In this sprawling saga, protagonist Catherine Lemay, a novice archeologist, travels from New York to Montana to evaluate if there is anything of historical significance in the area targeted for flooding to create a hydroelectric dam. The year is 1956. She has one summer to investigate a vast swath of canyon. She is ill-equipped to handle such a massive task. Her guide appears to be more interested in finding wild horses than helping with her assignment. She enlists the assistance of a young Crow woman. She meets a reclusive horseman and WWII veteran. We learn their backstories via flashbacks.

Brooks does an excellent job of describing the harsh Montana landscape, the wild bands of horses, and the perils of the plains. He sets up the opposing forces – historic preservation versus industrialization, human against nature, a greenhorn woman in a macho environment. The writing is expressive, in passages such as:

“The animal flared like a cobra, lips curling from yellow teeth as crooked as the fingers of a witch. She jumped back with her breath in her throat. The horse shook its head and stamped a hoof. This was no regular horse but a demon horse, garish and primeval with symbols in yellow and red, rings around one eye and bands up its legs and the splayed print of a human hand plastered on a flank. She fought to reject the notion she’d come face-to-face with the maniacal ghost of a war pony.”

It is an ambitious novel, maybe a bit too ambitious. It is slow in developing, where not much happens for long stretches. It involves a typical star-crossed romance. While it has its good points and drawbacks, I feel the was worth my time and I would read another by this author.

3.5
( )

NF NF signed ; third edition

I truly enjoyed this book. I do wish however that the author would have included what happened to John H between the time he is at the train station and when he contacts Catherine again. The reader is brought along on the life paths of Catherine and John H to the point where they meet and should continue both lines afterward instead of just the one. I'm left with an "unfinished feeling" at the end and want to know the rest of his story. ( )

While Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks had plenty of sage brush, horses and quaking aspens that I love to read about in my western novels, it was unfortunately peopled with undeveloped characters and expressed in awkward writing. I was expecting to love this novel, set in Montana during the 1950’s, about a female archaeologist, hired by the Smithsonian Institute to travel west and explore a remote canyon for any significant artifacts as this area would soon be flooded by the building of a damn. Part of the area is on the Crow Indian Reserve where many are against this project.

I think the author, in his enthusiasm, tackled too many subjects in this over long novel. In Montana we read about the wild mustangs and the people who hunt them, Indian issues, and Basque culture. He also jumps back into time to Post World War II Europe, in particular Paris and London, and how events from the past shaped the actions of the characters. However, my biggest problem with this book was my lack of connection with the main character, Catherine. I felt the author fell back on the “helpless female” cliche in order to move the story along and her actions were, at times, unbelievable. As a professional, she would have known better than to wander off by herself without adequate food or water and get lost. As much as I love descriptive writing the author’s use of incomplete sentences was irritating.

So my high hopes for Painted Horses was quickly dashed. I loved the setting but could not swallow the plot, weak characters and uneven writing. Great cover though. ( )

Sprawling tale of an archeologist and a horse whisperer in Montana in the 1950s. Confess to skimming a couple of sections. ( )