Author: Michael Klein
Title: Track Conditions
Hardcover: 178 pages
Publisher: Persea Books (April 1997)
Language: English
ISBN: 0892552255
Price: $22.00
Rating: Five Stars
* * * * *
A Different Kind of Horse Story: A Million Big Stars
Oprah, for a million little reasons, you chose the wrong memoir for your book club.
In an age where honesty in memoir seems to be a rare commodity, Track Conditions is probably one of the most honest, compelling, and underrated books in print.
A fascinating glimpse into author Michael Klein's downward spiral into alcoholism, lost love, dependency, and casual sex, this lyrical memoir is not an easy read--never easy to read about another person's coming-of-age psychic pain. But this memoir is a must-read.
A real-life thoroughbred horse story, from a former groom's point of view, this memoir focuses on the deteriorating relationship between two young men in the midst of their own personal crises.
In 1979, Klein, a confirmed New Yorker, desperately followed his lover Richard Coatney into the homophobic underworld of thoroughbred racing, beginning his career as a horse walker at River Downs in Cincinnati and working his way up to groomer at Belmont, Churchill Downs, and Pimlico.
Among all the empty booze bottles and one-night stands, Klein discovered an aesthetic affinity for horses, in particular one special--and well-known--thoroughbred, precipitating the author's final downfall and then leading toward his eventual salvation--and this memoir.
Klein leads the reader into a world rarely ventured into by the average horse track bettor: vivid descriptions of lame horses being cruelly euthanized and the casual doping of horses for monetary gain. At the beginning of chapter three, the author summarizes, from his perspective, the visible and invisible aspects of "racetrack society":
"There are people you see all the time: the barn help, the trainers, the exercise crew, the men and women who deliver hay and straw and feed. And there are those you see only rarely, if at all: the jockeys, the parimutuel clerks, the owners, the starting-gate crew. Two worlds: the training world and the racing world."
Ironically, from the reader's perspective, the visibility/invisibility paradigm is directly the opposite from the author's.
And Klein offers insights into worlds which are largely invisible to most of us: in addition to the gritty side of thoroughbred racing, he also reveals the limited options available to an impoverished young homosexual, also a poet and rebel, of the late seventies and early eighties.
First published in 1997, the memoir's main narrative covers the author's racetrack life, from its inauspicious beginning to its shocking 1984 denouement, with some interspersed flashbacks to his abusive and incestuous childhood and Manhattan life with Richard.
While revealing vivid and harsh details about his life, the author maintains a psychic distance from the reader through his dispassionate use of the past tense; moreover, he does not editorialize from the perspective of the forty-something memoirist.
He simply unfolds his story, leaving judgments, analyses, and evaluations up to his readers.
The distance works well; the author never whines or asks his audience to feel sorry for him. He simply presents "in-your-face" statements and facts, like them or hate them.
It doesn't matter what the reader thinks; in the end, Klein, with a metaphorical kick from his equine friend, triumphs.
There is beauty and poignancy in Klein's spare prose, yet glimmers of humor add some comic relief, for example, when he describes some of the other grooms and other track people and recounts some his late mother's family stories.
I recommend this book for both gays and straights--anyone who appreciates a well-written life-story, no matter how down and gritty.
I own the 1997 hardcover edition, and it is worth every one of the twenty-two dollars that I paid for it.
What Others Are Saying...
About TRACK CONDITIONS
"Michael Klein's TRACK CONDITIONS is an absorbing and disturbing memoir of his experience as a professional groom in the world of high-stakes horse racing. Out of the gate at a breakneck pace, it leaps hurdles between past and present effortlessly."--Carol Muske
* * * * *
"In a gruff, heartbreaking voice unlike anyone writing in American today, award-winning poet Michael Klein has given us a shameless and fascinating memoir of thoroughbreds and hypocrites, blackouts and jail cells, wanderlust and hard-won redemption. A must-read for anyone who's wondered about the dark side of the winner's circle, the spoils of the great race, the heroic journey home of an artist gone awry."
--Mark Matousek
* * * * *
The author, "...in TRACK CONDITIONS, does more to advance the cause of horses than anyone since Elizabeth Taylor."
--Wayne Koestenbaum
* * * * *
"I didn't know or worry about horses before I read TRACK CONDITIONS; now I do, because of Michael Klein's lovely prose and careful eye."
--Elizabeth McCracken
* * * * *
"Klein is an alchemist, mixing sex and self-knowledge with the deliciously tactile world of horses. TRACK CONDITIONS is a riveting memoir: at once a compelling horse tale and an astonishing narrative of recovery."
--Stephanie Grant
* * * * *
Reviews from back cover of TRACK CONDITIONS
Michael Klein's Bio
Michael Klein is a poet.His collection, 1990, and POETS FOR LIFE: SEVENTY-SIX POETS RESPOND TO AIDS, which he edited, are winners of the Lambda Book Award.
He has co-edited two other anthologies, IN THE COMPANY OF MY SOLITUDE: AMERICAN WRITING FROM THE AIDS PANDEMIC (with Marie Howe) and THINGS SHAPED IN PASSING: MORE "POETS FOR LIFE" WRITING FROM THE AIDS PANDEMIC (with Richard McCann).
His latest memoir, THE END OF BEING KNOWN, was published in 2003 by the University of Wisconsin Press.
Klein lives in New York City and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Goddard College MFA program. He currently teaches memoir writing in the summer program at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
* * * * *
Some text is from bio on book jacket.
Author photograph (from the book jacket):
by Ted Rosenberg Photography
Michael Klein's Links
- A Rich Life: Adrienne Rich on Poetry, Politics, and Personal Revelations (by Michael Klein)
- Adrienne Rich is one of the major American poets of the last half of this century. Now 70, she's published more than 16 volumes of poetry and four books of nonfiction, and has been the recipient of nearly every major literary award, including the National Book Award, the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Dorothea Tanning Prize for mastery in the art of poetry given by the Academy of American Poets, and the MacArthur "genius" grant.
- The End Of Being Known: A Memoir
- The University of Wisconsin Press: A poetic look at the hazards and delights of sex, desire, and friendship.
- Ploughshares
- The Literary Journal at Emerson College
- Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database
- Poets for Life: Seventy-Six Poets Respond to AIDS
- Fine Arts in Provincetown Summer Program
- Workshops and residencies in Creative Writing and Visual Arts. Michael Klein's "Essays in Memoir," July 30 - August 4, 2006.
- "Rooms We Didn't Live In"
- "When drinking luck brought me mystery and money..."
- Lambda Literary Foundation
- Lambda Literary Awards, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991
Gays and Lesbians
A Few Random Links
- Wikipedia--Queer Studies
- Queer studies is the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. In some universities, the field is called sexual diversity studies.
- Annotated Links to LBGT Queer Studies Resources
- Queer Studies Resources.
- Queer Theory
- Welcome to Queer Theory!
QueerTheory.com provides you with the best online resources integrated with the best visual and textual resources in Queer Culture, Queer Theory, Queer Studies, Gender Studies and related fields.
Michael Klein's Books on Amazon
Track Conditions: A Memoir
Amazon Price: $22.00 (as of 10/10/2008)
1990 (Provincetown Poets Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 10/10/2008)
The End of Being Known: A Memoir (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies)
Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 10/10/2008)
Biography - Klein, Michael (1954-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 10/10/2008)
Things Shaped in Passing: More "Poets for Life" Writing from the AIDS Pandemic
Amazon Price: $13.95 (as of 10/10/2008)
In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 10/10/2008)
Poets for Life: Seventy-six Poets Respond to AIDS
Amazon Price: $11.65 (as of 10/10/2008)
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