<i>Bug Boy</i> (review)
2009; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 63; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.0.1110
ISSN1558-6766
Autores ResumoReviewed by: Bug Boy Deborah Stevenson Luper, Eric . Bug Boy. Farrar, 2009248 p. ISBN 978-0-374-31000-4$16.99 R Gr. 7-10 A "bug boy" is an apprentice jockey, and that's the lot of fifteen-year-old Jack Walsh, newly promoted from exercise rider, at the Saratoga racetrack in 1934. As a hot property with prodigious skills, Jack draws all kinds of attention, and he's soon squiring Elizabeth, a wealthy social butterfly and secret bookmaker, around Saratoga's nightspots and getting promotional goodies. Less welcome attention comes from a backstretch tough, who puts Jack in an ethical bind: if he throws a major race, he'll get $200 that would be a fortune to Jack's family, and if he doesn't, there's clearly violence awaiting him—and possibly Elizabeth. This is more an old-fashioned movie-transformed view of racing than an authentic picture, but it's plenty entertaining for all that. Luper spins a flashy period story of well-heeled swells and shady touts, and Elizabeth, the posh girl with the steel-trap mind of a bookie, proves to be a classic entry in the field of dames playing their ostensible heroes as saps. There's plenty of focus on the gritty downside of even a promising jockey's life, with pay pitiful and the grinding need to keep weight down a constant and eating-disordered issue. Readers who were taken with the social world behind Seabiscuit's story, or those who just like a period tale with some serious sporting color, will romp home with this. [End Page 30] Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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