The Licorice Daughter: My Year with Ruffian

Lyn Lifshin

I've been writing reviews for over two decades. I've been reviewing everything I read, much of what I see, and a good portion of what I listen to for about half that time. Since I started reviewing everything, there's only been one book for which I haven't posted a review somewhere: Jane Schwartz' Ruffian: Burning from the Start. I have no words that can do the book justice.

Thus, I find it especially nice that Lifshin, of whom I've long been a fan, has collected her writings on Ruffian into one volume. And before I say anything else about it: this is a book that needs to be in the collection of every reader involved with, or passionate about, horses. Even if you don't like thoroughbred racing, even if you don't like poetry (Lifshin has never been what one could call a poet's poet), you need this book.

This compendium, as Lifshin states in her preface, is culled from poems she's written throughout her career, and so a bit of variation in quality is to be expected; that said, any dips one is liable to find are shallow ones. Lifshin is a fine writer, and has become (seemingly exponentially) even more so in the past decade; this is the perfect introduction to her prodigious talent for anyone with interest in horses, for it almost downplays Ruffian's track life, focusing on her weanling and yearling years for a good portion of its length.

A fantastic book. You want this.