Kick the Latch
Author(s): Kathryn Scanlan
Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman’s life at the racetrack—the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner’s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the “particular language” of “grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody”—with economy and integrity. Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, “I wanted to preserve—amplify, exaggerate—Sonia’s idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.” Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, Kick the Latch bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.
Product Information
Winner of the 2024 GORDON BURN PRIZE
General Fields
- :
- : Daunt Books
- : Daunt Books
- : 01 June 2022
- : {"length"=>["19.8"], "width"=>["12.8"], "units"=>["Centimeters"]}
- : books
Special Fields
- : Kathryn Scanlan
- : Paperback
- : English
- : 813.6
- : 152
- : FA