Lean on Pete (29 page)

“I remember betting on Pete one day and telling myself that if he won I’d name the book after him.”

The whole time I was watching this go on I was trying to decide if I should start drinking because my hangover was so rough. There were fewer than fifty people on the second floor that day. During that race, the few gamblers there were yelling either because the horse with the broken leg ruined their trifectas or yelling because now their trifectas were sitting in a better situation.

“Maybe in the end my skin’s just too thin for horse racing.”

Suddenly, it all seemed mad and wrong. Maybe in the end my skin’s just too thin for horse racing; but that day the scales shifted for me, and I was ashamed of myself and I left. I swore off the races for a long time after that. It’s hard because the track’s been a good friend to me. But it can be a very dark friend if you look at it in any real light, and it’s hard to love something and not look at it closely. So I do what I do when something’s wrecking my head: I write a story about it. This one’s about a horse named Lean on Pete and a kid named Charley Thompson.

Read On

Have You Read?
More by Willy Vlautin

THE MOTEL LIFE

With “echoes of
Of Mice and Men
” (
The Bookseller
, London)
The Motel Life
explores the frustrations and failed dreams of two Nevada brothers—on the run after a hit-and-run accident—who, forgotten by society, and short on luck and hope, desperately cling to the edge of modern life.

“An unapologetic ode to self-defeat. . . . Its charm is unassuming . . . at times its appeal is irresistible. . . . Slighter than Carver, less puerile than Bukowski, Vlautin nevertheless manages to lay claim to the same bleary-eyed territory, and surprisingly—perhaps even unintentionally—to make it new.”

—New York Times Book Review
(Editor’s Choice)

“A debut road-trip novel that echoes the spare, bleak style of such writers as Denis Johnson and Raymond Carver. . . . The author conveys the pain and desolate lives of his characters without a hint of melodrama. . . . Anyone who enjoys the story will wish that it went on longer.”

—Washington Post

“At any given time there is, somewhere in American fiction, a man sitting in a bar, stone broke, and drinking whiskey and beer, and wondering whether to turn up for work or just high-tail out of town. He’s there in Bukowski, in Denis Johnson, and in newcomers like Matthew McIntosh. He’s there too in this debut novel by Willy Vlautin.”

—The Independent
(London)

“Bad luck, it falls on people every day.”

An Excerpt

We emptied both our accounts but I had only $234 in savings, and Jerry Lee had less than a hundred. While we were in line I kept thinking about the kid. Maybe he had been sleeping in the warm bed of his girlfriend an hour before he died. He might have snuck out her window when he knew he had to leave. Might have been laying there next to her, and she was naked and he’s about to fall asleep; maybe it was then that he made himself get up and get dressed. Maybe he heard her mom get up and use the toilet. Maybe he kissed her before he left. Maybe he got back in bed with her one last time before he made himself go for sure. I hope it was like that, and not the other way. That he was running from something, or that he had nowhere to go, or that he couldn’t go home ’cause things were so bad there.

Bad luck, it falls on people every day. It’s one of the only certain truths. It’s always on deck, it’s always just waiting. The worst thing, the thing that scares me the most is that you never know who or when it’s going to hit. But I knew then, that morning, when I saw the kid’s frozen arms in the back of the car that bad luck had found my brother and me. And us, we took the bad luck and strapped it around our feet like concrete. We did the worst imaginable thing you could do. We ran away. We just got in his beat-up 1974 Dodge Fury and left.

NORTHLINE

Fleeing Las Vegas and her abusive boyfriend, Allison Johnson moves to Reno, intent on making a new life for herself. Haunted by mistakes of her past, and lacking any self-belief, her only comfort seems to come from the imaginary conversations she has with Paul Newman, and the characters he played. But as life crawls on, and she finds work, small acts of kindness start to reveal themselves to her, and slowly the chance of a new life begins to emerge.

“
Northline
shines with naked honesty and unsentimental humanity. The character of Allison Johnson, and the wounded-but-still-walking people she encounters on her journey will stay with me for a long while. Vlautin has written the American novel that I’ve been hoping to find.”

—George Pelecanos

“When a work of pure fiction comes along that reads like the best that journalism has to offer, it brings with it a sense of hope. . . . Willy Vlautin’s second novel,
Northline
, is just such a book. Quiet, sad, and suffused with a melancholic serenity, it begs to be read, if for no other reason than it seems true.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“She closed her eyes and thought of Paul Newman.”

“Willy Vlautin tells [Allison Johnson’s] story with unrelenting clarity. . . .
Northline
serves as a reminder that America’s beaten, broke, and miserable are not necessarily morally bankrupt or clueless victims. They’re just trying to get by on minimal resources, little education and a bit of hope.”

—Washington Post Book World

“
Northline
recalls a dust-jacket blurb on an early edition of John Steinbeck’s
Of Mice and Men
: ‘Two hours to read, twenty years to forget.’ ”
—Booklist

An Excerpt

Her thoughts began to race as she thought of her uncertain future. Her anxieties started again. Her breaths quickened and her body tensed. She pinched her leg as hard as she could, hoping that would stop it. She closed her eyes and thought of Paul Newman. She focused on his face and his blue eyes.

“So, kid, how’s the water?”

“At least the water heater’s good,” she said.

“This place ain’t much, but I think you’ll do all right.” He was sitting beside her on the toilet, drinking beer.

“You sure do like Budweiser.”

“It’s the king of beers.”

“I’m a terrible person. I don’t know why you ever talk to me.”

“We all have tough times. Remember me in
The Verdict
. I was drunk as a bum for more than twenty years in that one.”

“But you were a lawyer, you’d gone to college.”

“Listen, kid, you could go to college. Believe me, you’re smart enough.”

“You think so?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“I’ve done some horrible things.”

“We all have. You ever seen
Hud
?”

“You sure were an asshole in that one.”

“I’ve been bad. You aren’t bad. You just got what I’d call bad nerves. That, my girl, you’re gonna have to work on. We got to toughen you up. That’s why you’re in the boat you’re in.”

“I just wish we could disappear together.”

“We do all the time.”

“Remember when you were in
Hombre
? I would have taken care of you in that one. I would have had us sneak away and get a place a thousand miles from anywhere.”

“They sure were rough on me in that one. Indians don’t get many breaks.”

“I wouldn’t have let you go down the hill and get shot. I would have gone down myself.”

“I know you would have, kid. That’s why I’m here.”

“You think he’s gonna be all right? Do you think they’ll be all right to him?”

“I just stopped by this morning. His new dad is a hell of a good guy. That’s something to know. You shouldn’t worry. You did the right thing.”

“‘You aren’t bad. You just got what I’d call bad nerves. That, my girl, you’re gonna have to work on.’”

“What are they like?”

“They stayed up all night worrying about him. They got a hell of a nice house, too. Plus his new mom is the most patient gal in the world. I sure as hell wish I was as good a parent as they’re gonna be.”

“‘You won’t leave me, will you?’”

“You promise they’re that way?”

“Of course I promise.”

“What are they doing right now?”

“Sleeping, which is what you should be doing.”

“I feel horrible.”

“I’d make you breakfast if I could. I can cook like a son of a bitch. I know how to make a breakfast that’ll cure any hangover.”

“I really like your spaghetti sauce.”

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, kid.”

“You know something that doesn’t make sense?”

“What’s that?”

“My sister Evelyn likes Robert Redford better in
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
. I can’t believe she’d say something like that.”

“She’s just a kid, what do you expect?”

“You won’t leave me, will you?”

“Look, if I wasn’t so old I’d jump right in there with you. You’re a hell of a catch.”

“I bet.”

“You are. I told old Bob Redford about you, and he’s jealous as hell.”

“You’re the only one I like.”

“I know, kid. You’re a real gem that way. Now get out of the tub, it’s time to give it another try.”

“All right,” she said.

“And kid—”

“Yeah?”

“Buy a TV, you think too much.”

Praise for
Lean on Pete

“The comparisons with Steinbeck and Carver are richly deserved, yet Vlautin is a truly original voice.
Lean on Pete
is powerful, heartbreaking stuff. Just three novels in and Vlautin is already one of the best writers in America.”

—Mark Billingham

“
Lean on Pete
confirms Willy Vlautin as simply one of the finest American writers of his generation, both lavishly gifted and wonderfully humane. Immensely moving yet never sentimental and heartbreaking without ever lapsing into grimness, it is a superb evocation of adolescence, loss, and, ultimately, hope. I might be tempted to envy him his ability if I was not so grateful that his books exist.”

—John Connolly 

“I love Willy Vlautin’s novels. Downbeat and plaintive as they are, the tenderness holds on like the everlasting arms.
Lean on Pete
reminds me of the best parts of Gus Van Sant’s beautiful film 
My Own Private Idaho.
Willy’s voice is pure and his stories universal. He never loses hope or heart, and I believe every word he’s written.”

—Barry Gifford

“Willy Vlautin’s novels are clean as a bone, companionable, and profound. He is a master at paring loneliness and longing from his characters, issuing them through downturns, trials, and transience without starving their humanity, and always sustaining them, and the reader, with ordinary hope.”

—Sarah Hall

Also by Willy Vlautin

THE MOTEL LIFE
NORTHLINE

Copyright

Tremendous thanks to Howard Durand and Twyla Beckner for sharing their horseracing wisdom. Grateful acknowledgment to Portland Meadows for being my pal for fifteen years.

Special thanks to the real Lean on Pete and his owner, David Duke, neither of whom bears any resemblance to the characters in this story. Lean on Pete has had a successful thoroughbred racing career, and David Duke is a respected Oregon horseman who treats his horses honorably and with kindness.

From
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck, copyright © 1952 by John Steinbeck, renewed © 1980 by Elaine Steinbeck, John Steinbeck IV, and Thom Steinbeck. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First published in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Limited.

P.S.tm is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

LEAN ON PETE . Copyright © 2010 by Willy Vlautin. Map illustrations copyright © 2010 by Nate Beaty. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST U.S. EDITION