‘Lean on Pete’ about a boy and his horse

Life has been hard on the 15-year-old. He was abandoned by his mother. His dad has moved him all over the country. And as if that’s not enough, a sudden act of violence leaves him alone and homeless in Portland, Ore.

All Charley wants is a roof over his head and regular meals. He wouldn’t mind going to school and maybe playing football, too. But fate seems to have other plans for Charley, who takes up residence in a tack room at a horse track.

Charley has no money, so he gets a job working horses and cleaning out stalls for Del Montgomery. Del easily takes advantage of Charley, who’s young and alone, by making him work all hours and paying him low wages. But Charley needs the cash to survive, plus he has found a friend, one of Del’s horses, Lean on Pete.
 
Pete’s tired, too. Life has not been too kind to him, so he’s not much of a racer anymore.

There were scars on his face and long scars on his rear. I’d asked Del what they were from and he said most were from when Pete was laid off and put back in a herd. Horses are always arguing, Del said. But the scars around his leg were from when he’d reared back in a starting gate and threw the jockey and got himself cut up. Del said Pete used to be full of it, that he used to be a handful, but now he was tired out and had thrown in the towel.

Charley spends much of his time confiding in Pete. He tells the horse of his joys and troubles and about how he loves to run. Pete’s running days seem to be coming to an end, and Charley quickly realizes that once the horse becomes unprofitable to Del, he’ll be off to slaughter.

Charley just can’t bear to lose his only friend, so he steals Pete and heads to the only place he can think of — to Wyoming in hopes of finding his long-lost aunt.

The teen tries to keep a low-profile while on the road, but traveling with a horse isn’t easy. As he and Pete journey toward Wyoming, they come across a host of characters — some helpful, some not. Charley feels Pete’s his responsibility and he’ll beg, borrow and steal to get them to his aunt’s safely.

With “Lean on Pete,” author Willy Vlautin pens a memorable tale of the challenges life presents to even the most unprepared. From the time he’s born, Charley knows life isn’t fair, and it seems a lesson taught to him repeatedly. Pete seems to have learned this lesson as well.

The parallels between boy and horse are many, and Vlautin’s sparse prose easily conveys Charley’s depth of emotions — his loneliness, his fear, his love for Pete.

Vlautin has created a lovely, touching book with “Lean on Pete” — a novel that stems from a simple story about a boy and his horse.