{"id":144853,"date":"2024-11-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=144853"},"modified":"2024-11-10T11:01:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T17:01:53","slug":"thacker-mountain-radio-hour-willy-vlautin-for-the-horse-thursday-november-21-2024-at-6-pm-at-the-powerhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/thacker-mountain-radio-hour-willy-vlautin-for-the-horse-thursday-november-21-2024-at-6-pm-at-the-powerhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Thacker Mountain Radio Hour: Willy Vlautin for “The Horse”\u00a0Thursday, November 21, 2024, at 6 pm at The Powerhouse\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Willy Vlautin for The Horse <\/em>– a poignant meditation on addiction, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWilly Vlautin writes about people overlooked by society and overlooked by literature. In The Horse<\/em>, he tells the story of a tenderhearted man who has a steady talent and a crushing addiction. It is both a work of extraordinary compassion and a really great novel.” \u2014 Ann Patchett, New York Times Bestselling author of Tom Lake\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the book\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada\u00a0fifty miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his sixties, he survives on\u00a0canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family\u00a0he\u2019s lost, and his life as a touring musician. Hampered by insomnia, bouts of\u00a0anxiety, and a chronic lethargy that keeps him from moving back to town, Al\u00a0finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to\u00a0go on\u2014until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind, and utterly\u00a0helpless.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al hopes the horse will vanish as mysteriously as he appeared. Yet the animal\u00a0remains, leaving him in a conundrum. Is the animal real, or a phantom\u00a0conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse\u2019s existence\u2014and what, if anything, he can do\u2014his thoughts are interspersed with memories, from the moment his mother\u2019s part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his travels begin. He joins various bands\u2014all who perform his songs once they discover his talent\u2013playing casinos, truck stops, clubs, and bars. He falls in love, and finds pockets of companionship and minor success along the way. Never close to stardom or financial success, he continues as a journeyman for decades until alcoholism and a heartbreaking tragedy lead him to the solitude of the barren Nevada desert.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A poignant meditation on addiction, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands, The Horse <\/em>is a beautiful, haunting tale from an author working at the height of his powers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the author\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Willy Vlautin is the author of the novels The Motel Life<\/em>, Northline<\/em>, Lean on Pete<\/em>, The Free<\/em>, Don\u2019t Skip Out on Me<\/em>, and The Night Always Comes<\/em>. He is the founding member of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Horse\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
By Willy Vlautin\u00a0
$25.99\u00a0
Publisher: Harper\u00a0
ISBN: 9780063346574\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Willy Vlautin for The Horse – a poignant meditation on addiction, heartbreak, and the reality of life on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":144855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2239],"tags":[5,4,602,5993,198,30686],"class_list":["post-144853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-literary-events","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-square-books","tag-thacker-mountain-radio-hour","tag-the-powerhouse","tag-willy-vlautin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Horse-By-Willy-Vlautin.png?fit=780%2C436&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144856,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144853\/revisions\/144856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}