Summary of Chapters 1-19 of The Sureness of Horses
Week 1: Chapters 1, and 2 (pages 2-19—18 pages)(Dec 7th, 2015)
-Exiting a plane, Diana Buchanan asks Wade Middleton’s help with a heavy saddle. He throws his back out. Guilt overcomes her conservatism; she drives him home. The next morning his friend Jorge Calderon comes seeking help at work.
-When Diana asks Wade about his interest in poetry he reads her a poem about horses. She’s not free to date, but they agree to meet over coffee.
-Wade and Diana discuss their kids. Wade’s daughter Amelia is a photo major back east at Bard; Diana’s kids, Beth and Robbie, are transferring to local schools. Starting Palo Alto High School, Beth is feeling lost.
Week 2: Chapters 3, 4, and 5 (pages 20-45—26 pages)(Dec 14th)
-Wade learns that Jorge has messed up with a customer and will be fired. Not only can he not save his friend, he can’t even warn him.
-Diana invites Wade to the ranch where she keeps her horse and introduces him to her friend’s horse, Artemis. Wade bonds with the horse.
-Diana still won’t date Wade, but, after he reads her one of his poems, she agrees to go to a poetry reading with him.
Week 3: Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 (pages 46-63—18 pages)(Dec 21st)
-At the reading, one of Wade’s friends reads a ribald poem that Diana considers so offensive that she walks out. Wade sadly writes her off.
-Diana talks to a friend in Dallas who likes poetry and convinces Diana she owes Wade an apology. Diana and Wade enter a new phase of their relationship.
-Diana is much warmer in her elegant condominium; they kiss for the first time. Between lessons and rides with Diana, Wade learns his way around horses.
Week 4: Chapters 10, 11, and 12 (pages 64-85—22 pages)(Dec 28th)
-Wade comes into his office to find Jorge in his guest chair—he’s being fired that morning. Wade counsels and comforts Jorge as he’s walked out the door.
-When Diana goes to Texas for Christmas, Wade eats a lonely breakfast in San Francisco, rides a rented horse, and phones Diana and Amelia.
-Part II of the novel opens as Diana returns on New Year’s Day. She meets Wade at the ranch, where she unrolls a blanket in a secret place off the trail. For the first time, they make love.
Week 5: Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 (pages 86-113—27 pages)(Jan 4th, 2016)
-Diana prepares Wade to go foxhunting and arranges a dinner party. Wade asks Diana to invite Jorge and Marita in hopes of finding his friend a job.
-Wade goes out on his first mock hunt, where the hounds chase a laid-down scent instead of foxes or coyotes. He falls in love with foxhunting as Diana leads him from hill to hill.
-At Diana’s party, the special guest at dinner is Billy, the Chief Counsel of an energy firm. Billy warms to provocatively dressed Marita when she expresses hatred of Castro.
-Billy encourages Jorge to come see him for a job. Wade expresses his dislike of Billy to Diana. They quarrel. Seeking his roots, Wade plans a trip home.
Week 6: Chapters 17, 18, and 19 (pages 114-141—27 pages)(Jan 11th)
-Wade makes a sales call in Chicago and returns to the town where he grew up. With a stranger’s help, Wade catalogs a series of Steps on how to return home.
-Jorge is indeed offered an almost unbelievably lucrative job, complete with stock options. Billy’s only proviso is that Marita come in for a private interview.
-Wade meets his daughter Amelia in Mexico to find a town where she can study Spanish. At dinner, a man in a tie begs the bread from their table.
