This book was based around horse racing, where people place bets on which horse was most likely to win the race. We see several characters in this book that take a turn at betting in some form, regardless of how that betting may take place. Deesh, who lives in Bronx, gets mixed up in a serious crime regarding a murder that he wasn’t really a part of.
This book was split off into two parts throughout. We start off with Deesh at first, who gets caught up in the murder from the start of the book which very quickly escalates as another murder takes place and then a suicide. All of these things make his fate against him because his guilt is increasing more and more throughout the book as no one believes he is innocent. On the other side of the story Jan, who is a horse Jock, sees herself falling in love with a man who is addicted to betting on horse races. This addiction raises more conflict after Jans’ big win when it seems that everything is going great for her and her lover, he disappears. This later tied in to the murder case for Deesh and we learn that the case could most likely be going better for Deesh because of the history of Jan’s family.
I found that the character’s in this story were really easy to compare myself to. I was able to relate most things that were happening to the characters to myself in some way. With Jan, her helplessness was relatable to myself and she seemed to always be longing for something- or someone. This longing was able to be seen throughout her half of the story through her own thoughts in her perspective. She seems childlike and she is very overwhelmed with the ways that people regard her as “too big” to Jock. She finds comfort in riding equis Mini, which is a horse that she races on in her first match. She feels closer to her father that is no longer a part of her life because he committed suicide when she was younger. She also finds comfort in running late at night, where she can’t see anything and is forced to face whatever is in the dark that she cannot see.
This book itself was written well. It was significantly formal, but not too formal that I wasn’t able to read it. The time period that he chose was accurately represented through the book when Deesh refers to people as “brothers” and “sisters” when he finds people the same skin color as himself. We also see much of the racism of the world in this time period when we see disrespect by other people just by acknowledgment of his skin color as a bad thing. Most of the words in this story really struck me as important and evoked emotion.
I find this book really helpful in understanding the time period, and have knowledge about horse races and betting as an addiction.
