cover image The Hanging in the Foaling Barn

The Hanging in the Foaling Barn

Susan Starr Richards, . . Sarabande, $14.95 (157pp) ISBN 978-1-932511-33-8

The sharpest stories in Richards's fresh but uneven debut collection of nine stories (mostly set in Kentucky) ride on the daily rhythms of farmwork and the natural cycle of birth and death. In "Grass Fires," a middle-aged mother is "struggling for her great big child," a 32-year-old mentally handicapped man, who might be setting fire to the dry fields of their farming community. Human foibles show up in sharp relief against the innocence of horses, which consistently figure as benign forces of nature, as in the redemptive title story. Luther, a gruff but good-hearted horse breeder, talks his employee Maurice out of a suicide attempt, and the story turns on a new beginning (the delivery of a foal) instead of a hanging. Succinct, amusing characterizations distinguish "Clarence Cummins and the Semi-Permanent Loan," a gentle comedy about a farm manager's frustrated attempts to reason with a simpleminded farmhand who provokes a messy misunderstanding over a pony cart. But Richards's prose turns purple in "Gawain and the Horsewoman," a mythical allegory about a high-stakes horse race. Richards raised racehorses for 20 years, and her most compassionate, articulate stories are grounded in everyday detail. (Apr.)