Seabiscuit is not about a racehorse. Laura Hillenbrand's biography tells the story of more than just the horse itself - she also writes about the people who came together to create one of the greatest icons in sports history.
This is the story of a four-point meeting of the minds. Hillenbrand starts out introducing the reader, in detail, to each of the characters. First, there is Charles Howard, the owner of Seabiscuit, who was at first a major player in the rise of the automobile industry who then got into the adventurous hobby of horseracing.
The reader then meets Seabiscuit's trainer, Tom Smith, a calm, collected and utterly secretive cowboy. Only then is Seabiscuit actually presented, a knobby-kneed little horse who looks as though he can't run. When Tom Smith sees him, however, he knows that he can work the horse into something amazing.
Then along comes jockey Red Pollard, a man blind in one eye but still able to ride. These four persons come together to make up Team Seabiscuit, a force unleashed on the track. There are hardships; there are celebrations; there is death. Seabiscuit gives the reader all of this plus a history lesson.
Hillenbrand's prose is very sharp. Her sentences don't float around - instead, she says what she means and that is that. There are no long, frumpy sentences with boisterous language. Hillenbrand delivers quick, smart phrases that create the emotions that the history requires.
She also has an eye for penning likeability in characters. Most likely Hillenbrand reported the truth on each person's personality, but still, she had to put it in a way where it would create an emotional attachment between character and reader, and Hillenbrand has done just that. Troubling scenes create tension inside the reader, because they actually feel for the people (even if they have been dead for 50 years.)
Article comments
1 - Ed
Wow, it sounds like Hillenbrand did an amazing job on the book. I've already seen the movie but this has definitely made me keen to read the book, I'm actually quite keen to listen to it as an audio book as I found it - it definitely sounds like it will be worth it.