Blood Horses, John Jeremiah Sullivan
Blood Horses, John Jeremiah Sullivan
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Blood Horses
Notes of a Sportswriter's Son

Author: John Jeremiah Sullivan

Narrator: John Jeremiah Sullivan

Unabridged: 9 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2020


Synopsis

"Sullivan has found the transcendent in the horse."--Sports Illustrated

Winner of a 2004 Whiting Writers' Award

One evening late in his life, veteran sportswriter Mike Sullivan was asked by his son what he remembered best from his three decades in the press box. The answer came as a surprise. "I was at Secretariat's Derby, in '73. That was ... just beauty, you know?"

John Jeremiah Sullivan didn't know, not really—but he spent two years finding out, journeying from prehistoric caves to the Kentucky Derby in pursuit of what Edwin Muir called "our long-lost archaic companionship" with the horse. The result—winner of a National Magazine Award and named a Book of the Year by The Economist magazine—is an unprecedented look at Equus caballus, incorporating elements of memoir and reportage.

In the words of the New York Review of Books, Blood Horses "reads like Moby-Dick as edited by F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . Sullivan is an original and greatly gifted writer."

About The Author

JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1974, and now lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, with his wife and two daughters. He was an editor at Harper's Magazine and a writer for GQ before becoming a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He is currently the Southern Editor of The Paris Review.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bonnie on February 25, 2018

This is a book haunted by two ghosts: the author's father, and the great Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Triple Crown. The author tells us that the book grew out of the answer he got when, during his father's last illness, he asked him what he remembered best from his thirty years of sportswriting.......more

Goodreads review by April on January 20, 2010

I learned that I think John Jeremiah Sullivan is a great writer! He apparently writes or wrote for GQ, which I don't have much occasion to read, so I've never read anything else but if this book is any indication of his work, I'm a fan. Stylistically, I did find the organization of it a bit odd at fi......more

Goodreads review by Mark on February 24, 2021

I know all this stuff about Secretariat and horses now, but no way to get them into a conversation naturally. Did you know the chronicling of the genealogy of horses predated the chronicling of human genealogy and was potentially the spur for what would become fascist eugenics ideas? Did you know Se......more

Goodreads review by Ellinor on August 19, 2021

Yesss i just adore Sullivans laconic tone and thorough research. And he`s unafraid of romantic, slightly esoteric stuff aswell.......more

Goodreads review by John on August 25, 2015

While I have read a good bit on Mr. Sullivan's work, I stumbled upon "Blood Horses" last week in a visit to Frankfort, Ky.'s Poor Richard's Book Store, one my favorite stops. It was a chore to find it - I spotted a book that been shoved behind a shelf of books on various horse racing subjects. That......more