Waiting for White Horses

Waiting for White Horses encompasses an important time in the life of Dr. Grant Thorson. He and Dr. Will Campbell, two old college friends, met in dentistry school years ago and they love nothing more than spending time together, duck hunting in northern Minnesota. Much of the story centers on Grant Thorson. He has experienced a time of great loss and transition. His emotional legs are weak and Will supports his friend as he negotiates his new life. This is a lovely book about friends, family, life, love and hope. And nature adds to its beauty and lushness. I didn't want the story to end and yearned for more of the characters and their lives. I laughed and I wiped a tear or two. It tugged at my heart and hasn't let go. Waiting for White Horses is simply beautiful. Nathan Jorgenson is a master storyteller and made me love learning about hunting. This book is brilliant and holds a special place in my personal collection. Armchair Interviews says: Waiting for White Horses is a must read and a novel you'll want to keep and read again.

A good book will stir your emotions, make you laugh and make you cry, compel you to keep reading, and make you wish it would't end. Waiting for White Horses is all of that and more! It will move you to look at life and loss in a new light. To see the beauty of close relationships and the gifts they bring, and the grief they can bring. Grant Thorson was blessed to have those kinds of bonds with his best friend Will Campbell, his father, and not only one, but two women in his life. He also has a similar kind of love (or passion) for nature and the ideals he believes in which makes him a remarkable character. The author uses the analogy (in nature) of air and water coming together in perfect harmony to create a most powerful and beautiful scene (hense the title of the book), to describe how two lives that are in sync with one another, can share the most beautiful richness life can give. Anyone who has known this kind of love is blessed, even if that love has been lost. Tamara Walker sings: "I'd rather fall than never to have flown at all, it was heaven after all, if only for a time." I recommend this book to EVERYONE, but especially to anyone who has elderly parents, teenage children, who is searching for a soul mate, or who has lost a loved one. It has taught me to look at life and loss in a new light, (and even duck hunting)!

Waiting For White Horses is not about white horses. Indeed, they don't show up until the last third of the book ... and they probably aren't what you're expecting anyway. The novel contains quite a bit of duck hunting and fishing on a placid lake in Minnesota ... but it's not about that either. It's certainly not a political drama, although the President of the United States plays a pivotal role. Mostly, this is a book about family, friends and lovers, what binds them together and what tears them apart. If you read it, you will quickly get caught up with the characters' lives, loves and pain. You will not be able to help yourself. It doesn't matter if you've ever set foot in a boat, held a fishing rod or pulled the trigger on a rifle. Waiting For White Horses follows a pivotal year in the lives of Grant and Will, two old college friends who enjoy nothing better than spending their free time in a duck blind, harrassing and joking with each other. Their unique relationship is beautifully and hilariously detailed almost from the first page and serves as the hook that pulls the reader deep into the narrative. The focus is really on Grant, who has recently suffered the first personal loss of his previously-charmed life, and is trying to regain his emotional bearings. Even as Grant reels from this tragedy, he quickly finds himself on an emotional roller-coaster, facing difficulties and surprises from every direction. He seeks calm and comfort in past relationships, but nothing seems to offer the stability he craves. No one enjoys the experience of grief and upheaval, but almost everyone has to find a way to cope with it eventually. (Those that don't have died too young and thereby caused others grief.) The first impulse is to say that life is not fair, but eventually one is forced to admit that life isn't even supposed to be fair. That's not why we're here. That is what Grant has to learn through the course of this novel. The seriousness of this theme is leavened by a remarkable sense of humor. When Will and Grant get together, they are irrepressible, childish and utterly charming. Many of the situations in the story also contain elements of the absurd while remaining firmly grounded in reality. Life is just ridiculous sometimes, and author Nathan Jorgenson captures that beautifully. And I haven't even mentioned the love story! Waiting For White Horses is a compelling, thoughtful read for anyone interested in the nature of life, the power of love or the mystique of duck hunting.

Rarely is there a book which will make you laugh out loud and fight back tears as well...even for guys! This book does this and so will be one of the unforgettable books that I have read and one that I will re-read in years to come. It doesn't matter if the reader is neither a hunter or fisherman...it's all about the ones we love, as the author himself has said.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is well written; the characters are well defined and believable. As I read the book I felt like I was there with them in the duck boat, the cabin, in Washington, experiencing all the sorrow, joy, anger, laughter and love that Grant felt as he dealt with his life. It is a hard book to put down. I would highly recommend this book to people of all ages and interests. It's about life.