RIDE A WILD HORSE

by Ruth Christoffer Carlsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1970

There's a lot to be taken on faith in what seems like a random science-fiction/fantasy pastiche -- just how Julie landed in Iowa and why she left her nameless brave new world, what magic powers she has over wooden carousel-horse Diablo Grande that sends him off into the air on command, why at first omniscient she starts to say the wrong thing. . . . And on the other hand, there's a lot that's unwontedly explicit -- the social worker's words in front of her about mental aberrations, the threats to institutionalize her since she's a bad influence on twelve-year-old Barney Sutton in whose house she's a foster-guest supposedly recovering from amnesia. Fat Barney not only loses weight but also rides the wild horse with her (Diablo happens to live -- or be -- in his family's barn), and they turn lead into gold which is really the heretofore unknown tutonium, setting the scientific community on its ear, but never mind: after a false start in Mexico Julie reaches New Mexico, Los Alamos, her point of departure, before she entirely fades away; meanwhile Barney is whirled into a tornado -- which is another example of the merry-go-round-about way that the story gets nowhere while searching for truth.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION