{"id":772,"date":"2025-01-04T07:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T07:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/mountaindevil\/?p=772"},"modified":"2025-06-08T03:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T03:43:06","slug":"they-shoot-horses-dont-they-horace-mccoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/?p=772","title":{"rendered":"They Shoot Horses, Don\u2019t They? – Horace McCoy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recommend: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What a title. What an opening. What a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outset, it’s clear that this book has a striking structure. Proceeding every chapter is a phrase from the current court judgement being handed down to the protagonist, Robert (eg. “The prisoner will stand…”). Then, the chapter is 90% a reflection on how it came to be that Robert is pleading guilty to murdering his friend, Gloria, and the leftover 10% is an italicised stream of consciousness from the present day, inside the courthouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and the bulk of They Shoot Horses, Don\u2019t They?<\/em> takes place in a 24\/7 dance competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a cool novel. The font is cool. The setting is cool. The characters are cool. The quote on the front cover (\u201cAmerica\u2019s first existential novel\u201d<\/em>) is cool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A small biography of Horace McCoy included at the conclusion of the They Shoot Horses, Don\u2019t They?<\/em> makes McCoy out to be a tragic character who had one good novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Europeans began to rank him beside Faulkner, Steinbeck and Hemingway. McCoy, however, was broke, depressed, and \u201cfat from too much food and booze\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But.. At least he had that one good novel. And it\u2019s a cracker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Narratively, McCoy succeeds in balancing the anachronistic unease that creeps into the flashbacks of the dance competitions, and the tension that cracks like a whip in the tiny segments from the courtroom as Robert is being sentenced for murder. Structurally, McCoy is experimental – the font size of that courtroom judgement that proceeds each chapter gets bigger and bigger as the chapters tick over, mirroring how a judge would build into drama in his theater (the courtroom). So not only is the writing cinematic, the font is too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also humour. Take, for example, this scene between Robert and (existentially challenged) Gloria, our two main characters, who  are taking on more than 200 other couples in a 24\/7 dance competition in Hollywood during the Great Depression, hoping to win the elusive $1500:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018We\u2019ve got a chance to win haven\u2019t we?\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Have we?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Well, you don\u2019t seem to think so,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She shook her head, not saying anything to that. \u2018More and more and more I wish I was dead,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There it was again. No matter what I talked about she always got back to that. \u2018Isn\u2019t there something I can talk about that won\u2019t remind you that you wish you were dead?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018No,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I give up,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There are beautiful, quiet scenes where Robert\u2019s appreciation for the simple pleasure for life has increased by an order of magnitude now that he can’t access them. There is a strong sadness in these scenes. They are recounted in the context of the 24\/7 dance competition taking away his freedom, as the only breaks that the contestants get must be used for rest indoors. But they also constitute a more poignant foreshadowing, because these freedoms are to be taken away from Robert again, and with permeance, as he is sentenced for murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Gloria and I walked down by the master of ceremonies platform. It was nice down there about this time of the afternoon. There was a big triangle of sunshine that came through the double window above the bar in the Palm Garden. It only lasted ten minutes but during those ten minutes I moved slowly about in it (I had to move to keep from being disqualified) letting it cover me completely. It was the first time I had ever appreciated the sun. \u2018When this marathon is over,\u2019 I told myself, \u2018I\u2019m going to spend the rest of my life in the sun. I can\u2019t wait to go to the Sarah Desert and make a picture.\u2019 Of course, that won\u2019t ever happen now. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched the triangle on the floor get smaller and smaller. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally it closed altogether and started up my legs. It crawled up my body like a living thing. When it got to my chin I stood on my toes, to keep my head in it as long as possible. I did not close my eyes. I kept them wide open, looking straight into the sun. It did not blind me at all. In a moment it was gone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, this is a great book. Thank you to Imprints on Hindley Street in Adelaide for stocking it, as I had never heard of it before that, and will think about it fondly for years to come. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a moment, I saw Gloria again, sitting on that bench on the pier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews_books","category-recommended_cait"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1206,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/1206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}