HORSE HEAVEN

A sometimes biting, sometimes tender exploration of the world of horse racing and the people and horses whose lives orbit it, Jane Smiley's ultimately hopeful vision offers all the thrills of watching a pack of thoroughbreds fly down the final stretch. Reader Mary Beth Hurt's enthusiastic performance is addictive, and she's especially distinctive when she's portraying characters like loudmouthed owner and breeder Al Maybrick or boorish trainer Buddy Crawford. None of the emotional states she portrays, however, from high-pitched falseness to self-assured hustling, is keener than when she's a lover, or a husband, or a wife murmuring those deepest yearnings of the human heart. J.M.D. [Published: JUN/JUL 00]