It took me a long time to finally get around to reading Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls. Now I might have to reread her sequel, The Glass Castle: A Memoir. Half Broke Horses is actually a prequel even though it was written three years after her best-selling memoir. It recounts a partially fictionalized version of her maternal grandmother's life growing up in west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona during the early part of the 20th century.
Reading about the adventures of the feisty Lily Casey Smith, I couldn't help but to search for clues to help explain the odd lifestyle of Walls mother, Rose Mary Smith Walls.
Walls writes in a smooth authentic style that captures not only the courageous journey of a spirited woman but also the grit of the early American west.
