Hi Diddly Dee, an Actor's Life for Me

"Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness."
Cullen Hightower

Book 10 My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara My Friend Flicka is the story of a boy, Ken, and his horse, Flicka.  I loved it as a child and returned to it with a little trepidation, not knowing whether I was going to ruin a memory.  Happily, this was far from the case.  Ultimately, this book is a rite-of-passage story.  At the beginning of the book Ken has failed a year at school and will have to repeat a grade.  He is living in his older brother's shadow and his dream of having a yearling of his very own to break seems to be just that - a dream.  However, Ken's mother helps to persuade his father that having a horse might make Ken learn responsibility.  When Ken sees Flicka out on the plains he falls in love with her there and then and decides that she is the filly for him.  However, Flicka comes from bronco stock and training the wildness out of her is far from easy.  In fact, she nearly kills herself and almost costs Ken his life too. It is not a children's book as such, despite the main focus being a ten year old boy whose dream is to own his own horse one day.  It is a beautifully written book with many layers, some of which inevitably passed me by as a child.  For instance the frustration of Ken's father at his son's inability to keep his head out of the clouds manifests itself in anger at Ken.  When I was younger all I noticed was a rather terrifying man who shouted a lot.  As an adult I saw the love and ambition that fuelled that anger. This was another book that had me crying on the tube.  It is beautifully written - not a sentimental book, but one with heart and feeling in which you can't help but engage with all the characters, both human and animal.  And now that I've rediscovered it I have no doubt I will be reading it again and again.

18.5.05 22:14   Permalink

To date 11 Comment(s)     TrackBack-URL

(19.5.05 11:06) oh i love this book!!! you gave me goosebumps talking about it and now i have to read it again!

(19.5.05 11:33) Hooray! I'm glad I reminded you about it ) Such a great book...

(19.5.05 11:49) i used to go to the bookshop and the library and get all the books with horses on the front! this and The Black Stallion were always by far the best

(19.5.05 11:53) Ohhhh - the Black Stallion! I'd forgotten about that one. Right, Amazon here I come...

(19.5.05 13:13) send it to me after i love that book there was about 10 of them but i think they stopped printing some of them!

(19.5.05 13:24) I think the effect would be ruined by the mental image of my neighbour and friend Ken. He is a large, pasty Glasweigian.

(19.5.05 13:42) Yeh, that probably would mess it up a bit. Seeing a large pasty Glaswegian riding a golden filly in your mind's eye. There's the germ of a porn film in there somewhere, I'm sure.

(19.5.05 17:10) Not with Ken in it. I assure you.

(19.5.05 17:25) I didn't say it would be a good one...

(19.5.05 18:47) Somehow this thread has gone from discussing nice clean ponies to filthy Glaswegian porn in 10 posts.

(19.5.05 19:25) Brilliant, innit. Eclecticism, that's the name of the game...

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