KICK THE LATCH

Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman''s life at the racetrack - the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner''s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the ''particular language'' of ''grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody'' - with economy and integrity.

Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form andauthenticity. As Kathryn Scanlan puts it, ''I wanted to preserve - amplify, exaggerate - Sonia''s idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.'' Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, Kick the Latch bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.

''Kick the Latch is a triumph.'' - Financial Times