Alyson Hagy read from her latest novel, Boleto, on Thursday, June 14, 2012, at Twin Cities favorite Magers & Quinn Booksellers. I’ve always loved M & Q, and now I love it even more with its revamped back room (new carpet and more books on more shelves!) and new events manager Ethan Rutherford. I’ve noticed some small, but great changes at the store in the past few months. The monthly e-newsletter has been redesigned and looks fabulous (sign up at http://www.magersandquinn.com), and at the past few readings, authors have had the luxury of  a microphone. Acoustics have always been a bit of a problem in the poetry corner of the store, and I was grateful for the speakers and mic at Hagy’s very engaging reading to about thirty people.

Hagy has been traveling on her launch tour for Boleto over the past four to five weeks, but was quick to say how reading in Minneapolis is especially meaningful to her because it means coming home to her publisher, Graywolf Press. As a former Graywolf staffer (only two weeks since I made the move!), I’ve been to my fair share of readings by its authors and poets. I’m always genuinely affected, but never surprised, by each author and/or poet’s words of gratitude and love for the Press and its staff. Hagy’s thanks was a heartfelt reiteration of what I’ve always known about Graywolf, and what I was lucky to have been a part of for the past two years: Graywolf Press is one of the few remaining, independent, nonprofit presses that still values “the story.” Stories are important to Hagy. Stories hold an element of community. In Boleto, Will tells stories to the filly, people tell stories to each other. Hagy also thanked her friends in the audience and reminded everyone to support their local independent bookstores, even if it means clicking a button on their websites to purchase an ebook.

Boleto, or “ticket” in Spanish, is the story of young Will Testerman and the filly on which he spends his savings to buy, train, and then eventually sell. The novel follows Will as he moves from Wyoming to Texas to California. In Hagy’s readings of three separate sections of Boleto and her discussion of how she came to write the book, it became evident that Will, his filly, and his Wyoming are not just elements in her book, but things she knows and loves deeply. It was clear that Will has always been his own entity to Hagy–she did not create him, but rather, discovered him and his story. In fact, Hagy shared that she had a “long fight” with herself about whether or not she should tackle Will and his filly for her book. Will Testerman is loosely based on a real person that Hagy met and observed training a filly in 2003. In answer to a question from the audience, Hagy did admit that it was important that Will be a man and the filly a female, that one could say Boleto is a sort of romance. From reading the book myself and listening to Hagy, I heard a romance between a man and his horse, or his ticket to redeem himself, a romance with the American West, and multiple “romances” between men and women who come and go, cohere and fall apart, but always with a sense of kindness for each other. I also heard the importance of a person’s relationship, perhaps not quite a romance, with loss and independence.

Alyson Hagy reads from Boleto

Hagy’s actual readings of three separate sections of Boleto, broken up by short intervals of Hagy sharing her process of writing the story, felt incredibly intimate. In addition to the audience of Graywolf staff and Hagy’s old college friends, it was undeniable that Hagy knew her book and Will just like Will knew his horse. From the minute Hagy started reading a section, she was in the story. It reminded me of the passion a really good teacher or librarian has when reading to students. It was impossible for me not to get involved with Will, his filly, and other situations in Will’s life, past and present. The first section Hagy read gave a strong sense of Will’s initial attraction and ongoing relationship with the filly, the second section showed off Hagy’s wonderful ability to introduce memorable characters and then have them quietly fade into the story, and the last section was a sobering yet uplifting interaction between Will and his mother, who is in remission from cancer and reassuring her son that he must break free from his worry about her to begin a life of his own. All three excerpts, read separately and as a whole reading, have tempted me to read the book again, to feel satisfied by a good telling of a tale.

Hagy grew up in Wyoming, part of a family familiar with horses and training them. Her personal experiences are very much a part of Boleto, whether in the novel’s horse training terminology and ranch culture or when character Dr. Art Slocum cures a horse using reiki, a scene taken from Hagy’s trip to Dubai in 2001. It’s always interesting to hear the “true” stories behind a work of fiction, and I thank Hagy for being so open about her writing process and how her life has influenced her work. I also thank her for being engaging while also being succinct. After a quick last question about the last great book Hagy read (Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, and the less famous works of Willa Cather), I am pretty sure the audience left on a high note, and not at all antsy to leave.

-SS

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