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Flicka #3
Sturmwind: Der weiße Hengst
In the third book of the "Flicka" trilogy, Ken discovers to his horror that Thunderhead is roaming wild, causing trouble wherever he goes. He also has trouble at home, and thinks that his dreams can never come true; but then his feelings for Carey begin to change.
428 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
11 people are currently reading
947 people want to read
About the author
Mary O'Hara
132 books120 followersMary O’Hara Alsop, an American author, screenwriter, and composer, was born July 10, 1885, in Cape May, N.J., to Reese Fell Alsop and Mary Lee (Spring). She grew up in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., where her father was an Episcopal clergyman.
In 1905, Ms. O'hara married Kent Kane Parrot, whom she later divorced. Her second marriage to Helge Sture-Vasa from Sweden in 1922 also ended in divorce in 1947. Ms. O’Hara had two children from her first marriage, Mary O’Hara who died of skin cancer during her teens, and Kent Kane, Jr.
Ms. O’Hara moved to California after her first marriage where she became a screenwriter during the silent film era through the advent of talking movies.
In 1930, during her second marriage, Ms O’Hara moved to a ranch in Wyoming where she wrote her three novels, the classic “My Friend Flicka,” and the sequels “Thunderhead” and “Green Grass of Wyoming,” about the McLaughlin family and the younger son and his horse, Flicka.
In addition to writing, Ms O’Hara was a successful composer and published numerous songs for the piano. She also wrote a musical play called "The Catch Colt" which she later turned into a novel, first published in 1979 in Great Britain. The rights to performing this as a play or a musical can still be obtained through Dramatists Play Services, New York.
While she claimed her first love was musical composition, she continued writing fiction and nonfiction.
A year after her divorce from her second husband in 1947, Ms O’Hara returned to the east coast where she lived in Connecticut until 1968. She died Oct. 14, 1980, in Chevy Chase, Md. Her literary works are maintained by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
(sources: Current Biography, 1944; Contemporary Authors, 1981)
In 1905, Ms. O'hara married Kent Kane Parrot, whom she later divorced. Her second marriage to Helge Sture-Vasa from Sweden in 1922 also ended in divorce in 1947. Ms. O’Hara had two children from her first marriage, Mary O’Hara who died of skin cancer during her teens, and Kent Kane, Jr.
Ms. O’Hara moved to California after her first marriage where she became a screenwriter during the silent film era through the advent of talking movies.
In 1930, during her second marriage, Ms O’Hara moved to a ranch in Wyoming where she wrote her three novels, the classic “My Friend Flicka,” and the sequels “Thunderhead” and “Green Grass of Wyoming,” about the McLaughlin family and the younger son and his horse, Flicka.
In addition to writing, Ms O’Hara was a successful composer and published numerous songs for the piano. She also wrote a musical play called "The Catch Colt" which she later turned into a novel, first published in 1979 in Great Britain. The rights to performing this as a play or a musical can still be obtained through Dramatists Play Services, New York.
While she claimed her first love was musical composition, she continued writing fiction and nonfiction.
A year after her divorce from her second husband in 1947, Ms O’Hara returned to the east coast where she lived in Connecticut until 1968. She died Oct. 14, 1980, in Chevy Chase, Md. Her literary works are maintained by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
(sources: Current Biography, 1944; Contemporary Authors, 1981)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
September 12, 2020
It took me a few chapters to get into this book, & this is in part because I haven't read the first two books in the series, My Friend Flicka & Thunderhead. This book does work as a standalone, but it just takes time to get into the characters' heads.
This book is everything I want in a mid twentieth century read. The sympathetic characters are likeable (in some cases lovable) but have real flaws. The villainess - well, she is horrible & I do know someone just like her who can turn on the charm & appear to listen sympathetically, but will later use information gained against you!
The McLaughlin family have sincere values that they live by & instil in their children.
The animal behaviour for modern eyes can be terrifying & shocking. I often wonder about the Disneyfication of the animal kingdom.
To put it mildly, the gigantic and ferocious stallion Thunderhead doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to the above creations.
Our world (especially in 2020) is a truly terrible place - why do we shy away from what animals are actually like, when humans are creating such an awful place? The Incredible Journey is another honest look at how animals behaved - & I certainly coped with that when I first read it at around ten years of age.
This book is everything I want in a mid twentieth century read. The sympathetic characters are likeable (in some cases lovable) but have real flaws. The villainess - well, she is horrible & I do know someone just like her who can turn on the charm & appear to listen sympathetically, but will later use information gained against you!
...Mrs Palmer, not knowing how to register her displeasure, adopted the attitude of piteousness and tremulous bravery which she knew from long practice was the hardest on her granddaughter.
The McLaughlin family have sincere values that they live by & instil in their children.
If you have a difficult decision to make, never force it, Rob had told his boys. Weigh each alternative singly, without prejudice. If they seem to balance evenly, no advatage one way or the other, do not be deceived. There is an advantage one way or the other. If you wait long enough, it will become apparent to you and suddenly the decision will be made without difficulty, and it will be right.
The animal behaviour for modern eyes can be terrifying & shocking. I often wonder about the Disneyfication of the animal kingdom.
To put it mildly, the gigantic and ferocious stallion Thunderhead doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to the above creations.
Our world (especially in 2020) is a truly terrible place - why do we shy away from what animals are actually like, when humans are creating such an awful place? The Incredible Journey is another honest look at how animals behaved - & I certainly coped with that when I first read it at around ten years of age.
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August 15, 2015
There is something all encompassing about that moment when somebody discovers that they can love; that they can truly, madly and wholly love somebody or something. It becomes the everything that they are, the everything that they do. It is the air, the earth, the word, the whisper. Everything is about their love and their love is lost in everything.
I have often thought that horse stories are, really, love stories at heart. They are stories shot through with love and loving. They are stories of girls and boys and mares and geldings learning to love and trust and believe in another and to be something greater together than they can be apart. These are stories of love these, from Ruth and Fly-by-Night through to Jinny and Shantih, Ken and Flicka, these stories tell us that there is no shame in loving something so much that you cannot quite breathe without them there. There is something quite perfect in that. And, as every perfect moment brings with it the inevitability of the fall, these stories teach us how to live with and through those moments when every breath you take feels like a knife to your throat and ice in your heart. You are not alone. You have loved once and you will love again and you will be loved, and there is something so perfect in this world and one day it will find you.
This, then, is the horse story at its best, that fine mixture of love and loss and hope and fear and feelings that have never been thought before but now that you have thought them, you know that the world is a better place. There are several authors who catch this shift in consciousness so very perfectly and Mary O'Hara is one of them.
Green Grass of Wyoming is her third book in the Flicka series. The first is the heart-song My Friend Flicka and the second, the wild cloud scudding across a bare-blue sky: Thunderhead. They are good books, both, and they have their moments of being something very great. Green Grass of Wyoming stands well in its own right, but the experience of reading the trilogy, from dawn to dusk, from ranch to range, is something worth doing.
This book, the final in the trilogy, tells of Ken and his wild white stallion Thunderhead who is roaming free on the Wyoming ranges. Thunderhead is a king of horses, and a king needs his court. He's stealing mares and, when a beautiful racehorse - Crown Jewel - is lost mid-transit, he ends up taking her as part of his herd. Crown Jewel, though, has a human herd of her own. She was to be a gift and when she doesn't arrive, people come looking for her. And that means, it's time for Ken to come and find his stallion and deal with the problem that he has become. Coupled with that, is the slow realisation that he has feelings for Jewel's young owner: Casey. Green Grass of Wyoming sees all of this come together and inevitably, painfully, beautifully, start to conclude the trilogy.
How best to describe this book then? It is like cut glass at its heart, a shining, multi-faceted thing. There are plotlines here concerning mental health, marriage, love, fear, hope, religion; it is a book that was young adult before its time but also something more than that. It's almost a young adult saga; a sort of hybrid of those books you know that sprawl over years and see characters change and break and shift and grow. And underneath that all is Ken and Nell and Rob and Carey and their horses and animals of vivid name and character; Whodat, the wide-eyed stallion-to-be, Pilgrim, the protector dog, Flicka, the heart-whole of Ken, and so many more.
There are some books that sort of exist in an other-space without definition nor years to hold them back nor pigeonhole them, and I'd argue quite vehemently for the Flicka trilogy to exist in that space. They are horse books, but beyond all of that - ? They are books of love and life and living.
I have often thought that horse stories are, really, love stories at heart. They are stories shot through with love and loving. They are stories of girls and boys and mares and geldings learning to love and trust and believe in another and to be something greater together than they can be apart. These are stories of love these, from Ruth and Fly-by-Night through to Jinny and Shantih, Ken and Flicka, these stories tell us that there is no shame in loving something so much that you cannot quite breathe without them there. There is something quite perfect in that. And, as every perfect moment brings with it the inevitability of the fall, these stories teach us how to live with and through those moments when every breath you take feels like a knife to your throat and ice in your heart. You are not alone. You have loved once and you will love again and you will be loved, and there is something so perfect in this world and one day it will find you.
This, then, is the horse story at its best, that fine mixture of love and loss and hope and fear and feelings that have never been thought before but now that you have thought them, you know that the world is a better place. There are several authors who catch this shift in consciousness so very perfectly and Mary O'Hara is one of them.
Green Grass of Wyoming is her third book in the Flicka series. The first is the heart-song My Friend Flicka and the second, the wild cloud scudding across a bare-blue sky: Thunderhead. They are good books, both, and they have their moments of being something very great. Green Grass of Wyoming stands well in its own right, but the experience of reading the trilogy, from dawn to dusk, from ranch to range, is something worth doing.
This book, the final in the trilogy, tells of Ken and his wild white stallion Thunderhead who is roaming free on the Wyoming ranges. Thunderhead is a king of horses, and a king needs his court. He's stealing mares and, when a beautiful racehorse - Crown Jewel - is lost mid-transit, he ends up taking her as part of his herd. Crown Jewel, though, has a human herd of her own. She was to be a gift and when she doesn't arrive, people come looking for her. And that means, it's time for Ken to come and find his stallion and deal with the problem that he has become. Coupled with that, is the slow realisation that he has feelings for Jewel's young owner: Casey. Green Grass of Wyoming sees all of this come together and inevitably, painfully, beautifully, start to conclude the trilogy.
How best to describe this book then? It is like cut glass at its heart, a shining, multi-faceted thing. There are plotlines here concerning mental health, marriage, love, fear, hope, religion; it is a book that was young adult before its time but also something more than that. It's almost a young adult saga; a sort of hybrid of those books you know that sprawl over years and see characters change and break and shift and grow. And underneath that all is Ken and Nell and Rob and Carey and their horses and animals of vivid name and character; Whodat, the wide-eyed stallion-to-be, Pilgrim, the protector dog, Flicka, the heart-whole of Ken, and so many more.
There are some books that sort of exist in an other-space without definition nor years to hold them back nor pigeonhole them, and I'd argue quite vehemently for the Flicka trilogy to exist in that space. They are horse books, but beyond all of that - ? They are books of love and life and living.
February 8, 2015
I adored this entire trilogy--all three books were SO different. Flicka had the freshness and determined idealism of youth. In Thunderhead there was a darkness that hung overhead--more than a storm, more than the uncertainty of adolescence, it was not a comfortable read.
But Green Grass of Wyoming has so much more. It's complex. It has hope. I don't know how many times I have read this...10? 12? Maybe 20 times...
The build up to the race is awesome. Ken gets out from under the cloud of his father and older brother. Carey frees herself from her domineering grandmother. Read it...and enjoy.
Let me know what you think...
But Green Grass of Wyoming has so much more. It's complex. It has hope. I don't know how many times I have read this...10? 12? Maybe 20 times...
The build up to the race is awesome. Ken gets out from under the cloud of his father and older brother. Carey frees herself from her domineering grandmother. Read it...and enjoy.
Let me know what you think...
May 11, 2008
Unlike the previous books this story looks at an adult woman's role in the difficult setting and harsh life style of running a ranch. Life is not simple or easy especially with another child in her later years. Nell is suffering from anxiety and is estranged from Rob over difficulties she experiences but has trouble articulating. The passion and failures between the two are brought out in this story to show the growth that continues throughout life. Nell, her children, and life on the ranch in another era are both endearing and heartbreaking.
These are books to be read as an adult to understand all that was being told. As a child I missed a lot of the tension and growth that requires similar experiences to comprehend.
These are books to be read as an adult to understand all that was being told. As a child I missed a lot of the tension and growth that requires similar experiences to comprehend.
June 20, 2009
This is My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead for the grown-ups, with the focus on Nell and her marriage to Rob. Compelling, not just entertaining. I read it for itself, not just as the sequel to the above two...of the three, this is the one I reread as an adult.
August 31, 2018
In this installment of the My Friend Flicka trilogy the story gets a little bit weird for me, and loses a star.
Nell, my favorite, suffers anxiety after the birth of her daughter and it brings out her religious side.
Rob, with his hard shell and soft middle, does an abrupt about face in the end. It happened so quickly. It would have been much more believable if O'Hara had taken more time earlier in the story to set it up. Ken, the passionate dreamer, gets uncomfortably possessive with his girlfriend Carey.
This is more of a human story than a horse story, but there are still plenty of outdoor adventures and descriptions of the Wyoming landscapes to take you away to the Green Grass Of Wyoming.
Nell, my favorite, suffers anxiety after the birth of her daughter and it brings out her religious side.
Rob, with his hard shell and soft middle, does an abrupt about face in the end. It happened so quickly. It would have been much more believable if O'Hara had taken more time earlier in the story to set it up. Ken, the passionate dreamer, gets uncomfortably possessive with his girlfriend Carey.
This is more of a human story than a horse story, but there are still plenty of outdoor adventures and descriptions of the Wyoming landscapes to take you away to the Green Grass Of Wyoming.
September 11, 2014
Mary O'Hara was writing young adult before it was a thing. This is a beautiful little book about boy's coming of age, his relationship with his home and his horses, and the responsibilities all that incurs.
OK, so it's a little trope-y. Its ending is pat and not all that believable. But O'Hara takes her characters seriously, dealing with issues of faith (including a 10+ page diversion into the nature and love of God), marriage and brotherhood. Her narrative from the perspective of the horses is quite lovely(I may be a little biased), and I thoroughly enjoyed as a palate cleanser between too much DuBus and Munro.
OK, so it's a little trope-y. Its ending is pat and not all that believable. But O'Hara takes her characters seriously, dealing with issues of faith (including a 10+ page diversion into the nature and love of God), marriage and brotherhood. Her narrative from the perspective of the horses is quite lovely(I may be a little biased), and I thoroughly enjoyed as a palate cleanser between too much DuBus and Munro.
December 4, 2021
I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed it much more long ago when I was horse crazy.
April 14, 2019
I hadn't read this series since I was a horse- crazy kid, charging around on my pony. I loved these books then and I love them now for very different reasons. Now I know Wyoming and it's so unlike anything I imagined as a kid. These books really catch it though.
This is my least favorite book of the series. It's still good but Thunderhead is the best, IMO. It deals more with the history and landscape of this place. Still, definitely worth a reread. No regrets...
This is my least favorite book of the series. It's still good but Thunderhead is the best, IMO. It deals more with the history and landscape of this place. Still, definitely worth a reread. No regrets...
April 7, 2020
Reading this as a tween, it was fun to dive into Ken's first real romance, and I loved Jewel. I was less enamored with meek Carey and her overbearing grandmother, and wanted less of them. Also wanted more Flicka, who is a fairly minor character by this point. But overall the magic remains- the spectacular landscapes, the thoughtfully rendered family, now bigger and a bit more harmonious, the hopes and dreams, the wonderful horses. While My Friend Flicka will always be my favorite of the series, I'm awfully glad that she did write a trilogy and give us more to love.
Okay, having just finished the entire trilogy for the umpteenth time (but the first as a senior citizen) I'm downing this to a 3, not because it's not a terrific book, but it has issues that as an old gal, I just can't make excuses for any more. These stretch over the entire trilogy, not just Grass, but I'm focusing on them in this final review. Flicka has the fewest flaws and I expect to re-read it, but I doubt I'll read the other two again. They'll remain on my shelf as honorary Lifetime Loves, and if I'm lucky, I'll read Flicka to my soon-to-arrive first grandchild, and perhaps she will love it too and want to read the others. But if she does, I hope I'm around to discuss them with her. No one ever discussed my books with me when I was growing up, and I gleaned a lot of wack information that is taking me a lifetime to unload. (Gone With the Wind and The Godfather spring immediately to mind.)
Grass falls into that category because I absorbed Nell's and Rob's relationship as a teenager, and as a girl in the 60s and 70s, in a patriarchal religion (LDS) and having a traditional patriarchal dad, it didn't occur to me to question it. I also grew up with the odd notion that while fiction was fiction, authors weren't allowed to put outright untruths in their books. I don't remember anyone ever telling me that, I think it was just a product of being raised to be obedient, compliant and accepting of anything adults said and did. It was the era where other adults could yell at, smack or even spank kids not their own, the kids would then get it from their parents for having embarrassed them by needing discipline from an outsider. My social circle and my lovely private Christian school didn't hold much in the way of abusers, so I never learned that NO, kids should not obediently do and believe as any asshole adult tells them to.
And Rob is really an asshole. Nell ends up, after suffering all through Thunderhead with severe depression, having a breakdown after the birth of her daughter in Grass. In a move that seems unbelievable in today's healthcare-for-profit society, her husband and her doctor decide to send her to the hospital for a 'nice rest' and she gets to stay there for an indeterminate amount of time 'recovering.' Grass makes it sound like a spa, but my 60 year old self is seeing Nurse Ratchet.
No one blames Rob who psychologically hammered her all through Thunderhead and then expects her to be happyhappy when he reverses it and treats her like a spoiled child in Grass.
Then there's the religion. Again, assuming that an adult author like O'Hara was 'right', I dutifully absorbed all of Nell's (and later Ken's) musings about God and I can see now how my thirsty young self incorporated a lot of it into my own haphazard belief system. Not a bad thing- O'Hara's Christianity is based on the natural world and pure Love and there's nothing wrong with it. It just got in the way of my more natural path, polytheism, and I don't know that such blatant religiosity is really appropriate in children's books. I'll give her a pass there, though, as Thunderhead and Grass are only tangentially children's books. But even YA should be labeled as religious if they are.
On the plus side, there are some fascinating anachronisms. 'Pole Mountain', the government-owned plantation where any rancher or farmer (or anyone, I guess) can go cut as much timber as they need for free, they just have to process and transport it. Can you imagine? Also the 'government stud', purebred stallions free for the breeding, you just have to truck your own mare in and out. Hard to believe that was ever a thing. Or just heading out into the wilds of the mountains and catching any unbranded horse you felt like. But oddest is this exchange, which I'll write out here in its entirety. This hasn't been the America of any part of my life.
"Don't know as he's got a blue beard, Mum, but he's a son-of-a-gun for stealin' mares. If the Captain here hadn't lent me a work team don't know how I'd have got my crops in this summer."
"How about that, Sheriff?" asked Rob. "Is there any law that says a man is legally responsible if his stallion goes around rustlin' mares?"
"Not as I ever heard tell of," said the Sheriff.
Jeff was immediately in a huff. "Ain't no man goin' to think I'd take it lyin' down—to have a rich man's stallion steal the mares I needs to make my daily bread!"
"Well, you got a team from the Captain, ain't you? You got no kick coming."
"The trouble I'm in," said Rob, "is that it isn't my stallion but it is my responsiblity. The horse belongs to Ken."
So it's clear that Rob indemnifying poor Jeff, who would have lost everything after Thunderhead took his mares, is regarded in this America as a 'good guy' who went above and beyond to do the right thing. But the law wouldn't have made him do it. He could even, possibly, have ducked behind 'it's my kid's horse, not mine' if anyone would have thought to bring in lawyers.
It's interesting because while part of me wants the less-regulated more-common-sense way of life not even a hundred years ago, I can't help thinking how it would have ended up if Rob weren't, for all of his bullying ways, an ethical person.
Is America better today or not?
None of that would even have made it to my review if I weren't already balls-deep in planning it, for the inconsistencies about the horses. The horses whom the book is all about, the reasons I've loved these books my whole life, who deserve readers who don't absorb the wack theories along with the anachronistic (naturally) training methods.
Let's start with the bronco busting. I think I mentioned my discomfort with it in Flicka. It's not just that it's there (it was, and still is in parts of the country and shouldn't be glossed over), it's that Rob specifically rails against it as ruining good horses. Yay! But then we find out that not only does he break his horses the exact same way, he goes on to hire Ross, who remains as a regular character, bustin' broncs in all the books going forward. The culture is given its final glamor gloss in Grass, where the wild mares in Thunderhead's captured band are given over to Ross and 'the boys' to have fun with. Some submit, some die, but a good time is had by all as these wild creatures are tied, thrown, harnessed, exhausted and literally broken. It's a hard passage to read.
I talked in my review of Thunderhead how uncomfortable I find it that Ken only finds his strength in manhandling his stallion, so I won't reprise it here. I'll go back to Rob, whom I've really come to dislike. We're never told why Banner, his prize purebred stallion, is never halter or saddle trained. Even if they'd known from the time the foal hit the ground that he'd be a range stallion, what possible benefit could come from never training him in any way, as they do with every single other colt on the ranch?
Now in Grass it's time to retire Banner. This stallion, never haltered or touched his entire life, will be kept in a stall and fenced in with 6-foot fences, as a 'reward.' Had he be given training as a young horse, this might have worked. I'm guessing that in the fictional world of the Goose Bar, Banner dies of a broken heart shortly after retirement.
Then there's the beautiful Who Dat, born in a storm of Rob's heart horse, Gypsy. It's assumed that he'll take over as the breeding stallion, and we never hear of how much handling he gets, but we know he's kept in a special pasture and gets special treatment because of his future job. None of that will teach a range stallion how to be a range stallion, an oddity I even recognized as a teenager. But at the end of the book, when Thunderhead is about to take over, Rob roars at poor Nell that 'anyone would half an eye' could see that Who Dat isn't a range stallion. Um, duh, dumbass. Whose fault is that? And what will happen now to the young stallion who has never known anything but crown prince status?
Rob's conversion from railing against Thunderhead to falling in love with him is lovely and believable. But after the big race, out goes Thunderhead with the Goose Bar mares to the Saddle Back where he's expected to take care of them and breed more racehorses. But from his babyhood, Thunderhead has wandered off the ranch at will, gathered mares from the entire countryside and gone off to live as a robber baron in the mountains. It's the whole premise of Thunderhead's story, and his legacy from his grandsire the Albino. But now that's he run a race, Rob thinks he'll obediently stay within the confines of the ranch and stick to breeding and safeguarding just the mares Rob wants for him? How does that actually work in real life?
Rob's grand pronouncements, followed by complete reversals, accompanied by bellowing at Nell as if she were behind it all, go a step too far for me at this time of my life. The little flashes of rebellion Nell exhibits from time to time do not erase her 'loyal' acceptance of her husband's psychological abuse.
I'm left watching this family on the Goose Bar, a family I've grown up with and come to love, hoping they'll live happily ever after in their splendid setting in the wilds of Wyoming, the boys with their girls and Nell with her pampered baby girl and her nurse and her cook, Rob being halfway decent because he doesn't have the pressures of his own failures to haunt him. In my mind they probably will.
But I'll always worry about the horses, who started off as the most important characters, but end up as mostly-empty ciphers.
Okay, having just finished the entire trilogy for the umpteenth time (but the first as a senior citizen) I'm downing this to a 3, not because it's not a terrific book, but it has issues that as an old gal, I just can't make excuses for any more. These stretch over the entire trilogy, not just Grass, but I'm focusing on them in this final review. Flicka has the fewest flaws and I expect to re-read it, but I doubt I'll read the other two again. They'll remain on my shelf as honorary Lifetime Loves, and if I'm lucky, I'll read Flicka to my soon-to-arrive first grandchild, and perhaps she will love it too and want to read the others. But if she does, I hope I'm around to discuss them with her. No one ever discussed my books with me when I was growing up, and I gleaned a lot of wack information that is taking me a lifetime to unload. (Gone With the Wind and The Godfather spring immediately to mind.)
Grass falls into that category because I absorbed Nell's and Rob's relationship as a teenager, and as a girl in the 60s and 70s, in a patriarchal religion (LDS) and having a traditional patriarchal dad, it didn't occur to me to question it. I also grew up with the odd notion that while fiction was fiction, authors weren't allowed to put outright untruths in their books. I don't remember anyone ever telling me that, I think it was just a product of being raised to be obedient, compliant and accepting of anything adults said and did. It was the era where other adults could yell at, smack or even spank kids not their own, the kids would then get it from their parents for having embarrassed them by needing discipline from an outsider. My social circle and my lovely private Christian school didn't hold much in the way of abusers, so I never learned that NO, kids should not obediently do and believe as any asshole adult tells them to.
And Rob is really an asshole. Nell ends up, after suffering all through Thunderhead with severe depression, having a breakdown after the birth of her daughter in Grass. In a move that seems unbelievable in today's healthcare-for-profit society, her husband and her doctor decide to send her to the hospital for a 'nice rest' and she gets to stay there for an indeterminate amount of time 'recovering.' Grass makes it sound like a spa, but my 60 year old self is seeing Nurse Ratchet.
No one blames Rob who psychologically hammered her all through Thunderhead and then expects her to be happyhappy when he reverses it and treats her like a spoiled child in Grass.
Then there's the religion. Again, assuming that an adult author like O'Hara was 'right', I dutifully absorbed all of Nell's (and later Ken's) musings about God and I can see now how my thirsty young self incorporated a lot of it into my own haphazard belief system. Not a bad thing- O'Hara's Christianity is based on the natural world and pure Love and there's nothing wrong with it. It just got in the way of my more natural path, polytheism, and I don't know that such blatant religiosity is really appropriate in children's books. I'll give her a pass there, though, as Thunderhead and Grass are only tangentially children's books. But even YA should be labeled as religious if they are.
On the plus side, there are some fascinating anachronisms. 'Pole Mountain', the government-owned plantation where any rancher or farmer (or anyone, I guess) can go cut as much timber as they need for free, they just have to process and transport it. Can you imagine? Also the 'government stud', purebred stallions free for the breeding, you just have to truck your own mare in and out. Hard to believe that was ever a thing. Or just heading out into the wilds of the mountains and catching any unbranded horse you felt like. But oddest is this exchange, which I'll write out here in its entirety. This hasn't been the America of any part of my life.
"Don't know as he's got a blue beard, Mum, but he's a son-of-a-gun for stealin' mares. If the Captain here hadn't lent me a work team don't know how I'd have got my crops in this summer."
"How about that, Sheriff?" asked Rob. "Is there any law that says a man is legally responsible if his stallion goes around rustlin' mares?"
"Not as I ever heard tell of," said the Sheriff.
Jeff was immediately in a huff. "Ain't no man goin' to think I'd take it lyin' down—to have a rich man's stallion steal the mares I needs to make my daily bread!"
"Well, you got a team from the Captain, ain't you? You got no kick coming."
"The trouble I'm in," said Rob, "is that it isn't my stallion but it is my responsiblity. The horse belongs to Ken."
So it's clear that Rob indemnifying poor Jeff, who would have lost everything after Thunderhead took his mares, is regarded in this America as a 'good guy' who went above and beyond to do the right thing. But the law wouldn't have made him do it. He could even, possibly, have ducked behind 'it's my kid's horse, not mine' if anyone would have thought to bring in lawyers.
It's interesting because while part of me wants the less-regulated more-common-sense way of life not even a hundred years ago, I can't help thinking how it would have ended up if Rob weren't, for all of his bullying ways, an ethical person.
Is America better today or not?
None of that would even have made it to my review if I weren't already balls-deep in planning it, for the inconsistencies about the horses. The horses whom the book is all about, the reasons I've loved these books my whole life, who deserve readers who don't absorb the wack theories along with the anachronistic (naturally) training methods.
Let's start with the bronco busting. I think I mentioned my discomfort with it in Flicka. It's not just that it's there (it was, and still is in parts of the country and shouldn't be glossed over), it's that Rob specifically rails against it as ruining good horses. Yay! But then we find out that not only does he break his horses the exact same way, he goes on to hire Ross, who remains as a regular character, bustin' broncs in all the books going forward. The culture is given its final glamor gloss in Grass, where the wild mares in Thunderhead's captured band are given over to Ross and 'the boys' to have fun with. Some submit, some die, but a good time is had by all as these wild creatures are tied, thrown, harnessed, exhausted and literally broken. It's a hard passage to read.
I talked in my review of Thunderhead how uncomfortable I find it that Ken only finds his strength in manhandling his stallion, so I won't reprise it here. I'll go back to Rob, whom I've really come to dislike. We're never told why Banner, his prize purebred stallion, is never halter or saddle trained. Even if they'd known from the time the foal hit the ground that he'd be a range stallion, what possible benefit could come from never training him in any way, as they do with every single other colt on the ranch?
Now in Grass it's time to retire Banner. This stallion, never haltered or touched his entire life, will be kept in a stall and fenced in with 6-foot fences, as a 'reward.' Had he be given training as a young horse, this might have worked. I'm guessing that in the fictional world of the Goose Bar, Banner dies of a broken heart shortly after retirement.
Then there's the beautiful Who Dat, born in a storm of Rob's heart horse, Gypsy. It's assumed that he'll take over as the breeding stallion, and we never hear of how much handling he gets, but we know he's kept in a special pasture and gets special treatment because of his future job. None of that will teach a range stallion how to be a range stallion, an oddity I even recognized as a teenager. But at the end of the book, when Thunderhead is about to take over, Rob roars at poor Nell that 'anyone would half an eye' could see that Who Dat isn't a range stallion. Um, duh, dumbass. Whose fault is that? And what will happen now to the young stallion who has never known anything but crown prince status?
Rob's conversion from railing against Thunderhead to falling in love with him is lovely and believable. But after the big race, out goes Thunderhead with the Goose Bar mares to the Saddle Back where he's expected to take care of them and breed more racehorses. But from his babyhood, Thunderhead has wandered off the ranch at will, gathered mares from the entire countryside and gone off to live as a robber baron in the mountains. It's the whole premise of Thunderhead's story, and his legacy from his grandsire the Albino. But now that's he run a race, Rob thinks he'll obediently stay within the confines of the ranch and stick to breeding and safeguarding just the mares Rob wants for him? How does that actually work in real life?
Rob's grand pronouncements, followed by complete reversals, accompanied by bellowing at Nell as if she were behind it all, go a step too far for me at this time of my life. The little flashes of rebellion Nell exhibits from time to time do not erase her 'loyal' acceptance of her husband's psychological abuse.
I'm left watching this family on the Goose Bar, a family I've grown up with and come to love, hoping they'll live happily ever after in their splendid setting in the wilds of Wyoming, the boys with their girls and Nell with her pampered baby girl and her nurse and her cook, Rob being halfway decent because he doesn't have the pressures of his own failures to haunt him. In my mind they probably will.
But I'll always worry about the horses, who started off as the most important characters, but end up as mostly-empty ciphers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2011
This is not a children's novel. A very tame 1940's type novel that probably some kids could read, but belongs in the adult fiction. And it is about horses. And there is a romance. And a nervous break down. And a raging bull. And a lot about Wyoming that sounded pretty true to the setting. That was my favorite part the Wyoming setting.
I didn't really love it, but I don't like animal characters. I'm giving it a 3 because it is not a bad book, if you like animals who have feelings and are given emotions. They do not talk in this book. I would have stopped reading if they'd talked. I would have given it a 2 rating too.
Anyway if you like animal stories with some human romance, this one is for you.
I didn't really love it, but I don't like animal characters. I'm giving it a 3 because it is not a bad book, if you like animals who have feelings and are given emotions. They do not talk in this book. I would have stopped reading if they'd talked. I would have given it a 2 rating too.
Anyway if you like animal stories with some human romance, this one is for you.
February 1, 2020
Good but not great ending to the trilogy. It just felt a little weird and didn't mesh as well with the other installments. I didn't care much for Ken and Carey's romance, and there weren't enough horses.
July 29, 2022
Jeg er vild med den, selv som voksen. Der er så mange smukke beskrivelser af hestes vilde liv og båndet mellem heste, hunde, katte og deres mennesker. Om vilde hestes forhold til ulve, rådyr, præriehunde og kaniner.
Og så ender den lykkeligt.
Jeg fandt tilfældigt et laset eksemplar af alle bøger i serien i en genbrug. Det er synd for alle børn eller voksne, hestemennesker eller ej, der ikke er så heldige.
Jeg låser lige serien inde i pengeskabet og får skjult adresse.
Og så ender den lykkeligt.
Jeg fandt tilfældigt et laset eksemplar af alle bøger i serien i en genbrug. Det er synd for alle børn eller voksne, hestemennesker eller ej, der ikke er så heldige.
Jeg låser lige serien inde i pengeskabet og får skjult adresse.
March 10, 2024
Being a horse lover, I truly enjoyed this book. Some of the descriptive passages reignited my passion for these magnificent creatures. The book had a good balance of action and setting the stage for the events. My only holdback in giving the 5th star was the weaknesses of some of the female characters which I found odd given the book was written by a female author who appeared to be very independent in her own right.
December 22, 2012
A wonderful old-fashioned novel with evocative descriptions, a plot that gallops along, and a thoroughly adult main character, Nell. But there are also horses, dogs, cats, a very sweet romance, and a coming of age subplot. Reading this book is sort of like getting a nickel cherry coke at the drugstore soda fountain. It's not sophisticated but it's good and you are ever so grateful that there's still a soda fountain.
June 2, 2015
Alas, this one wasn't as good as My Friend Flicka or Thunderhead. I found the writing a bit clumsy at times, especially on some of the apparent Christian tirades that pop up, and didn't find Casey and Ken's relationship to be well-drawn or even very plausible. Worth the time, yes, but not to the extent that the earlier books are.
October 2, 2015
Satisfying end to the trilogy. When I was in elementary school, I used to read the trilogy every year. The horses are real three-dimensional characters here and not just the people. The McLaughlins are just as bizarre as ever. They certainly would be in jail for their horse training tactics today. Thunderhead is one of the best equine heroes in literature.
December 11, 2017
Definitely an adult book. Was a bit put off by the whole Ken/Carey relationship; is that really how teens thought in the 40s? I don't know.
April 14, 2022
A re-read of the childhood classic that I loved. When I first read this trilogy I was a horse-mad pre-teen and no doubt skipped right over the parts that explored the relationship issues between and Nell, and Nell's mental health issues after the birth of their daughter. So the re-read was a bit of a surprise, and the story was richer and deeper than I remembered with the human story lines (Rob and Nell, Ken and Carey, Carey and her controlling Grandmother, ruminations on god and the characters relationship to "him") occupying as much of the novel, if not more, than the horses.
I also really enjoyed the "time capsule" aspect of it. It explored themes of human motivation, behaviour and relationships quite deeply and these were rooted in the social context of the 1940s. So descriptions of Carey's desire for babies, Ken's expressions of jealousy, and Nell's unhappiness with her husband's refusal to share his plans and failures with her, and her exploration of how her religious beliefs sit alongside the issues she experiences could come across as cringy and dated to someone who is a product of an education system that includes discussions on "healthy relationships" but it all triggered quite a few memories for me. I enjoyed reflecting on how perspectives and social norms have changed in my part of the world.
I also really enjoyed the "time capsule" aspect of it. It explored themes of human motivation, behaviour and relationships quite deeply and these were rooted in the social context of the 1940s. So descriptions of Carey's desire for babies, Ken's expressions of jealousy, and Nell's unhappiness with her husband's refusal to share his plans and failures with her, and her exploration of how her religious beliefs sit alongside the issues she experiences could come across as cringy and dated to someone who is a product of an education system that includes discussions on "healthy relationships" but it all triggered quite a few memories for me. I enjoyed reflecting on how perspectives and social norms have changed in my part of the world.
March 18, 2024
Read this in one fell swoop on the train ride back from my grandfather's funeral...it's a good one! Not so good as the first two books in the series, but it does, like Ordinary Grace, pack a lot into a small space: animal behaviour, mental illness, the nature of love, environmentalism, faith, marriage, alcoholism, gender dynamics.
It's rather diffuse - the plotlines and perspectives shift around from Nell to Ken to Howard to the horses to Carey to Rob and back around a lot. It feels a bit dated in its total confidence in ''love at first sight'' at seventeen, although, who knows? Back in the day it may have worked just fine. Also, Nell's letter to Howard about God's love feels rather out of left field, as much as I agree with its purport. I like Ken's encounter with God in the wilderness much more.
But in terms of the love of the land and the moral/character development of teenagers it holds up. I read that this is Mary O'Hara doing YA before YA was a thing, and it comes through - it's as much about the land and making a living and a marriage as it is about horses and first love and growing up. I am a fan. I want to go see Wyoming now ;)
It's rather diffuse - the plotlines and perspectives shift around from Nell to Ken to Howard to the horses to Carey to Rob and back around a lot. It feels a bit dated in its total confidence in ''love at first sight'' at seventeen, although, who knows? Back in the day it may have worked just fine. Also, Nell's letter to Howard about God's love feels rather out of left field, as much as I agree with its purport. I like Ken's encounter with God in the wilderness much more.
But in terms of the love of the land and the moral/character development of teenagers it holds up. I read that this is Mary O'Hara doing YA before YA was a thing, and it comes through - it's as much about the land and making a living and a marriage as it is about horses and first love and growing up. I am a fan. I want to go see Wyoming now ;)
June 21, 2018
The conclusion to the Flicka trilogy, Mary O'Hara's Green Grass of Wyoming is a wonderful culmination of the previous two stories' plot lines. In this novel, Thunderhead is on a mare-stealing rampage along the Rockies, and must be stopped. Ken, now a young man, must overcome his fears and uncertainties as he works to track down the rogue stallion. His desire to find the stallion wars with his newfound friendship with one of the stolen mare's owners, young Carey. Carey, a wealthy and charming young woman, finds herself drawn to the boy from the West. Meanwhile, Rob and Nelly must find a way to adapt to life with a young child once again, and their growing sons have to discover if their faith in God is merely a childhood fancy... or something lasting.
A dramatic and passionate novel, Green Grass of Wyoming is a delightful read for readers 9+. Adults can easily enjoy this book, perhaps even more so than their kids! This novel answers the question we all have had: what happens to make a starry-eyed youth become a man?
A dramatic and passionate novel, Green Grass of Wyoming is a delightful read for readers 9+. Adults can easily enjoy this book, perhaps even more so than their kids! This novel answers the question we all have had: what happens to make a starry-eyed youth become a man?
November 26, 2019
I expected more from the book after reading the reviews. Unlike "My Friend Flicka", the book has not aged well, especially with the female characters. I realize that I'm reading the book from a modern perspective, but I'm sure sixteen year old girls in the 1940's thought of more than just wanting to bathe babies and name their future children with a boy they just met. Especially cringe worthy was Rob telling Nell that she was a nervous woman and asking how she would like to go to a hospital for a nice, long rest. The book earns three stars since it was a somewhat realistic end to the trilogy and was well written.
November 23, 2023
Amazing! One of the best I have read in a long time. I loved everything, from Robs and Nells understanding for each other and the growing love between Kent and Cary.
Mary had an addictive and good writing and I loved it all.
Following Kents development made it even better and I am so sad that I now have to day goodbye to him, Flicka and the Goosebar ranch.😭
Kent and Carys dream of the furture had me cracking up of laugher, like honey, you two are only 16 and 17, isn’t it just a little bit too early to talk about marrige and kids?
And I just need to mention Peat and the dog that saved Nell. You two are heros and your lives will never bee forgotten🥹❤️
Mary had an addictive and good writing and I loved it all.
Following Kents development made it even better and I am so sad that I now have to day goodbye to him, Flicka and the Goosebar ranch.😭
Kent and Carys dream of the furture had me cracking up of laugher, like honey, you two are only 16 and 17, isn’t it just a little bit too early to talk about marrige and kids?
And I just need to mention Peat and the dog that saved Nell. You two are heros and your lives will never bee forgotten🥹❤️
August 6, 2019
In the third and final book of the series, Ken McLaughlin has to deal with problems. Problems of growing up. Problems that come with first love, and the problem of Thunderhead causing trouble for so many. Ken has to make some difficult choices as he approaches manhood and life.
This is my favorite book of the three, in many ways, though I love them all. The descriptions of the Wyoming landscape and the beauty of it are spectacular, as are the emotions of the equine characters. Fabulous!
March 31, 2023
I read this book about 55 years ago when I was 12 years old, and bought it for my granddaughter, who will soon be 12. I read it again, to make sure it is appropriate for a 12 year old. I think she will enjoy it as well. I loved all the horse books back then, and this was one of my favorites. It’s a classic story about families, horses and young love.❤️
August 6, 2024
My Friend Flicka is a great young persons book. But as the series progresses with Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming the author delves more and more into the inner thoughts, feelings, and conflicts of the characters. The last two books also deal with marriage difficulties and first love touching slightly on sex.
September 5, 2017
I loved how Ken finally found someone he was in love with and how they went together to find Thunderhead. I hated how Carey's grandmother had so much control over her though and how everyone listened to her because of her magical "charm". But in the end, this was one of my favorite books.
June 27, 2019
A sequel to "My Friend Flicka". Definitely a coming-of-age story for two characters, Ken and
Carey, from opposite ends of the social spectrum. If you're a horse person, you'll probably enjoy
this book, even though it was written long ago.
Carey, from opposite ends of the social spectrum. If you're a horse person, you'll probably enjoy
this book, even though it was written long ago.
February 24, 2022
One of my favorite childhood series! The first book was required reading, but the next two in the series were purely out of enjoyment. Not something I would have expected to enjoy, but enjoyed nonetheless!
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