‘…a chiselled little gem about a horse trainer called Sonia…told in her unforgettably downbeat voice. Such poise and economy – I can’t remember a novel about work that’s impressed me so.’ – Tim Winton
Based on transcribed interviews with a former racehorse trainer from Iowa,Kick the Latch is a stunning work of fiction that investigates form, authenticity and idiosyncratic speech. This is a patient and attentive exercise in radical listening,whittled, shaped and reimagined to tell the story of one woman’s fine, hard, pungent life at the racetrack in 100 tough, side-of-the-mouth nuggets.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 96
Imprint: Daunt Books
Publication date: 19/01/2023
Kick the Latch
by Kathryn Scanlan
Review by Rosa
Not quite fiction and not quite non-fiction, Kick the Latch tells the story of Sonia as she grows into her career at the racetrack. While full of brutality and camaraderie, love and violence, big life experiences -both the shared and the lonely-, and plenty of idiosyncratic personalities, at first, I did find that it lacked a 'wow' moment. However, once I settled into the fact that no one big climactic event was going to happen, I found these snippets which tribute Sonia's existence the perfect example of an ordinary life made extraordinary. As I followed Sonia from childhood well into middle age through the everyday mundanity, gruelling work, and some unsavoury characters, her racetrack became its own little city: a microcosm full of passion that I was lucky enough to inhabit for a short period of time.
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