Lord of Misrule

Lord of Misrule is a 2011 novel by American author Jaimy Gordon. Taking place in four parts, it considers four horse races at Indian Mound Downs, a racetrack known for its low-budget races and lively venue for betting. These races, while seemingly innocuous from a distance, are illuminated as sites of unimaginable animal cruelty. The novel has been lauded for its complex depiction of the inner lives of horses, and the power dynamics between them and their owners. Lord of Misrule won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2011.

The novel’s main characters, Tommy Hansel and his girlfriend Maggie Koderer, are the owners of four horses who initially appear at Indian Mound Downs hoping to make some fast cash. Deucey, a veteran of the racetrack, immediately senses Tommy and Maggie’s intentions when they request four stalls. The racetrack’s owners comply with their request. The first night of the races, Tommy’s horse, Mahdi, is won by another horse owner, Gus Zeno. Bad fortune also befalls Zeno’s employee, an elderly black man known as Medicine Ed, who bets on Gus’s horse, Boll Weevil. Though Boll Weevil wins the race, Zeno collapses in the midst of bragging about the outcome and dies. Though Medicine Ed collects his reward for betting well, he has lost his employer, who was unusually kind to his black employees, and now must seek employment again in a deeply racist society. Tommy and Maggie offer Medicine Ed a job; after they help him keep Zeno’s Winnebago home, which he had gifted to Medicine Ed before his death, Medicine Ed agrees to work for them.

Next, an aging gangster involved in the races, Two-Tie, appears at Indian Mound Downs to surreptitiously watch over his niece, who came to take part in the races. He asks the track’s stall manager to spy on her. He also recruits Vernon to help prepare a new race for a horse called The Lord of Misrule, owned by his ex-girlfriend’s son. Maggie, Deucey, and Medicine Ed pool their resources to buy a horse named Little Spinoza from the track’s veteran trainer, Joe Dale Bigg. Joe gives them a decent price since he has been trying to sell Little Spinoza for ages; the horse is notoriously erratic, sometimes refusing to race. In their first race with Spinoza, he refuses to compete. In the second race, however, he runs and wins.



The victory endangers Maggie and Deucey because Joe Dale interprets it as an intentional affront to his reputation as a horse trainer. At the same time, Joe Dale has taken a sinister sexual interest in Maggie, of which neither she nor Tommy is fully aware. He claims Maggie’s favorite horse, Pelter, with the hope of luring Maggie to his farm. Maggie does, indeed, travel to his farm, but Tommy and Two-Tie arrive in time to save her and reclaim Pelter. Two-Tie is furious because he had prohibited Joe Dale from claiming Pelter. During the standoff at Joe Dale’s farm, Tommy strikes both Joe Dale and his son, Biggy. Though they make it out safely, Two-Tie anticipates further conflict.

The novel culminates when Pelter wins the race that the Lord of Misrule was supposed to win. During the race, Mahdi runs into the Lord of Misrule, and both suffer a fall. The fall also trips up Little Spinoza, causing him to break a leg. Pelter wins easily without those three in the race. At the winners’ ceremony, Maggie watches out for Joe Dale, whom she knows is furious. In a desperate effort to save Pelter from his wrath, she transfers ownership to Medicine Ed. She leaves the racetrack and walks down to the river, where she finds the markings of a different, long-forgotten racetrack. She also finds Little Spinoza’s remains, lying in wait to be picked up by the knacker. She says her goodbyes to Little Spinoza, and then hears Joe Dale approach. Expressing his disdain for her, he states his intent to rape her. Before he can hurt her, Tommy appears and beats Joe Dale severely with a pitchfork. He fatally strikes Joe Dale with a car, causing him to fly lifelessly into a derelict hot walking machine. Joe Dale’s resting place in the machine used to train horses into submission completes the cycle of karma.