Seabiscut - Book Review

Owen Sloan                                                                                            September 17, 2017                                                                                             Mr. Gulino                                                                                                  English 3

Seabiscut review

        This summer I read the book Seabiscut, the story about the most famous racing horse in American history. This story told the story of every person involved in the life of Seabiscut. The story guides you through all of the upsets, comebacks, and the failures of Seabiscut and his team. The fact that you know that this story is real and had a large impact on the United States at the time makes it slightly more enjoyable. Overall I did not fully enjoy reading this book.g

As you start reading the story you are expecting to be thrown in to the actin of the young horse’s life or into the life of red pollard, his jockey. You learn that a large portion of the beginning part of the book is just telling you the life story of Charles Howard, the automobile salesmen who would one day buy Seabiscut. We aren’t even introduced to Seabiscut or horse racing until the second chapter, which makes the story slightly harder to start getting interested in. Even after we meet the horse and Red Pollard it takes a minuet to actually get invested in the story due to the fact that when Charles Howard meets Seabiscut he is a very slow and lazy horse who needs to be trained extensively. In my opinion the thing that makes this book enjoyable is how easy it is to root for Seabiscut; you always get the feel of a classic American underdog story. But at times I feel as though some of the book doesn’t even need to be there, if the book only told the parts of the story that absolutely needed to be said it would keep the reader interested the whole time. Although the historic detail was very interesting to know I don’t feel like it was always needed. The parts where it told you how Seabiscut really took the country by storm were probably my personal favorites, knowing his effect helped move the story along.

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