Dream Wheels is my second novel by Richard Wagamese (the first being Indian Horse), and I’ve now put all this other works on my to-be-read pile. In both novels, I was impressed by his prose and his storytelling. I sat up most of the night reading it and had to fight the urge to call my cowboy brother and say, “Read this right now.”
Two stories intertwine here, one of Joe Willie Wolfchild, who was severely injured on the bull ride that would have made him best All-Around Cowboy on the rodeo circuit; the other of a young man who’s sliding into juvenile delinquency, a jail sentence, and alienation from his mother. Both are angry and hard, living through the darkness of their lives alone. The two stories eventually become one of healing.
Wagamese’s prose is as spare as that of Cormac McCarthy’s. But that sparseness doesn’t mean there is no emotion here; in fact the emotions are deep. There is also a spirituality and a closeness to the land and its inhabitants, both animal and human. As a member of a West Texas ranching family, I can attest that Wagamese does an extraordinary job of capturing the violence, terror, fury, and beauty of riding a bull and the affinity of cowboys for their work, their animals, and their land. I have more beautiful lines highlighted on my Kindle than in any other works I’ve read recently.
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Dream Wheels (Milkweed Editions, April 12, 2016) is available through:
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You can read my review of Indian Horse here.
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