The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girlls by Anton DiSclafani is one of those books that is making the rounds of summer reading lists. I had trouble getting into this one: I spent the first few chapters getting progressively grouchier: of course this is a young woman who has been sent from home, and there is supposedly a big mystery about the bad thing she did, and of course this will be trouble with a boy given the Depression-era time period, and these are annoying rich southern people...snore, right?
But while it's trouble with a boy, it's a lot more than that.
The writing kept me going at first; the author is an exceptional prose stylist, and the first person perspective here actually works. Eventually, I did begin to care about his subject, a wealthy young lady who just want want what she wants, whether it's horses or boys, and who honestly does not understand why wanting is wrong. She has plenty of edge. There are additional layers to the mystery that involve within-family class distinctions, as well as class systems among the wealthy girls, played out against the regional hierarchies within the south. Given the Wagnerian drama wrapped up in the latter, one really can't blame any of these young women for preferring horses to people.
Finally, I don't often come across writing about horses and human-horse interaction that even gets remotely close to what riding is like for people who really like--and understand--horses. This book does, and it's worth it to to get inside the head of a young woman who really does love the act of riding.
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