Blind Your Ponies

I just finished this book a few days ago. It's one of those I picked up off the bookstore shelf as a random act, primarily because I liked the picture, the title, and then found that it was set in Montana. It was a very worthy impulse buy, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Blind Your Ponies, by Stanley Gordon West, is a heartwarming story set in Willow Creek, MT. Its a broken down town, full of broken hearted people who have either come there or stayed there to hide from the world's pain and disappointments. The high school, possibly in its last year before being consolidated with a larger school district, is composed of a handful of students who, for the most part, seem to be falling into the town's pattern for failure. Even the school basketball team is on a 5 year loosing streak. But this year, things start to turn around. When the 6'11" foreign exchange student steps off the plane in Bozeman, people start to speculate. And when the team wins a game after more than 90 losses, the players, their coach, and the town's residents find a spark of hope for their chances in basketball and in life.

Its amazing what a spark can do. Given time to smolder, it can start a raging fire.

I can honestly say, this was a great book. Even if you don't get into the story, though I don't know how you couldn't, West's use of descriptive writing is wonderful to read. He even turns the basketball games into poetry, and that's coming from someone who has little to no interest in the sport and no concept of the rules. Read it for the story of the underdog getting on top, always a "feel good" story line, or read it for the authors beautiful use of language. Either way, you can't go wrong.