Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America
by Charles Leerhsen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Charles LeerhsenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 0743291778
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America
Book Review: A Great Story Told Incomparably Well
Summary: 5 Stars
Here is a book for anyone who likes a richly emotive story told incomparably well. "Crazy Good" by Charles Leerhsen offers the biography of Dan Patch (1896-1916), one of the most famous racehorses of all time. But Leerhsen's account is not just for horse lovers, though they will be in horse heaven. "Crazy Good" is a crazy good read for anybody.
My great grandmother's brother, Thomas Eleazer Fenton, was the blacksmith who designed a special horseshoe that made the young Dan Patch a winner. Growing up in Pine Village, the same town where Tom and his forge helped an otherwise clumsy horse to victory, I heard several stories about Dan Patch. "Crazy Good" gets all of them right. Leerhsen's book makes obsolete all previous books on the subject. "Crazy Good" is what its subtitle claims it is: "The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America." Leerhsen has composed nothing short of the authoritative biography of America's first sports celebrity--who happened to be a horse.
While reading the book, I set aside my great great uncle's role in the story and turned a critical eye on Leerhsen's narrative. To read "Crazy Good" is to watch a master at work. Leerhsen carves away anything that is not a perfect likeness and leaves a polished monument to a sporting legend and a bygone era. As a writer myself, I gasped more than once at the marvels of this book: that's how much Leerhsen's artistry surprised and impressed me.
"Crazy Good" gave me everything except the smell of horse sweat and maybe even that. I felt like a fly on the stable wall and in the grandstand. I saw and heard the moving spectacle of each race as if I had been there.
Like a present-day archaeologist stripping away layers of detritus to reveal the truth of the past, Leerhsen seamlessly segues from now to yesteryear. In the process, he brings to light a full history of Standardbred racing. He sorts fact from fiction. Then he tugs at your heart.
Who would have thought that a book about a sulky horse of long ago could be profoundly emotional? To achieve this end, "Crazy Good" traces a classical plot line, beginning with the halcyon days when Dan Messner of Oxford, Indiana, raised Dan Patch. Just when the horse begins to win, Messner sells the friendly, crowd-favored pacer. The mystery surrounding the sale spells suspense until, at a climactic moment, Leerhsen explains why Messner was willing to part with an extraordinary horse that would have brought the Messner household $1 million a year. Dan Patch sets record after record, only to begin a denouement at the hands of his last, and least empathetic, owner. Foreshadowed early in the book, Dan Patch's falling action leads to a resolution that leaves Leerhsen and his readers sad but wise.
Far more than a chronicle of a remarkable horse, "Crazy Good" mourns the loss of a time when small midwestern villages crafted an enviable culture that unfortunately attracted the attention of corrupt influences that ultimately destroyed not just fine horses but also the fiber of America. Leerhsen's frequent transitions to the present turn the spotlight on this theme. Those same towns where the youthful Dan Patch gamboled today are anemic places in comparison to the vital locations they were in the day of my grandparents. My great aunts and uncles and their myriad friends accomplished high school curricula more demanding than my college courses, spent lifetimes crafting personalities more entertaining than the Internet, and set out on incredible adventures with a daring that I cannot muster. Leerhsen has brought such people and such hamlets back to life for us to witness, enjoy, and respect. Make no mistake! This book is not nostalgic but realistic. "Crazy Good" is as heavyhearted as it is ecstatic. Leerhsen matches gusto with grief.
Given today's publishing business (which resembles nothing so much as the lamentable result when inmates take over the asylum), "Crazy Good" is exceedingly rare. It is accurate. It is well written. It is a page-turner. It is worthy. Like his protagonist, Leerhsen is a champion.
Summary of Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America
Now in paperback, the book that Newsweek calls ?wonderful, witty, and wise,? vividly recounts a time 100 years ago when a racehorse thrilled America and became a legend.
? A great underdog story: Born with a bad leg and nearly destroyed at birth in 1896, Dan Patch became the greatest champion racehorse of his day, lowering the record for the mile by four seconds, an astounding achievement that stood for decades. Put to work pulling a wagon, he was entered in a race as a lark, but won it?and never lost throughout his long career.
? A bygone American era: Crazy Good is the story of America in simpler times, when the automobile was a novelty and most people preferred horses; an era when horse racing? pacers and trotters?was a dominant sport of the day.
? Colorful writing, colorful characters: Leerhsen populates his story with great characters, from the entrepreneur owner who made Dan Patch into a household name, to the alcoholic gambler who drove the horse to his greatest victories.
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