Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon

 

This earthy tale is set at a 1970s Virginia racetrack, in the deeply unglamorous, chancy world of claiming races. A ragtag band of characters survive on the fringes of the racetrack that is their home and income, tied together by dodgy deals, race-fixing and hope that the Devil will pass them on by. Unknown trainer Tommy Hansel arrives at the stables with four horses and girlfriend Maggie, planning to get in and out quickly, complete with fatter purse. Medicine Ed, an old groom with a knack for witch-doctoring, could have told him that things are never that simple, especially when Maggie catches the eye of two local gangsters. Gordon’s narrative flickers between the characters’ viewpoints, switching from second to third person, and this, along with the novel’s stream of consciousness style makes it initially tricky to settle into. However, it also creates an intimate, claustrophobic perspective into a close knit but lonely community, and the voices and minds of her characters are sketched out with nuanced skill. Fast-paced it is not, so anyone hoping for a racing thriller should step away. Rather, it is a mood piece, capturing the atmosphere of a dusty hinterland where luck is the only currency that really matters. [Alice Sinclair]