My Friend Flicka (1940)

This is a story that begins with a surfeit of commas – I wondered, as I read the first page, whether I would be able to make my way through a whole novel as liberally peppered with commas as this one seemed to be. Luckily I was able to move on before too long, and see the story despite their initially obscuring haze.

This was not a standout story for me – It was ok. Some of it was better than ok, and some parts were rather off, such as the pseudopsychological analysis at the end. ( )

One of my favorite stories of all time. My Friend Flicka is a coming-of-age story about a boy on a Wyoming horse ranch. Ken is something of a daydreamer, and struggles to please his authoritarian father and find direction for his future. More than anything else he wants a horse for his own, like his big brother. His father feels he isn't ready for that responsibility, but his mother talks him into letting the boy have a horse. Ken chooses an unbroken filly which proves to be the most difficult horse to tame on the entire ranch.

More than just a book about boy and his horse, My Friend Flicka is a vivid picture of ranching life. The decisions his parents face in managing the ranch, dealing with financial issues, taking care of their stock, nurturing their marriage and raising their two boys in a remote area are an integral part of the story. The father worries that he's made the wrong choices in running horses on his range as opposed to sheep, the mother worries about her boys riding across pastures where they might meet dangers like half-wild stallions and bulls, or mountain lions come down from the hills. Although fiction, this novel and its sequels are based on a ranch the author lived on, and many of the characters and events in the stories are drawn from real life. To my mind, that makes reading them all the more intense and delightful.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

I've loved this book since I first read it when I was seven or eight. I love all of Mary O'Hara's books, especially Wyoming Summer. What an interesting, fascinating life she led! I'd love to see a movie about her! Ken, the dreamy drifty boy, who grows up through his love for his horse Flicka, his mother and his demanding father are written about with such perception that lines from the book stick with me forty-five years later.. ( )

In the tradition of Marjorie Rawlings' "The Yearling" and "Old Yeller", this is a coming of age story about a young boy on the verge of adolescence and his struggle with responsibility, parental approval, and pressure to conform.

O'Hara's writing includes beautiful and moving depictions of life on a ranch in the West including the harsh financial realities as well as family dynamics. Although the book's events take place in an earlier era, most children will readily identify with Ken's problems as he tries to retain something of himself while seeking the approval of his father. Ken's victory is bittersweet and comes only at great cost to himself and his family.

I highly recommend this book. It's one of my favorites, one I find myself reaching for and re-reading time and time again. ( )