A lovely little fable about a horse who escapes her stable outside Paris and journeys to the city, where she makes friends with a stray dog, some birds, and a rat. She is eventually "adopted" by a lonely little boy who hides her in his great-grandmother's house. Not a lot happens, but I really enjoyed this tale of interdependence, community, and friendship.

4 stars ( )

Fun read about a young racing horse whose curiousity gets the better of him one night when his stall is left open. He finds himself in an unfamiliar area of Paris and is befriended by a raven, and a stray dog . They teach him how to stay hidden and when to look for food. He is later taken in by an 8 yr old boy who lives with his 98 yr old blind and deaf great grandma. The story grows from there. He eventually goes back to the racing stable with his new friends. NPR: It's such a joy when an author whose work you've been reading for decades surprises you with something unexpected. The title character of Jane Smiley's new novel, Perestroika in Paris ¥ her first since she completed her massive The Last Hundred Years trilogy in 2015 Â¥ is a talking horse! Of course, horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Smiley's books, including Horse Heaven and most of her Young Adult novels. Nor is this the first time that the author, best known for A Thousand Acres, her Pulitzer Prize-winning homage to King Lear, has gone light: Moo and Ten Days in the Hills are both satires.But this delightful, heartwarming tale about creatures living in the rough in Paris's Champs de Mars is something new for Smiley, and it's an appealing balm for harsh times. The animals Â¥ her titular racehorse, who converses with an elegant shorthaired German pointer, a haughty raven, a squabbling pair of mallards, and a rat pining for a mate Â¥ share their hardships, fears, needs, and dreams. They also overcome their differences and prejudices to band together to lend a paw, claw, wing, or hoof to each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy.NPR: It's such a joy when an author whose work you've been reading for decades surprises you with something unexpected. The title character of Jane Smiley's new novel, Perestroika in Paris Â¥ her first since she completed her massive The Last Hundred Years trilogy in 2015 Â¥ is a talking horse! Of course, horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Smiley's books, including Horse Heaven and most of her Young Adult novels. Nor is this the first time that the author, best known for A Thousand Acres, her Pulitzer Prize-winning homage to King Lear, has gone light: Moo and Ten Days in the Hills are both satires.But this delightful, heartwarming tale about creatures living in the rough in Paris's Champs de Mars is something new for Smiley, and it's an appealing balm for harsh times. The animals Â¥ her titular racehorse, who converses with an elegant shorthaired German pointer, a haughty raven, a squabbling pair of mallards, and a rat pining for a mate Â¥ share their hardships, fears, needs, and dreams. They also overcome their differences and prejudices to band together to lend a paw, claw, wing, or hoof to each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy.It's such a joy when an author whose work you've been reading for decades surprises you with something unexpected. The title character of Jane Smiley's new novel, Perestroika in Paris Â¥ her first since she completed her massive The Last Hundred Years trilogy in 2015 Â¥ is a talking horse! Of course, horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Smiley's books, including Horse Heaven and most of her Young Adult novels. Nor is this the first time that the author, best known for A Thousand Acres, her Pulitzer Prize-winning homage to King Lear, has gone light: Moo and Ten Days in the Hills are both satires.But this delightful, heartwarming tale about creatures living in the rough in Paris's Champs de Mars is something new for Smiley, and it's an appealing balm for harsh times. The animals Â¥ her titular racehorse, who converses with an elegant shorthaired German pointer, a haughty raven, a squabbling pair of mallards, and a rat pining for a mate Â¥ share their hardships, fears, needs, and dreams. They also overcome their differences and prejudices to band together to lend a paw, claw, wing, or hoof to each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy.Wash Post: Perestroika Â¥ Paras for short Â¥ is a 3-year-old filly thoroughbred who?s just come off a win at a racetrack in Paris. Being a ?very curious filly,? she trots away from her stable when she finds her stall door unlocked, then wanders to the Place du Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower. In short order, she?s joined by Frida, a canny German shorthaired pointer whose owner, a vagabond busker, has recently died; Raoul, a sage raven who keeps a perch on a Benjamin Franklin statue; and a pair of squabbling mallards, Sid and Nancy.The world outside the racetrack is baffling to Paras, in terms of both its human and animal inhabitants. ?What are you chasing?? Frida asks. ?I don?t know,? she responds.Talking-animal stories tend to break down into two categories: Sober allegories about human nature (?Animal Farm?) and lighter allegories via kids? adventure tales (?Charlotte?s Web.?) But ?Perestroika? doesn?t slot neatly into either group. Despite the title character?s name, the novel isn?t concerned with Cold War politics, or politics much at all. (The novel ends on a bright, decidedly un-Orwellian note: ?Why make things more complicated than they really had to be?? ) And though the animals? personalities tend to stick to the straightforward archetypes of children?s literature Â¥ daring, haughty, exploring, squawky Â¥ Smiley strives to avoid a cloying tale about getting along.To help do that, she introduces a handful of more earthbound human characters, most prominently a nonagenarian matron, Madame de Mornay, and her 8-year-old orphan great-greatgrandson, Ÿtienne, who live in a bespoke if declining manor. Ÿtienne lures Paras to the home, where she makes the grand salon comfortable, if a bit smelly. The surrounding Parisians are oblivious Â¥ the novel would stop dead in its tracks if they weren?t. Smiley laments what they?re missing: ?The humans who were out were, as usual, looking downward, minding their own business, thoroughly convinced that they knew all about everything having to do with their world.?

A surprisingly good read!

I'm not generally a fan of taking animals, but this story was fun and well-writren. The author developed the characters so well that I felt myself holding my breath of things in the story got a little tense (don't worry, no spoilers).

A really nice, fun, easy read. ( )

This was a fun book. I love the way Jane Smiley writes about animals, she is able to get inside how they might view things. This book is more fanciful. She's ascribing human kinds of thought to them while retaining the essence of each species. The interplay of their points of view was fun and full of humor and her descriptions of the personalities and squabbles, especially among the birds, was hilarious. ( )

Warning!! There is no point to this book. It is like a fairy tale and is inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Do not read it if that description turns you off. Otherwise, and especially if you are a horse lover, you will enjoy it, as I did. It is enjoyable, light reading and can be enjoyed as a family bedtime read or on a road trip. ( )