, great three-dimensional characters, and fabulous setting and scenery, this is a wonderful read. For its genre, this book is superb.
Despite my boredom and difficulty to stick with it, I am thoroughly excited to meet Hagy next week and sit through her workshop.
Let's start off by saying that Alyson Hagy is a great writer and from a writers perspective, there is much to be learned from this novel. That said, this book is not at all my style of story. I found it extremely boring.
However, I do think that if this is within your preferred genre, you should read this book. If you like gentle, quiet stories with subtle tension, great three-dimensional characters, and fabulous setting and scenery, this is a wonderful read. For its genre, this book is superb.
Despite my boredom and difficulty to stick with it, I am thoroughly excited to meet Hagy next week and sit through her workshop.
July 16, 2012
If I could, I would give this 3.5 stars, only because the story, as divided into three parts, leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Not that everything in a book needs to be neatly tied up, but I really wanted to know what happened to some of the characters who just (literally) disappeared. That said, the simple sentences sing and descriptions shimmer in short bursts of prose. Hagy made the horse world fascinating. She also navigates the line between those stories that unrealistically glorify animals, complete with a Disney ending, and those that end badly and make you weep for days. (Or in my case, seem to have scarred me for life: Old Yeller, The Red Pony, etc.). This is Will's story, not the horse's, and he is a compelling character.
February 20, 2013
This book was not worth the read, or the time it took to finish. I could tell by the end of section one that it could only go one way: Will sells the filly. It's the only possible conclusion from what is given, and from that his growth (or lack of it) is assured. That doesn't help an already lackluster plot. Not to mention, Will doesn't do much during the book. He's passive and everything happens to him (including sex, which always seems to come to him). The only active decisions involved the buying and selling of the filly. The writing is plain and rarely exciting (a handful of lines in nearly 250 pages), and as the plot goes nowhere, the writing drags it down further. I'm sorry, but this just didn't work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2012
The first two parts of the book were engaging. The main character, Will, was believable, likable and I enjoyed the way he worked with the horse. The last part was disappointing and I felt it knocked the ground out of all that had been built up earlier. He basically abandoned his horse, made decisions that seemed out of character and destroyed all that he had been working for with no really good reason. There were clearly less dramatic resolutions to his problems but he didn't even try to behave in accordance with the values that the author had been so careful to establish.
August 27, 2012
This is a Western in the best sense of the word. There are horses and horse training and horse people. There is a young man learning about himself in a world filled with both honesty and deceit, laughter and heartache, good and evil. And there are sentences describing both the beauty and brutality of the western landscape that took my breath away, and made me stop to savor them. Alyson Hagy is a very good writer, and I truly enjoyed this book.
August 7, 2012
Loved it. Not just because I love horses. And the horse on the cover looks like my horse. (well maybe it is actually a 4.5 star book and those things made me round up to 5 star. That's possible)
Really nice writer. Good story. Love the conept of boleto (spanish for ticket) Can see this being added to high school curricula, a la The Red Pony.
Really nice writer. Good story. Love the conept of boleto (spanish for ticket) Can see this being added to high school curricula, a la The Red Pony.
May 21, 2015
I didn't expect to like Boleto. I read it because I'm familiar with the author and ended up reading it through the night, drawn in by the quality of the prose, but also the way she somehow created a full, rich character who is in no way familiar to me. Bravo!
November 1, 2018
My review written for "Ex Libris", a defunct online book review of the Marquette University Libraries.
“The ravens perched high in the spruce trees, hunched like old men wrapped in buffalo robes, and watched them . . . .” "Boleto" is our chance to watch Will Testerman, a 23-years old cowboy, find his way in life. Will has been working around and with horses all of his life and has spent twelve hundred dollars of his hard-earned money for the promising, unnamed filly which the ravens are watching him work. Will hopes that his training of this horse will be his ticket, if not out of Cabin Valley, Wyoming, then at least, to bigger things. In the process we see Will dealing with his family — two brothers, a mother recovering from breast cancer and a gruff, demanding father — and trying to figure out how to reconcile family and personal needs. We observe Will dealing with the diverse range of people in the horse world — from the rich and spoiled to the poor and over-worked. We see Will in action from Wyoming, on his father’s ranch and working as the corral boss on a guest ranch, to Texas “where he babysat rich girls,” to Southern California where he works on a big estancia trying to learn what he can about polo ponies. Hagy shows us a young man, one of the banged-up people in the world, finding out who he is and what his place is in the world. Hegy is a lover of “place” and in this novel she shows us Wyoming as a fully-formed and important character in Will Testerman’s life. "Boleto" is an excellent read whether you are a horse lover or if the extent of your experience with horses is limited to the pony rides at the county fair.
“The ravens perched high in the spruce trees, hunched like old men wrapped in buffalo robes, and watched them . . . .” "Boleto" is our chance to watch Will Testerman, a 23-years old cowboy, find his way in life. Will has been working around and with horses all of his life and has spent twelve hundred dollars of his hard-earned money for the promising, unnamed filly which the ravens are watching him work. Will hopes that his training of this horse will be his ticket, if not out of Cabin Valley, Wyoming, then at least, to bigger things. In the process we see Will dealing with his family — two brothers, a mother recovering from breast cancer and a gruff, demanding father — and trying to figure out how to reconcile family and personal needs. We observe Will dealing with the diverse range of people in the horse world — from the rich and spoiled to the poor and over-worked. We see Will in action from Wyoming, on his father’s ranch and working as the corral boss on a guest ranch, to Texas “where he babysat rich girls,” to Southern California where he works on a big estancia trying to learn what he can about polo ponies. Hagy shows us a young man, one of the banged-up people in the world, finding out who he is and what his place is in the world. Hegy is a lover of “place” and in this novel she shows us Wyoming as a fully-formed and important character in Will Testerman’s life. "Boleto" is an excellent read whether you are a horse lover or if the extent of your experience with horses is limited to the pony rides at the county fair.
May 14, 2019
This is a masterfully haunting and well-told novel. The three-part structures does wonders and gives this book some legs, and Will Testerman is a character I'd easily read for another couple hundred pages. Talented, generous, with his own moral code and way of doing things - and the way, through the novel, this will get tested. Considered a Western, the book challenges the old tropes and paves the way for what it perhaps means to be a cowboy into today's world. I was getting some serious Nick Carraway/Great Gatsby vibes by the end of this book. The disillusion and the heartbreak is palpable and real. The sense of loss and loneliness reminds me of that other great book, All The Pretty Horses (which Hagy even mentions as an inspiration in the author interview at the end).
Five out of five stars. One I definitely plan on rereading.
Five out of five stars. One I definitely plan on rereading.
July 12, 2017
I did not think that this book lived up to its potential. The ending was not sufficient enough for me at all, and there were times where the story really dragged. I was just waiting to get done with it. There were some interesting parts, but unfortunately, they were few and far between.
November 30, 2017
boring nothing really happens. this was just some guy;s rambling Mish mash of his soul nd early years in coherent random boring shot thrown together
November 23, 2018
Beautiful writing,good honest story,horses.I felt like I was riding along with Will.4.5 stars
May 30, 2024
I really enjoyed this character study of a deeply feeling, intelligent, perceptive, young man. Hagy’s descriptions of horse and human behavior are exceptional.
December 7, 2024
Parts of this book were exceptional, other parts were muddled. If you are a horse person, the setting and story will be more interesting.
December 29, 2024
I'm not sure I liked it, but I recognize feelings in it, and it has stuck with me, although the lingering is rather uncomfortable.
December 30, 2020
A little too modern and literary for me, but readable.
March 16, 2022
What a wonderful of a book-I loved the relationship Wil had with his filly-so interesting!!
November 27, 2022
This makes me a bit of a minority, but I am not usually one for animal books.
Don't misunderstand: I love our cat and those of her kind who have preceded her. It's just that I very rarely choose to read about animal-human relationships in my fiction.
Then why Boleto?
Part of it is because of seeing it praised by others, including Beth Kephart. (When Beth praises a book, I usually pay attention.) Part of it is also because of wanting to give Alyson Hagy's work another chance. (I had a hard time with the beginning of Snow, Ashes, and had to set it aside.)
I'm so glad I did. (Give Alyson Hagy's work another chance, that is.) The writing in Boleto is so exquisite that I just want to quote from the text. What I have to say doesn't much matter.
Right off the bat, one notices that Boleto is going to be a rich read of characters and their complex relationships to each other, as well as to the changing Wyoming land that they live on and love. The main character is 23 year old Will Testerman, a quiet, somewhat mysterious but gentle soul who has made a few mistakes in his young life and caught a few unlucky breaks. He's so incredibly broken inside and Hagy's skill as a writer is making her reader want to reach through the pages to heal him.
Because that's what Will struggles to do with the broken people in his life, starting with his mom, a cancer survivor. (Honest to God, can I not escape cancer these days?)
"His mother was a schoolteacher in town. He believe he owed some of his restlessness to her. She had taken on full-time work when he was old enough to go to school, and the two of them had driven to and from Lost Cabin for many years, It was a short drive but in those minutes together - often in the blue cold of a winter morning - they would talk about their days, about who they were. His mother had traveled some when she was young. She was also a great reader of books.
She would say to him, Who are you today, Will Testerman?
And he would say, if he wished to disappoint her, Today I hate arithmetic.
More often he would say a thing to entertain her or to warm up the teacher in her. He would say, Today I am a minuteman from Massachusetts, or Today I am the man from over there in France who discovered germs. It wasn't hard to please his mother or to make her laugh. This was true even after a difficult day, one that left a grayish color around her lips. She only wanted to talk to him. She only wanted him to know how big the world was." (pg. 6-7)
"He realized after a few minutes that watching her - even for just a short time - might soon become as basic to him as breathing. And he realized he hadn't breathed much, not really, over the past few months. His mother's cancer had worried him. It worried him still. There was also his ongoing quarrel with his father. His father thought he was too much of a dreamer, that he took chances on things a person could not touch or see, that he did not place enough value in the normal, unpleasant things a man had to do in his life. That was not a false judgement. He did not always put himself forward as normal. And he had been known to smash himself up among his dreams." (pg. 21)
This is also a story about family, about ambition, about love.
"My great-grandmother was the kind of person you can say lived a hard life. And she didn't bring that hardness down on herself at all. She wasn't a bad woman, or a criminal in any way. It's a puzzle, don't you think? What does a person really get after a lot of honest work? Who gets happiness at the end of the line, and who doesn't?" (pg. 56)
"He had heard from his Christian rodeo friends that the fights inside you were always the biggest fights. The invisible demons were the ones that had the most power." (pg. 60)
"People were not fixed. People slipped away like weather over a horizon. You could love a person all you wanted, all that you were capable of, but a person would not settle once you left them behind." (pg. 86)
"You'll love somebody enough to try to live with them someday, Linda said. It'll strangle you. It'll bring you right down to your knees and make you want to cut your nuts off. I'm telling you the truth.
I don't aim to get married, he said.
I'm not talking about marriage, Linda said, squawking into the laugh she used on her ridiculous, ungovernable sheep. I'm talking about love. It'll come onto you like a March blizzard. I'll beat the rhythm right out of your heart if you let it.
Maybe I won't let it.
Ha, Linda squawked. That's the best damn part. It's not an option. Love is like a hospital germ. It don't give you a chance." (pg. 193-194)
Boleto is so well worth taking a chance on.
Don't misunderstand: I love our cat and those of her kind who have preceded her. It's just that I very rarely choose to read about animal-human relationships in my fiction.
Then why Boleto?
Part of it is because of seeing it praised by others, including Beth Kephart. (When Beth praises a book, I usually pay attention.) Part of it is also because of wanting to give Alyson Hagy's work another chance. (I had a hard time with the beginning of Snow, Ashes, and had to set it aside.)
I'm so glad I did. (Give Alyson Hagy's work another chance, that is.) The writing in Boleto is so exquisite that I just want to quote from the text. What I have to say doesn't much matter.
Right off the bat, one notices that Boleto is going to be a rich read of characters and their complex relationships to each other, as well as to the changing Wyoming land that they live on and love. The main character is 23 year old Will Testerman, a quiet, somewhat mysterious but gentle soul who has made a few mistakes in his young life and caught a few unlucky breaks. He's so incredibly broken inside and Hagy's skill as a writer is making her reader want to reach through the pages to heal him.
Because that's what Will struggles to do with the broken people in his life, starting with his mom, a cancer survivor. (Honest to God, can I not escape cancer these days?)
"His mother was a schoolteacher in town. He believe he owed some of his restlessness to her. She had taken on full-time work when he was old enough to go to school, and the two of them had driven to and from Lost Cabin for many years, It was a short drive but in those minutes together - often in the blue cold of a winter morning - they would talk about their days, about who they were. His mother had traveled some when she was young. She was also a great reader of books.
She would say to him, Who are you today, Will Testerman?
And he would say, if he wished to disappoint her, Today I hate arithmetic.
More often he would say a thing to entertain her or to warm up the teacher in her. He would say, Today I am a minuteman from Massachusetts, or Today I am the man from over there in France who discovered germs. It wasn't hard to please his mother or to make her laugh. This was true even after a difficult day, one that left a grayish color around her lips. She only wanted to talk to him. She only wanted him to know how big the world was." (pg. 6-7)
"He realized after a few minutes that watching her - even for just a short time - might soon become as basic to him as breathing. And he realized he hadn't breathed much, not really, over the past few months. His mother's cancer had worried him. It worried him still. There was also his ongoing quarrel with his father. His father thought he was too much of a dreamer, that he took chances on things a person could not touch or see, that he did not place enough value in the normal, unpleasant things a man had to do in his life. That was not a false judgement. He did not always put himself forward as normal. And he had been known to smash himself up among his dreams." (pg. 21)
This is also a story about family, about ambition, about love.
"My great-grandmother was the kind of person you can say lived a hard life. And she didn't bring that hardness down on herself at all. She wasn't a bad woman, or a criminal in any way. It's a puzzle, don't you think? What does a person really get after a lot of honest work? Who gets happiness at the end of the line, and who doesn't?" (pg. 56)
"He had heard from his Christian rodeo friends that the fights inside you were always the biggest fights. The invisible demons were the ones that had the most power." (pg. 60)
"People were not fixed. People slipped away like weather over a horizon. You could love a person all you wanted, all that you were capable of, but a person would not settle once you left them behind." (pg. 86)
"You'll love somebody enough to try to live with them someday, Linda said. It'll strangle you. It'll bring you right down to your knees and make you want to cut your nuts off. I'm telling you the truth.
I don't aim to get married, he said.
I'm not talking about marriage, Linda said, squawking into the laugh she used on her ridiculous, ungovernable sheep. I'm talking about love. It'll come onto you like a March blizzard. I'll beat the rhythm right out of your heart if you let it.
Maybe I won't let it.
Ha, Linda squawked. That's the best damn part. It's not an option. Love is like a hospital germ. It don't give you a chance." (pg. 193-194)
Boleto is so well worth taking a chance on.
June 2, 2012
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainme...
A cowboy, his talents and his horses combine to form Alyson Hagy's newest novel 'Boleto'
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor books@dallasnews.com
Published: 01 June 2012 04:34 PM
In her wise new novel Boleto, Alyson Hagy follows modern-day Wyoming cowboy Will Testerman on his simple quest: to make his way in the world through his gift for working with horses, and to prove he can spot raw talent by training a quarter horse, bought cheap, into a polo pony he can sell for riches.
In old Western stories, cowboys worked on open-range cattle drives, conditions that existed for only a few decades but still loom large in the romantic myth of the West. In Hagy’s contemporary story, cowboys work on guest ranches, where well-off people enamored of those Western tales come to vacation, and the cowboys must handle the humans as much as livestock.
Will’s older brothers “managed to cover the bases on the family ranch” in Wyoming. Will’s father works an extra job at a print shop, bitterly. “The money was necessary,” Hagy writes. “The business was dying. His father understood only one option: to squeeze the rock until it was dry.” There is no future for Will back home.
Although Will’s concern for his mother, who is battling cancer, draws him back to Wyoming between horse-related gigs, his destiny tugs him away. He works each summer at the Black Bell Ranch east of Yellowstone. He spends a year in Texas working for “a big-money outfit” until an encounter with one of the “rich girls” it caters to leads to his banishment. During that downtime, he discovers and buys a promising filly.
Will enjoys several flings, but the most elaborate scene of seduction occurs when Will carefully introduces himself to the remarkable filly, the color of “ox blood to old copper” with “perfect quarter horse ears. They were set evenly on either side of her smoothly rounded poll, and they were shaped like tears, like a pair of shadow-filled tears drawn by a child’s hand.”
Will is so determined to avoid attachment that he doesn’t name her — he calls her Filly, or Tick, after her mother, Sally’s Quick Ticket. But she becomes his Boleto — the word the Argentines he works with at a California polo pony operation have for a lottery ticket.
Near the end of the book, when Will recalls a lecture a Wyoming neighbor once gave him about romance, “Love is like a hospital germ. It don’t give you a choice,” it’s clear the lesson applies not to any girl, but to this singular horse. “Beautiful,” Will thinks at one point. “The sight of her midnight silhouette made his hands ache.”
Hagy writes with great authority about her array of authentic characters, who speak in crisp dialogue and waste no words. Boleto is packed with insights about horses, such as, “Young horses could absorb only so much civilization in a day. You needed to leave plenty of space for their untrained natures.” Will himself is an endearing character, everything you’d want in a cowboy — honest, forthright, polite, capable, modest, yet not so squeaky clean that he makes your teeth ache. In language that is lucid and true, Hagy tells his story, one that will resound with readers long after Will Testerman rides off into the sunset.
Jenny Shank’s first novel, “The Ringer,” was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent Bookseller’s Association’s Reading the West Award.
Boleto (Graywolf Press, $24)
Alyson Hagy
A cowboy, his talents and his horses combine to form Alyson Hagy's newest novel 'Boleto'
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor books@dallasnews.com
Published: 01 June 2012 04:34 PM
In her wise new novel Boleto, Alyson Hagy follows modern-day Wyoming cowboy Will Testerman on his simple quest: to make his way in the world through his gift for working with horses, and to prove he can spot raw talent by training a quarter horse, bought cheap, into a polo pony he can sell for riches.
In old Western stories, cowboys worked on open-range cattle drives, conditions that existed for only a few decades but still loom large in the romantic myth of the West. In Hagy’s contemporary story, cowboys work on guest ranches, where well-off people enamored of those Western tales come to vacation, and the cowboys must handle the humans as much as livestock.
Will’s older brothers “managed to cover the bases on the family ranch” in Wyoming. Will’s father works an extra job at a print shop, bitterly. “The money was necessary,” Hagy writes. “The business was dying. His father understood only one option: to squeeze the rock until it was dry.” There is no future for Will back home.
Although Will’s concern for his mother, who is battling cancer, draws him back to Wyoming between horse-related gigs, his destiny tugs him away. He works each summer at the Black Bell Ranch east of Yellowstone. He spends a year in Texas working for “a big-money outfit” until an encounter with one of the “rich girls” it caters to leads to his banishment. During that downtime, he discovers and buys a promising filly.
Will enjoys several flings, but the most elaborate scene of seduction occurs when Will carefully introduces himself to the remarkable filly, the color of “ox blood to old copper” with “perfect quarter horse ears. They were set evenly on either side of her smoothly rounded poll, and they were shaped like tears, like a pair of shadow-filled tears drawn by a child’s hand.”
Will is so determined to avoid attachment that he doesn’t name her — he calls her Filly, or Tick, after her mother, Sally’s Quick Ticket. But she becomes his Boleto — the word the Argentines he works with at a California polo pony operation have for a lottery ticket.
Near the end of the book, when Will recalls a lecture a Wyoming neighbor once gave him about romance, “Love is like a hospital germ. It don’t give you a choice,” it’s clear the lesson applies not to any girl, but to this singular horse. “Beautiful,” Will thinks at one point. “The sight of her midnight silhouette made his hands ache.”
Hagy writes with great authority about her array of authentic characters, who speak in crisp dialogue and waste no words. Boleto is packed with insights about horses, such as, “Young horses could absorb only so much civilization in a day. You needed to leave plenty of space for their untrained natures.” Will himself is an endearing character, everything you’d want in a cowboy — honest, forthright, polite, capable, modest, yet not so squeaky clean that he makes your teeth ache. In language that is lucid and true, Hagy tells his story, one that will resound with readers long after Will Testerman rides off into the sunset.
Jenny Shank’s first novel, “The Ringer,” was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent Bookseller’s Association’s Reading the West Award.
Boleto (Graywolf Press, $24)
Alyson Hagy
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews