Lean on Pete

by Willy Vlautin

Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home; food on the table; a high school he can attend for more than part of a year; and some structure to his life. But as the son of a single father working at warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, he's been pretty much on his own for some time.

Genres: Fiction, Coming Of Age, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Young Adult, Americana

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Willy Vlautin (born 1967) is an American author and the lead singer and songwriter of Portland, Oregon band Richmond Fontaine. Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, he has released nine studio albums since the late nineties with his band while he has written four novels: The Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, and The Free.

Published in the US, several European and Asian countries, Vlautin's first book, The Motel Life was well received. It was an editor's choice in the New York Times Book Review and named one of the top 25 books of the year by the Washington Post.

His second, Northline was also critically hailed, and Vlautin was declared an important new American literary realist. Famed writer George Pelecanos stated that Northline was his favorite book of the decade. The first edition of this novel came with an original instrumental soundtrack performed by Vlautin and longtime bandmate Paul Brainard.

Vlautin's third novel, Lean on Pete, is the story of a 15-year-old boy who works and lives on a rundown race track in Portland, Oregon and befriends a failed race horse named Lean on Pete. The novel won two Oregon Book Awards: the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and the Peoples Choice Award.

As a novelist, Vlautin has cited writers such as John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver, Barry Gifford, and William Kennedy as influences. HIs writing is highly evocative of the American West; all three of his novels being set in and around Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico. His books explore the circumstances and relationships of people near the bottom of America's social and economic spectrum, itinerant, and often ailed by alcohol addiction.

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lean on Pete should have been an intensely emotional book. But....the writing left a lot to be desired for me. The scenes that should have made me cry...didn't. The relationships that should have made me think about my own family ties....didn't. The emotional and physical beating that young Charlie took....meh. There was such a lackluster and anticlimactic way about the writing, that it ultimately hurt the otherwise awesome story. The potential was there for an amazingly powerful book, but in my opinion, it fell short of being a truly great book. It's still a good story and worth the read but ultimately one that will be forgotten.

"He said he'd rather go to prison and get the shit kicked out of him every day than spend any more time in a dump like Spokane."

on a side note. I grew up and currently live in Spokane, lol. I have also lived in Portland and Denver. The cities where Charlie spends the bulk of the story.

[Trux · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Motel Life so when I saw this Willie Vlautin prominently displayed at the library I quickly snatched it up, forgetting that I'd planned to avoid it because it sounded WAY TOO DAMNED SAD. I made it through though, but crunched it into basically one sitting because it was more difficult to live with than Motel Life (because the main character is so young, I think) but again, it wasn't as unbearably depressing as I'd feared.

The other reason I read it quickly? Because it's amazing. Even when living in a house, Charley is on the road . . . it's a road story, beloved animal story, SURVIVAL story (one young person fending for himself in many hostile environments). Yes, we hear what Charley has to eat and/or drink (or doesn't get to eat or drink) whenever he eats or drinks. Contrary to what one reviewer said, IT'S NOT ALWAYS CHEESEBURGERS, and contrary to what many reviewers said, these details are actually important . . . they are a significant part of the story and fraught with tension because, again, it's a story of survival. For some people that IS the story: whether or not they get to eat anything that day and the ends they have to go to to have their basic fucking needs met. And how heartbreaking it is that a child's life should be consumed with the things so many people take for granted in the US (and how it can break a child to not be able to take them for granted and have to take that responsibility himself).

But that's not all of the book . . . it's constantly in motion while also being extremely persuasive about social welfare issues. There are metaphors in here and scathing criticisms of certain kinds of hypocrites, but none of it is heavy-handed. The story-telling is never compromised. By the end of the book, though, you are bleeding inside begging for someone to take care of this kid. This is the new old west.

Sidenote: why do people here take up three and four paragraphs with their version of "this is the story of . . . " when there's already a much more objective DESCRIPTION of the book up at the top of every page? The funny part is that people who do that never seem to get it right. I wish they'd write their responses to the book and analysis instead of their skewed synopses.

[Berengaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
*mildly recommended*

short review for busy readers: Vlautin's softest novel with an uncharacteristically genuine happy ending. More unfocused in plot and not quite as well written as most. Typical simple Vlautin style, but without the power it usually has. Triggers: animal mistreatment (racetrack), petty criminality and child neglect.

in detail:
In the author notes, Willy Vlautin tells the story of how when he was new in Portland, OR (Oregon) he frequented the local racetrack to be around people and have something to do.

He just assumed that the jockeys made decent money and the horses were well cared for. When he discovered that wasn't the case, he still found it hard to quit the track. Only when he witnessed a scene of shocking disregard for the lives of a horse and jockey by other members of the audience, did he leave in a fog of guilt and dismay, never to go back again.

"Lean on Pete" was written out of that emotion.

Perhaps it's why it's the nicest, most gentle of Vlautin's 5 novels I've read to date. It's Vlautin attempt to make emotional amends for participating in something he views today as wrong (low-stakes horse racing) out of a type of newbie enthusiasm and innocence for the sport.

This enthusiasm and innocence he puts into Charley, a 15-year old neglected boy who loses his father in a violent brawl. Suddenly homeless and penniless, Charley's main goal is to get enough money together to go find his aunt in Wyoming who he hopes will take him in.

Charley gets work at a shabby racetrack with a man called Del who sees his horses not as living creatures, but as machines to make him money. He drugs, overraces and fails to tend to the horses' medical needs -- unless they win. He also undercuts and lies to Charley, often refusing to pay him what he's owed to keep Charley servile and under his thumb.

When Charley learns that Del is going to sell Charley's favourite horse - Lean on Pete - to a slaughterhouse, he steals the horse and lights out from Portland for Wyoming.

Charley has a goal, but no plan. He lives from minute to minute, stealing to survive and taking any hand held out to him.

It's this planless that makes the story seem not only aimless but lacking in depth, as Charley stumbles from one mistake into another trap, and from another near scrape with the law to people with their own troubles who compound his. And Pete is killed in a traffic accident around the middle of the novel, which might be a partially fictionalised version of what Vlautin witnessed at the racetrack in Portland.

The desperation so typical in other Vlautin's works is not present here. Nor is the vast injustice of life on the losing end or the powerful emotional dialogues. Charley is a smart kid, with a kid's view of the world. Unlike adults, there are people out there (social workers, his aunt) who are charged to take care of him. He is only ever one or two steps away from help, even if it's not help he wants.

This makes "Lean on Pete" a sad novel, but one that ultimately lacks the bite and sting of Vlautin's other works. It's an okay read, but not nearly as typical nor as recommendable as his others.

[Nigel Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books that I can’t really fully explain in terms of why they were so enjoyable or had such an impact. ‘Lean On Pete’ is one of them. I’m going to try and unpick that for myself here in this review.
The work seems really simple in the structure as a whole and in the clean style of writing, yet the impact it had on me was far more powerful than this simplicity might normally allow.
Before the novel begins, there’s a quote from John Steinbeck:
‘It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.’
I mention this because it has been perfectly selected for a book that reflects something of that tone all the way through.
Charley Thompson has grown up in a single-parent family with his father at the helm. His father, a loving and kind one in many ways, is unreliable, unpredictable and liable to leave Charlie for days on end to fend for himself. This leaves Charley with the TV and the movie screen for company, cans of food to eat and a desire to run and keep fit so that he can keep alive his hopes of playing football. Football seems to allow Charley to feel part of something bigger than himself. To provide him with a family that works together. It’s important.
This immediately resonates and creates emotional waves. A human adults need sex, shelter and food to exist and surely human children need food, shelter, companionship and nurturing to survive; because Charley has been stripped of some of these, it’s impossible not to feel for him from the outset.
As he moves through the days, he stumbles into a job at the track working for a shady trainer and his horses. Of the horses, it’s Lean On Pete who captures Charley’s affections and it’s not long before Charley and Pete take off on a trip across country to Wyoming where there might at last be a haven for them.
I really don’t want to give away anything about the story in the hope that you’ll go and find out for yourself. I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy it, whoever you are.
Rolled up in this adventure are many scenes that would work as self-contained pieces. When put together, there’s a real sense of movement and hugely conflicting measures of hope and despair; it’s that ever-tipping balance between these two that offers the story its energy and had me completely captured as a reader. Like that quote in the beginning suggests, there’s good and bad in everyone and there’s enough of the latter to keep the species going. People react to Charley and his situation in many ways. There are the randomly generous, the needy, those who switch from generosity to bitterness without warning, the slippery and the aggressive. All of them are human and many of them are living in situations that all-too-often the media and those in power either have forgotten about or are busily sweeping under the carpet.
Charley is no exception to the rule of good and bad. He’s a survivor, whether he knows it or not. He’s learned enough from his father and from his time surviving alone to get by. In order to do so, he has to turn to crime and violence. One of the things I loved about the piece is how much I excused all of these acts in Charley because of his needs, whether to eat or to defend himself. That shows the power of the writing for me. There’s also one moment when he’s acting purely out of pride and from anger and I know that if I’d been in his position I’d have done the same, so I was still on side even then. In fact, the blur between good and bad goes far enough to remind that these are relative terms in themselves and will be defined differently by every nation, culture and individual (and that’s impressive in a book).
Half way through, I started to worry for the ending. I was hoping all the way that everything would finish with a scent of roses and Charley and Lean On Pete would live forever on the Big Rock Candy Mountain. That tore me. Much as I wanted it to be so, I couldn’t bear the idea that such an epic book might turn out to be a mushy fairy story. The hard edges of life and of Charley’s existence, even though they’d been handled with subtlety and dexterity, couldn’t allow for such a shiny finish. Thankfully, and it can’t have been an easy job, Vlautin’s denouement is superb, capturing something of the bitter sweet conflict of the whole book.
I also had a wonderful occurrence with this story that doesn’t happen often. I’d be walking in the countryside or washing or cooking and I’d catch myself wondering how Pete and Charley were doing. I’d picture them on the road, getting by and enjoy the moments of their safety while worrying for them all the while.
To summarise, I loved the book and am extremely grateful to the friend who recommended it for doing so. It has a real power and a stunning sense of reality that makes me want to be more observant and more generous in the world.
I’ve also bought the previous 2 novels by Vlautin and I’ll be picking up the next as soon as it’s out early next year.
Tremendous.

[Malbadeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the bright side, Charlie (main character) never got molested and never prostituted himself. pshew.

Willy won!!!

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index...

yay, willy!

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently I won a pass to see a pre-release screening of Lean On Pete in West Los Angeles (a faithful, excellent adaptation, by the way). I remembered that years ago I had bought the book, which had disappeared into my voluminous TBR piles. I dug it out and finally read it. All I can say is what took me so long? Charley Thompson tells the harrowing story of his attempt to save a broken-down race horse while searching for his long-lost aunt in clear, simple language. Willy Vlautin creates a universe of people (and animals) who are broken by life but still fascinating, in some cases quite sympathetic. This book is one of those quiet gems that finds the drama in everyday people and their struggles.

[piperitapitta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lean On Pete



Ho dato solo tre stelle a questo romanzo, che in realtà sarebbero tre e mezza, e non ho ancora visto il film, anche se confesso di aver voluto leggere il romanzo, e averne affrettato la lettura, proprio perché volevo vedere il film.
Willy Vlautin è un autore da tenere d'occhio, di cui ho sentito molto parlare negli ultimi mesi, anche grazie alla pubblicazione di un paio dei suoi romanzi da parte della piccola casa editrice Jimenez (sul sito è possibile mentre si sta leggendo uno dei loro libri ascoltarne la colonna sonora, perché l’autore è anche un piacevole cantante e musicista).



Non ho apprezzato molto la scrittura (ed è questo il motivo del mio giudizio tiepido), ma ho trovato bellissima (e molto triste) la storia di Charley Thompson, questo ragazzino appena quindicenne che vive con il solo padre, perennemente in fuga da un posto all’altro, da una città all’altra, transumante quasi come le mandrie.
È un romanzo in cui di formazione ce n’è pochissima, in cui gli Stati Uniti più miseri, quelli in cui si dorme per strada, si patisce la fame - Io ho sempre fame, è la frase che potrebbe sintetizzare il personaggio di Charley, affamato di cibo, di amore, di vita -, si vive rubacchiando nei supermercati, si abbandona un figlio al proprio destino privandolo della figura e dell’affetto di una madre (condannandolo di fatto alla ricerca perenne di quell’affetto, che in Charley si incarna nella figura della zia Mary, che non vede da qualche anno e della quale conserva solo una fotografia), ci si scontra costantemente con l'inadeguatezza degli adulti nei confronti della comprensione e del rispetto dei sentimenti e delle necessità degli adolescenti - sono rappresentati e raccontati in tutto il loro squallore e la loro solitudine, e di speranza ce n'è davvero pochissima, bisogna avere la forza e la tenacia di restarci aggrappati.

Ma Charley Thompson è, nonostante tutto, un ragazzino dritto, anche se provato dalla solitudine, legato al padre (unico suo punto di riferimento) e al desiderio di poter entrare a far parte della squadra di football dell’ennesima scuola dell’ennesima cittadina in cui sono arrivati: Portland in Oregon. Così, mentre il padre lavora e sparisce, allaccia relazioni sentimentali pericolose e sparisce, torna e sparisce nuovamente per qualche giorno, Charley, nei suoi giri esplorativi intorno alla nuova casa, scopre un ippodromo di infimo livello, di quelli in cui i cavalli vengono sfruttati per le corse e prima o poi, più prima che poi, finiscono al macello, incontra lo scontroso Del, che organizza gare di cavalli in giro per lo stato, e infine “Lean on Pete”, il cavallo il cui sguardo incontrerà il suo. E Charlie lo farà davvero, si appoggerà a Pete, finché potrà, finché Pete riuscirà a sostenerlo.

La scrittura, dicevo, non mi ha convinta del tutto, ma ho già in programma la lettura di Io sarò qualcuno, per cercare di capire se era funzionale alla storia, se l’autore ha avuto una evoluzione, o se la scrittura, caratterizzata da frasi corte e spezzettate, sono la sua cifra stilistica.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard Willy Vlautin speak at Live Wire Radio in Portland years ago and have been entranced by his authenticity ever since. So when our book club decided to have the next gathering at the local horse racing venue, this book, set around Portland Meadows, seemed apt.

His prose is simple and propulsive. But the emotional weight of what happens on the page is powerful and unsparring. I read LEAN ON PETE in one sitting, could't walk away. Looking forward to talking about it at the track.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story about a young boy, 15, who is trying to make it on his own. He is hungry for everything- food, companionship, guidance, care and love. The writing is sparse and lovely. It reminds me a lot of Steinbeck. If you want a book that will touch your soul then this is it. It's justnn wonderful.

[Nicoleta-Cătălina Gal · Rating 3 out of 5]

O carte care m-a atras de la adaptarea TV.
Atmosfera aia de coutry, acel sentiment specific romanelor americane și vocea m-au făcut să apreciez romanul la fel de mult ca filmul.
Citim despre un copil care stă mult singur pe-acasă, mănâncă ce poate, fură ca să mănânce și își face un prieten:

„I wished he and I could just disappear. We could live in a place where there was no one else around and it would be warm with miles of grass for him to eat and no one would ever make him run. ”

Aflăm, prin vocea tânărului de 15 ani, despre American Quarter Horse – o rasă americană de cai care excelează la sprinturi pe distanțe scurte.
Într-o zi de vară din vacanță, când aleargă, trece pe lângă un hipodrom. Aici își găsește un loc de muncă la Del, un om blazat și viciat. De la prima interacțiune, Del îl păcălește și nu se ține de cuvânt.

Mulți nu se țin de cuvânt cu el și profită de foamea lui:

„He said he’d give me three free dinners instead of the twenty. I told him okay and made him shake hands on it. ”

Copilul ăsta a văzut multe grozăvii. Și poate tocmai pentru că citim prin vocea lui, le percepem și noi ca pe niște grozăvii — deși ceilalți le consideră normalități:

„Charley, don’t worry too much about one horse, okay? You can’t think of these guys as pets. They aren’t. They’re here for racing, not for anything else. If they lose too much they get fired.”

Dar știm că acest copil încă nu e pierdut, nu va ajunge ca ceilalți:

„I kept running and running until I was so tired I couldn’t think about anything like that. It took a long time. It always takes a long time, but it always works.”

Când începe partea de călătorie —I had to drive through Oregon and Idaho to get there; I had to drive more than a thousand miles —începe și partea care mi-a plăcut cel mai mult. Copilul și calul.

”I kept talking to him. I told him about a time my dad and me and some friends of his spent a weekend at a cabin in the snow, and I told him about school, about teachers I had. About changing schools four times. About girls I saw and sat next to, about friends.”

Pe drum, așa cum se întâmplă în astfel de povești, întâlnește tot felul de oameni: un evanghelist, o fată fugită de acasă cu vecinii, doi soldați, un bărbat care strânge lucruri inutile, un om al străzii violent.
Îi face un bine un mexican — e ironic, pentru că peste graniță, în Mexic, calul n-ar fi avut o soartă bună — dar băiatului, omul îi dă mâncare și bani.

Dar puștiul devine atât de hăituit și înfometat încât: ”the woman cop led me into a room and took my handcuffs off. I made the bed and lay down. As uneasy as it was, it was nice to sleep in a place where I knew it was alright to sleep. ”

Ajunge de la poliție într-o casă de ajutor social, alături de alți cinci copii, dar este dat afară când este acuzat pe nedrept. Apoi cunoaște un camionagiu (există mereu câte un camionagiu de treabă în astfel de povești de drum) și o persoană care îl angajează. Suntem martori la bucuria lui de a câștiga bani. Un coleg de la noul loc de muncă îl ajută să încaseze ceea ce el numește:

„Cea mai mare sumă de bani pe care am avut-o vreodată.”

Câștigase 130 de dolari pentru o săptămână de muncă.
Colegul îl invită la el acasă, la masă. Era o familie frumoasă.

„When I left there I was pretty down. I never understand why seeing something nice can get you so down but it can.”

Undeva pe aici m-a apuca râsu-plânsu, mai ales când am citit asta: When we get a dog, maybe we’ll name him Guillermo, alright?”
Pete just kept walking.
“Alright,” I said and pet him. “I’m glad you agree.”


Citat reprezentativ:
„People say crying makes you feel better but it didn’t, it didn’t change anything, it just made me tired and embarrassed.”

„Lean on Pete” există ca nume de cal, dar nu are nicio legătură cu realitatea. Calul pe care e bazat cel din carte este altul, salvat de autor de la un proprietar abuziv, crescut apoi bine și răsfățat.
Cartea a fost scrisă după ce, iubind cursele de cai, autorul a aflat despre lucrurile întunecate care se petrec în culise.

Adaptarea cinematografică realizată de Andrew Haigh este o poveste vizuală tristă, dar plină de speranță, spusă cu blândețe — o aventură pe drum care vorbește despre maturizare și transformare.

[Mark Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willy Vlautin’s style is calm and clear-eyed. Zero flash. The prose is dry-eyed.

The opening lines: “When I woke up that morning it was still pretty early. Summer had just begun and form where I lay in my sleeping bag I could see out the window. There were hardly any clouds and the sky was clear and blue.”

The narrator is fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson. He has just moved to Portland to Spokane with his father. they are starting over. They are in a rundown house next to a trailer park. There are promises of getting a barbecue and a dog, but his father starts getting tangled up with the secretary in the front office where he works as fork lift driver. Soon, Charley has no food and no money and his father isn’t coming home.

Charley dreams of playing football for the new high school. His speed as a runner helps when it comes time to steal cans of soup from the grocery store.

“Lean on Pete” is the name of a horse at the Portland Meadows racetrack. He’s owned by a 70-year-old guy named Del. “He smelled like beer and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He had a big gut and was going bald. The hair he did have was mostly gray on the sides and he had it greased back. His right arm was in a cast and he was chewing tobacco.” Del has a flat tire but, with only one arm, needs help.

Soon Charley is in the thick in the world of horses and racing—but Del’s world is down and dirty. Del doesn’t give Charley all that he deserves or what he has worked for, but Charley keeps hoping. Life and luck are day-to-day. Drinking never stops. Charley tries hard to find the gears that will kick his life into a smooth ride, but it’s all a grind. Without giving too much away, soon Charley and Lean on Pete are off on their own—running—for many reasons.

Keeping them both in fuel and food is a constant challenge. Charley sets a course for a long-lost aunt who lives somewhere in Wyoming. Charley is resourceful. He needs what we all need. He must quickly size up strangers. H must quickly measure risk and reward. But you can only test your luck for so long before the hard world takes its toll.

“Lean on Pete” is human and original. Comparisons to Steinbeck and Carver are apt. The ending is about as well-crafted and touching, without giving an ounce away to sentimentality, as any book I’ve read in a long, long time.

Willy Vlautin is also lead singer of the band Richmond Fontaine. The guy clearly has talent to burn.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this novel in German when it came out in 2010, shortly after I'd read Northline and had fallen in love with Willy Vlautin's sparse and beautiful prose. I've been itching to see Reno ever since (and whenever I tell people they go "Reno? Really?") and he's been in my top 5 favourite author list ever since. And this while not of of his novels is a 5-star book for me (Northline came closest), which is weird for a favourite author, I guess, but there's just always this tiny bit missing for me. His novels all feel so real to me, like I'm just getting to know these very miserable outcast people, but like life there's no thrill, no spark, they always leave me feeling a bit empty, cold and dissatisfied, like I didn't fully get what I'd been promised.

I'm not sure if doing the whole "recommend my favourite author to you" thing right, to be honest...

I found an English paperbook copy of this novel, Lean On Pete, in my library on sale for one euro, so I grabbed it and thought it was a good chance to re-read it and see how it's holding up. I'd forgotten most of the story besides "15 year old boy runs away with a horse" and "pretty sad", which are both still true. I'd forgotten how much hunger and poverty and desperation there is in this book. Yeah, there's stuff about racing horses but mostly it's about a boy without a chance in this world. And it's all freaking hopeless. I'd even forgotten that there's a happy ending! It's just not what stuck in my mind.

I saw there's a movie adaption coming out, I'm really curious & looking forward to it. Hope it's just as sad.

[Joy D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in the American West, this is a coming-of-age story of fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson. Charley lives with his dad. His mother abandoned the family years ago. All he knows of his mother’s side of the family is that his aunt lives in Wyoming. Charley and his father had recently moved, so he has no contacts in the area. When his father dies, he is alone in the world. He starts working for Del Montgomery, a man who owns and races horses. Charley gets attached to a horse called Lean on Pete. He believes Del is going to send Pete to be destroyed, so he and the horse embark on a journey to find Charley’s aunt.

This is a sad story. Charley has to deal with many hardships. If you have issues with harm to animals or young people, steer clear. If I had known how this story would unfold, I probably would not have read it. At least the end is not horrible. The descriptions of the American West and Northwest are realistic and vivid. I read this book because the author grew up nearby in Reno, Nevada.

[Bert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous!!

So far this year I’ve read quite a few books that I’ve loved, but none more than Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin. It’s so hard to describe, there’s just something so quietly tender and beautiful about it, the way I felt when reading this is the same way I felt when I read Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, it filled my entire being with equal parts happiness and sadness.

On the forefront, it looks like a story about a boy and his horse but it’s so much more than that, it’s a story of loss, belonging, love and friendship. Charley is a fantastic character and the way he is written is perfect, it's not often an author has such a great understanding of their characters but what Willy Vlautin has done with the characters in this book is a marvel, and quite admirable.

Not only my favourite book I’ve read in 2018 but also now an all-time favourite. I can’t recommend it enough.

[Amos · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic little read! Sparse yet overflowing, bleak yet hopeful, ugly but full of the beauty of life. I will be reading more from Mr Vlautin in the very near future, me thinks.

Four Stars For Sure

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Featuring a fifteen-year-old boy with a string of hard luck, the new book by Willy Vlautin mines a similar storyline as his first two books and it's just as good. You may think it would be tiring to always write about the depressing lives of people but Willy does it so well, giving his readers a shining thread of hope to hold on to throughout. At times the book had the feel of a classic kid's adventure ala Huck Finn and I admit I did tear up a few times while reading it. The Portland setting at the beginning was cool too.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Everyone cheats," he said and turned on the radio.

Following his much-less-ambitious sophomore effort 'Northline', the author of 'The Motel Life' here makes good on that auspicious debut. 

To be honest, a book set in the world of horse racing didn't exactly pull me in. I don't think I'd even brushed up against that setting in decades. It seemed to be 'a thing' in the '70s - and the '40s before that. But, if the book cover gives you a throwback to something similar to 'National Velvet', think again... and think in less of a traditional sense. 

This isn't the sentimental kind of horse story found with 'National Velvet' or 'Black Beauty'. It's much more than just sentimental; it's depressing as hell. One might almost call it graphic in its depression. 

'Lean on Pete' (that's the horse's name) is less about the horse and more about 15-year-old Charley Thompson. In spirit, Charley has kinship with the two brothers in 'The Motel Life': he just can't seem to get a break in life and he has no real ties to anything. Leon on Pete comes close to becoming Charley's chosen family. 

~ at least until there's a (very) welcome surprise. 

At one point, Charley is warned about the horse:

"...But listen, don't get attached to a horse. They ain't like that dog over there. If they can't run they ain't worth a shit to anyone."

The reader can be forgiven for being sucked into that warning as well. ~ mainly because it later becomes clear that the horse was being tossed aside callously and clumsily. 

Vlautin's advancement as a writer shines through by way of his meticulous portrait of the racing world. It's a life that the author had thrown himself into for a period of time; he both observed and captured it quite well. ~ not only the specifics of race preps but in plaintive descriptions of those who inhabit that space (often barely). 

Since the novel gradually loses its sense of set-up before shifting to something more like a road movie, it takes on a piecemeal feel that suggests that Vlautin has lost the thread. But that's not the case. It's just that, for the longest time, we've thought that the story was about one thing... when it's actually about something else, and had been all along.  

This novel soon got into the habit of ripping my heart out. At the same time, I was in awe of the spirit in Charley that would not let him break down before he broke through. I was behind him 100%.

I'm moving on to Vlautin's next work.

[Brennan Facchino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprise stunner for me. A book with horses in it, but it’s not a horse book. It broke my heart multiple times. You should definitely read it.

[Diener · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this book prominently displayed at my local independent bookstore a couple of weeks ago. I read the back cover and discovered that the writer lives in Oregon, and that the story is mostly set in Portland. So I was instantly intrigued. I then scanned excerpts of the positive reviews found on the first page of the book and then wrote the name of the book down on the back of a business card I had in my money clip. A couple of days later, I checked out this book and another Willy Vlautin book entitled Northline from the library. I devoured Lean on Pete in about 3-4 sittings. What some critics say about Vlautin being a 21st century Steinbeck certainly rings true. Vlautin's prose is simple on the surface, but there is so much to unpack underneath the surface that one reading probably does not do this novel justice. For three of the five years I spent as a high school English teacher, I taught Of Mice and Men to my 11th-grade English students and felt the same way about that book. I had not previously read of Mice and Men when I first taught the book to my students. We read the book aloud in class, and because I taught four sections of 11th grade English, I was able to read the book four times that first year I taught it. And I remember how fun it was to discover new treasures with my students, complex treasures buried underneath, and sometimes even just below, what appears to be a fairly simple surface. And so it probably is with Lean on Pete and other Vlautin novels. If I were still teaching, I would definitely teach Lean on Pete, whose protagonist is a 15-year-old boy, to my students.

[Karenina (Nina Ruthström) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Med en glasklar och driven prosa trollbinder han mig. Utan metaforer eller abstraktioner, utan psykologisering och snitsiga formuleringar. Han gestaltar rakt upp och ner, osentimentalt utan att väja för det som är brutalt och äckligt. Jag som tror att jag är en läsare som framförallt gillar vackert språk inser när jag läser Vlautin att jag också älskar berättelser. Om de berättas väl. Willy Vlautin gör karaktärer till människor jag aldrig mött och tar mig med till platser jag aldrig varit på. Böcker kan vara otroligt olika, Vlautins skiljer verkligen ut sig ur mängden.

Fattigdom, svordomar, hunger, ärr, smuts, bekymmer, missbruk, smärta, damm och alkohol är ingredienser i den fond som vår huvudperson femtonåriga Charley marineras i. Han flyttar runt med sin pappa som tar olika ströjobb, när vi först träffar honom är de i Portland. Här möter Charley ljuset i mörkret; hästen Lean on Pete (me). Och det är så rörande att jag tror jag aldrig kommer att glömma den här läsupplevelsen.

Det är en hård och manlig värld som skildras men utan att jag som kvinnlig läsare känner mig negligerad. Författaren lyckas med konststycket att skriva om pålitliga kvinnor på ett realistiskt sätt utan att ens snudda vid något som liknar sexism. Men mest handlar det om utsatthet och ensamhet genom femtonåriga Charley som kämpar sig igenom motgång efter motgång.

Charley springer vilket är en praktisk och fysisk syssla som utan att det nämns i ord får mig att känna hopp. Löpningen betyder att pojken har driv, han kan förflytta sig i rummet och kommer väl också kunna förflytta sig från proletariatets botten, hoppas jag.

Lean on Pete finns också som film.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from Badelynge.
Willy Vlautin is the frontman of a band called Richmond Fontaine who also writes novels. Lean on Pete is his third such book. It introduces us to Charley Thompson, a 15 year old boy who lives an unsettled life with his dad. Pretty much left to his own devices and uprooted from his previous life in Spokane, Charley tries to make the best of things. He pines for his old home and friends while doing his best to stock a fridge that is as neglected as himself. His dad isn't a bad sort but doesn't make spending time with his son a high priority. Charley just wants a bit of stability in his life. He doesn't get it. Tragedy and bad luck dog the boy's steps from page to page and an already introverted personality starts to slide. The book charts an emotional and fraught journey as Charley takes responsibility for a no-hope race horse called Pete. It's all told in a spare and economical first person, with the eye and imagination of a 15 year old. Is there no hope for Charley? Can he save Pete? There is only one way to find out.
This review is from an uncorrected proof.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willy Vlautin’s novels focus on different aspects of American life. Generally it’s working class, blue collar citizens of U.S. society and the trials and tribulations they go through. Lean on Pete takes the form of a time old American tradition : the road trip.

When Charley’s trucker father moves to Oregon, he decides to take a job helping a person who races horses when his dad is on the road. He forms a bond with a horse called Lean on Pete and he takes care of him.

Disaster strikes when Lean on Pete cannot race anymore and Charley’s father takes some unwise decisions. This leaves Charley to fend for himself and he travels across the States, hoping to reunite with his aunt. on the way, meeting a cast of characters and encountering some perilous situations.

Is the book predictable? no. Willy Vlautin writes in such a way that keeps one’s interest and, slight spoiler, it culminates in such a warm ending. It does take a lot to execute something like that and Vlautin manages. At this point he is a master at his craft.

[Manu Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un très beau roman américain qui plaira à ceux qui aiment les road trip dans l'Amérique des laissés pour compte. Un auteur que je vais continuer à lire.

[Amie Newberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book WRECKED me. So lonely, and sad, and aching. I cried twice. Best book of 2021 so far.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The point-of-view character is Charley Thompson, 15 years old. He is the loneliest, most disadvantaged, bravest, most innocent, ingenious, and eternally hopeful survivor I've come across in literature in a long time. He has something in common with the "Noble Savage" and yet he is not wild. He is amazingly civilized (except for table manners) for all the neglect and disinterest he has suffered. He lived with his dad after his mom--someone named Nancy-- abandoned him as a baby. The relationship between Charley and his dad was precisely drawn--the dad loved his son but was driven by his addictions. (He could cook though, when so inclined.) At his dad's whims, Charley has moved from place to place, sometimes attending school, and knowing only one relative--an aunt somewhere, sometime ago in Wyoming. Arriving in Portland, Charley is left to his own pursuits, is often hungry, without money, always lonely. Running helps him cope. He meets a shifty horse owner at the Portland Meadows racetrack and takes a job, meets a horse--Lean on Pete-- who eventually becomes Charley's substitute family. Charley witnesses a brutal attack on his dad, and after the dad dies, Charley is homeless and moves in to a tack room at the racetrack, spends happy moments confiding in Pete.

Charley's goals are to find a loving family home, go to school, and play football. The more desperate Charley's living situation becomes, the more chances he is willing to take. He frees Pete from his similarly disadvantaged life, and they go on the road in search of a better life for both. There is a touching scene over halfway through the book where Charley spills out his heartfelt wishes for a better life to Pete. A tragic scene unfolds soon after, but in the end, Charley's hopes are coming true.

The book ends in the middle of a happy conversation between Charley and his aunt, and I wished for a bit more resolution about some of the major events that occurred in Portland. I began to grow tired of the endless listing of the foods Charley managed to buy, beg, or steal, although I know that being constantly hungry is one of the hallmarks of a 15-year old boy. This was emphasized, and perhaps necessarily so, as Charley recounted his tale. I also thought that there was too much of aimless wandering and cruel incidents toward the end of the book; almost like the author didn't want to end the story too quickly. But he could have ended it sooner in my opinion. One less attack, one less hunger situation, would have been fine.

I admired the writer's precision and the voice he adopted for teen age Charley; it seemed just right, and I could picture this boy. Other characters were also cleanly drawn: Charley's dad, the shifty horse owner Del. Others who appeared briefly were easy to picture; most of them were people you'd fear to find in a dark alley or in a car stopping along the roadway. Most of the women were unattractive and desperate but quite humanly possible. I appreciated that cruelty to horses by the race track crowd was hinted at but not graphically shown. The innuendos and mention of 'buzzers,' mysterious pills, and strange treatments noticed by Charley, and odd behaviors of the horses were enough to indicate the suffering these animals endured.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A boy 15 years of age moves with his dad to Portland. They have plans he wants to get into a football team at a school there and his father is working a new job as a fork lift operator and a little relationship with a woman who already has a boyfriend a very big Samoan.
The lad has a bit of an emptiness you find from reading this story, due to his mother dumping him with his father at one years old without concern or care for anymore contact.
He has been through many hard times and has many more terrible days ahead of him as he finds himself sleeping rough homeless and penniless fighting and scavenging for the next meal everyday.
He faces troubles and a few brush-ins with the law and criminals. People try to steal from him on the rough streets others are charitable and give him free rides on the freeway and food here and there.
His only hope is his aunt shes a librarian and possibly the one person left who can help and love him.
This story is a poignant tale of hope and survival.
The plight and journey of this boy becomes more engrossing as the story develops.
Leon on Pete is a beautiful horse that he wants to save from being run into the ground and eventually put down due to not winning its way.
Boy and horse you wish the two never part company but their union was inevitably going to come to an end somewhere in their timeline of life.
When one can't provide for himself the chances are very bleak for those around him.
It give you a peak into a life of possible teenagers that have walked the same walk and maybe homeless, lost and poor, as our main protagonist contained within these pages.

The writing style was layered out a nice and easy reading pattern.
The reading process just flew by like the wind but the story and the characters remain for more than the course of daylight.

Review, video interview and book trailer found at review page @
http://more2read.com/review/lean-on-pete-by-willy-vlautin/

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

LEAN ON PETE is told from the perspective of 15 year old Charley, whose story---while extreme---is in no way unbelievable. He grows up with one parent (his dad) after his mom leaves when he's young. His dad moves around a lot and when we meet Charley they've just arrived in Portland. Often left alone, Charley finds his way to a racetrack, where he starts working for Del Montgomery (a flat-out asshole) and bonds with Lean on Pete, one of Del's horses.

With a voice that is on its surface straightforward and simple, Vlautin's novels are filled with so much loneliness and longing that---though you could almost read one in a sitting---you'd depress yourself if you did. LEAN ON PETE is no exception. As in his first book, MOTEL LIFE, Vlautin fills LEAN ON PETE with stories within the story. It's something he can't help but to do ... they seem to fall out of him. Without spoiling too much, this book did leave me in tears at one point, and had me cursing at another---both at a character and at Vlautin for creating the character. Charley's life is filled with loneliness, but in the end you're left with a glimmer of hope. It's not a tidy ending, but that's good ... I hate tidy endings as they rarely exist in reality.

[Ainsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would never ever ever have picked up this book if it hadn't been given to me by a thoughtful boss when I was sick, and if I hadn't felt guilt-ridden and obligated to read it (18 months later).

And that would've been my loss. Because this is a gritty, harrowing, comically depressing, good book.

Vlautin's austere, flat style really worked for me in depicting the numb, trauma-shaped mind of 15 year-old Charley. Having known folks who had to resort to survival skills in their teens, his portrayal of Charley's emotions, thoughts and behaviors seemed true.

To me, this is a book about human brokenness. It's beautiful, horrible, and haunting at turns.

At one point half-way through the book Charley says "maybe this is the start of a lucky run." I had to laugh and hold my breath while I turned the page. Don't toy with me, Vlautin! In a book like this one, that's a proclamation like "thank God I'm the only one home tonight!" at the start of a horror film. We all know Charley's only likely to barely scrape by with the hope of a lucky run at the end.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second reading of the book, eight years after the first, and while I've recently seen the critically acclaimed movie adaptation, which refamiliarised me with the story, it still didn't take away from the beauty of Vlautin's prose and the depth of humanity he creates in his characters.

Classic Vlautin, in his portrayal of the underdog, and in this case of the underbelly of society in Oregan and beyond, Charley's figurative and literal journey brings him into contact with many characters, few of whom are stereotypically 'good' or 'bad', the way so many novelists create their protagonists. Don't expect swashbuckling action, but this book is well worth reading.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick read after reading Vlautin's newest book Don't Skip Out on Me. Both books definitely had many similarities, but I preferred Skip Out to Lean on Pete. Don't get me wrong, both books are fantastic - I love his analysis of loneliness and his focus on the down-and-out just trying to live their life - but Skip Out showed a more elevated writing style. I could see his growth as a writer in the newest book. It was an absolute pleasure meeting Mr. Vlautin when he was visiting a book store in Olympia, WA a few nights ago. I will definitely read the other books he's written.