Nonfiction Review: Seabiscuit

Book By Book

Laura Hillenbrand is my personal hero. She has the same immune dysfunction disease I have, yet she has written and published two best-selling nonfiction books requiring years of research, interviews, and writing that were both turned into top movies. She wrote her first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, while at her sickest and mostly bedridden and housebound. My husband and I both thought Unbroken, her second novel, was fantastic and powerful, and he enjoyed Seabiscuit. So why did I wait over ten years to finally read Seabiscuit while it waited patiently on my shelf? My only excuse is that I didn’t think I’d be interested in reading about horse racing. But, as usual, Hillenbrand’s enormous talent for storytelling pulled me in from the first pages and kept me rapt.

In June 1936, a horse trainer named Tom Smith met a three-year-old colt named Seabiscuit. Tom, who had learned about horses in the wild West and was known by the Indians there as the Lone Plainsman, didn’t talk much, but he knew horses. He’d been in search of just the right horse for his employer, Charles Howard. Howard was now a wealthy Californian, but he’d come from the East in 1903 as a penniless bicycle repairman and made his fortune by getting into automobiles at just the right time. Seabiscuit didn’t look like a winner to most people. His legs looked somewhat deformed and weak, and he had a bad reputation for a wild temperament. But Smith saw something in the horse, so he urged Howard to purchase him, which he did, for a bargain price. At that time, a short, muscled redhead named Red Pollard was 12 years into working as a jockey, and his career seemed to be over. Born into a large, boisterous Irish family in Canada in 1909, Red, whose real name was Johnny, had been through years of scraping by as a jockey and part-time prizefighter, two physically punishing careers. He’d had some wins early on as a jockey, but those years seemed to be behind him. After a terrible car crash in Detroit, Pollard and his agent, Yummy, dirty, injured, and out of cash, went to the local track where Yummy tried to get Red a job. Smith let Pollard meet Seabiscuit, Red offered the horse a sugar cube (the last thing in his pockets), and the man and horse immediately began to bond. The rest is quite literally history. By 1938, the number one name in newspapers across the nation wasn’t Roosevelt or Hitler or Mussolini; it was Seabiscuit.

This isn’t just a book about a horse. It’s also about Howard, Smith, and Pollard, Seabiscuit’s close-knit team, and many others surrounding them. Hillenbrand brilliantly portrays a time in history, and the unique relationships and events that made Seabiscuit such a household name. Most importantly, Seabiscuit’s rise to fame was not a straight line, but a rocky road filled with enormous challenges. Pollard and Seabiscuit both faced unbelievable trials; at one point, it seemed certain that neither of them would ever race again. Hillenbrand’s research is thorough and fascinating, but the key to this compelling book is how talented she is at telling a story, weaving together historic events, people, and horses into a propulsive narrative that is completely engrossing. I still have little interest in horses or horseracing, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book about a remarkable horse and his remarkable rider.

339 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

Check out the excellent movie adaptation of Seabiscuit.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge (I should get extra credit for this book that sat on my shelf for 10 years!)

Nonfiction Reader Challenge

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by George Newbern, and/or download it from Audible. The audio sample is from the preface and the start of chapter one and provides a nice overview of why this story is so special.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)–the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Or you can order Seabiscuit from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.