Willy Vlautin’s award-winning novel follows the story of a newly orphaned fifteen-year old-boy struggling to make his way to a long lost aunt, who just might give him a home—now a major motion picture starring Chloë Sevigny (American Horror Story), Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire) and Travis Fimmel (Warcraft) and directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Looking).Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants … Looking).
Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley’s been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley’s only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming—but the journey to find her will be a perilous one.
In Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid.
“The writing is spare and straightforward. . . . There is intensity in Vlautin’s narration, and also beauty and power . . . Vlautin’s major accomplishment lies in posing a damning question: How could we, as a society, have allowed this to happen?”— Seattle Times
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This is a lovely book about a boy trying to survive in an unhospitable world and the real need to have something to love and be loved by. It is sensitive and warm and depressing, a combination which is unusual and not the norm for today’s fiction. My only regret is that the author seemed to rush the ending and I felt like I had been rushed …
I rated the ending “tragic” because I could not imagine a 15 year old boy who had fended for himself his entire life accepting the life he would have living with an unmarried aunt who only remembered the boy as a small child. I know it seemed happily ever after but realisticly I couldn’t believe it.
It was interesting following 15-year old Charley and his relationship to the horse while he deals with events and people.
Great book to read! A teenager’s journey that actually becomes believable! Highly recommend!
This was a pretty gritty book in some ways but I’m glad I read it.
Got a little too long in the middle of story with boy’s issues and Pete’s tragic death. It somewhat sidetracks from the real story point and then I felt the author was rushed at the finish because didn’t give nearly the amount of detail as in the middle. All-in-all, it is a good read and show hope and perseverance pays off.
This is an enlightening view of the other side…children forced to grow up before their time and how this particular child manages.
I enjoyed this novel, and plan to look into the author’s other books. This was an easy read with interesting characters and a realistic story line.