My Friend Flicka and Lassie Come-Home

My Friend Flicka, by Mary O'Hara

This is what I imagine a grown-up
Flicka to look like--minus the
male genitalia, of course!

          My Friend Flicka, by Mary O'Hara, was a wonderful surprise. Ken, a nine-year-old day-dreamer, drifts through life. He leaves gates open, horses half-groomed, and chores incomplete on his family's ranch high up in the Rockies between Laramie and Culver City. The ranch stocks chickens, cattle and horses, but horses are where the family's heart is. Ranch life is portrayed in delicious detail--I was pulled right into the story by writing that was much better than I expected, better than it had to be for a kid's horse story.
          Despite his inattention (which drives his father crazy), Ken is allowed to select a yearling of his own to train and take care of. His choice, the half-wild Flicka, is the last horse Pa would have selected. O'Hara beautifully portrays Ken's process of coming out of the fog of his childhood, finding out there are things in the real world that are even more satisfying than his daydreams. He and Flicka fall in love with each other, learn to trust each other.
          It wouldn't be a horse story if it didn't have heartache. The stress and strain of trying to make money from ranching are aptly shown. Pa, by necessity, sees everything in terms of dollars and cents. Ma is the softening agent, but her ranch labors are as arduous as any other worker. And, of course, Flicka has one crisis after another. What keeps this from being formulaic is the characterizations. Each person is responsive to every plot point (except brother Howard, who is a cipher) and is pummeled and changed like a stone rounded in a river.

This is Marigold, the third dog I fell
in love with. Who could resist her?

          My expectations of this story were Disneyesque, that the story would be somewhat dumbed down and simplified. In truth, My Friend Flicka was as compelling as any novel (youth or adult) and had a marvelous sense of place. If you want to know ranching in the Rockies in the 1930s, this is the book for you.
         And if you love horses, this is the book for you. I don't even like horses that much and I loved Flicka. I have gone through that falling in love process with animals before. I didn't have my first dog until I was in my forties and I was so scared and awkward. But little Candy looked at me with such total love and acceptance that she pulled the same from me. I loved every part of her--nose, ears, eyes, chin, belly, tail. I fell for her. And I have seen an adolescent go through this process with a puppy I ended up with. In an uncertain life, the little pup was an anchor for the girl. When everything in her life was crappy and even I was feeling witchy, that pup loved her and loved her. So, it is in this context that I now am starting to like horses and to be very curious about them.
          High recommend for this boy and his horse book.


Lassie Come-Home, by Eric Knight

          Eric Knight's Lassie Come-Home is full of suspense and danger as a noble collie seeks her way home. The lovely Lassie is described as beautifully as any collie can be--beautiful full coat, intelligent eyes, sharp ears that cock and point, delicate but powerful legs and feet--and unswerving loyalty. The author portrays Lassie's inner life as determined by instinct but shaped by her instinct for loyalty. Lassie is sold away from the family who loves her (adores her, really) because they have no money for food. The new owner takes the dog 400 miles away, to northern Scotland. The travails and travels of Lassie begin as she escapes and begins the long journey home, earning her new second name, "Come-Home." Keep a box of tissues handy.
         I found the suspense in Lassie Come-Home almost unbearable. When would she meet with something other than cruel treatment? When she met kindness, would she respond to it any more? Battered, bruised, abused, Lassie is driven by her sense of "South," and the feeling that she has a job to do--to be at the school gate to meet her boy. I almost loved dogs too much to get through this story.

The Scottish landscape traversed by
Lassie was harsh and empty.

         Along Lassie's journey, we meet quaint characters from rural Edwardian England--a peddler and his horse-drawn cart; an old couple scraping by on pennies; struggling mining families. The funniest sequence (although also grim) is when Lassie outwits a dogcatcher and his assistant. There is a slight hero-journey element in this book. His owner, Joe, is seen to move from boyhood into young manhood with losing Lassie as his crucible.
          Knight's writing is workerly and occasionally pedantic and a bit patronizing, especially when he strays from describing Lassie. But he creates an unforgettable dog who has translated herself so thoroughly into American culture that few are probably aware of the English/Scottish beginnings of this tail tale. The Lassies used in American movies and TV shows have been big male dogs. That seems weirdly apt. My sister Judy's collies have been big males--and they were big, loyal, and smart--smarter than us, I think.


          A boy and his horse, a boy and his dog. Makes for good reading. Next I am reading a whole series of books where the characters are mice, rats, and other woodland critters. By the time I get to Beatrix Potter I'll be batty.