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.