Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race
By: Lara Prior-Palmer / Narrated By: Henrietta Meire
Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
Yes, Lara is a TOTAL ditz, self-absorbed, ill-prepared, you name it. But (So sue me)? She had me giggling!
I can very much see how other reviewers haaaated Rough Magic as author Lara Prior-Palmer is speaking of her experiences from the viewpoint of a 19-year old girl… a very immature 19-year old girl. So while this audiobook is about struggling and struggling some more, then triumphing at the end, do expect to get all that awesomeness… with plenty of stream of consciousness rambling… and observations of marmot holes… and even some petty vindictiveness about the woman she’d dubbed her rival in the race.
Lara is at loose ends after finishing school, and she’s not up for a constricted life of job and saving for the future as of yet, as all her friends have started to do. Nope, she’s jumpy and her body is twitchy and she’s kinda sorta up for adventure and a challenge. She just happens upon, whilst Googling her life away, the Mongol Derby—a 10-day trek through Mongolia on ponies, purported to be the toughest horse race in the world (And by the way, the ponies are switched off, so it’s a race measuring the rider’s strength and endurance, not the pony’s). She enters, is accepted, and then she scrambles to play catch up.
She lies lies lies when she says she’s prepping hard for the race—she says she’s riding five horses a day, a gazillion miles a day. And basically, from all the lying we see that she’s kinda got character issues. Then on the first day of the race, Devan, a long-legged blonde from Texas, declares she’ll win the race in six days. This raises Lara’s hackles, and she rather immaturely begins condemning and slighting the woman throughout the rest of the book. Add to that, Lara is rather unable to focus on ANYthing for an extended length of time, and really, I should’ve been all short-tempered with her, and even spitting nails given I’m a harsh judge of those I find to be failing in the whole Character department.
So sue me. The gitty gal grew on me. First, she writes very well, with flat out great details that convey what it’s like to be riding through Mongolia’s steppes and environment (Yes, there are those marmot holes even); she captures nature well. And even tho’ new ponies are used each leg of the race, she even captures some of their personalities, with a respect for the racing beauties (Altho’ one reviewer noted she scared, and kicked, and screamed at one of them near the end… which I don’t recall too much… I hope not as that would be DAStardly…!). Mostly, however, she perfectly captures what a very, very young woman thinks about when she’s stuck on a horse, prey to the elements, riding for hundreds of miles, sometimes with a racing friend, more often than not all alone.
She totally rambles, but in such a light and fanciful way. She loses her map at one point and is utterly dismayed as she could’ve sworn the map was happy in that pocket. Maybe it’s cuz it reminds me of being a little kid and making my mom buy a dented can of veggies because “Nobody else would want it, and it’ll be all alone on the shelf as all the other cans were getting chosen…”, all the while sobbing miserably? I dunno, but I found the way she related to inanimate objects, even to human nature (She fancies she’ll be falling in love with each man that crosses her path… only to get to know the man and think: Oooooh, bummer), was delightfully whimsical. And the way Henrietta Meire narrates this is completely spot-on. She brings the words of a girl to life with a ditzy but oh so earnest lightness that was a pleasure to the ears.
I dunno, maybe you’ll haaaate her silliness, and her spoiled and pettish actions which pop up every now and then. But one has to admit: At NO point does Lara paint herself as a heroine; she’s in way over her head, and when she finds she’s out in front and has the chance to not only be the youngest person to cross the finish line… but maybe win it all? Well, she’s just waaaay too sick, way too tired, way too dehydrated to do anything but get on the next pony in an attempt to beat Devan. That’s all she wants, too poop in private, and to beat Devan…
I dunno, I found a whole lotta charm in that…
:)
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