Kick the Latch, Paperback

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.

• Dimensions: 184 x 120
• Author: Kathryn Scanlan
• Cover type: Paperback
• Publishing Year: 2022
• Publishing Month: 9
• Pages: 144
• Language: English
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Weight: 118 g