Bonecrack: Blackmail, Broken Bones, and Bullets this is a book report on the Dick Francis. it contains character discription and plot.

Essay by hockeybuzz@msn.comCollege, UndergraduateB+, December 2003

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The book, Bonecrack, is about a teenager's ambition to become a successful horse jockey. It is also a book about the relationships between two fathers and two sons. Enso Rivera, a corrupt underworld businessman would stop at nothing to indulge his son, Alessandro's, every whim. Mr. Griffon is a respected and successful stable owner who raised his son, Neil, by having high expectations and making unreasonable demands. The relationships of these four characters, along with Etty Craig, a woman trainer, provide a lot of insight into father-son relationships.

Neil Griffon has "a background in business, not in horse racing... with a subtle, intuitive mind" (vi). Neil is the main character and the narrator of the story. He is a successful businessman who takes over his father's stable business while his father recovers from a badly broken leg. Neil is kidnapped and beaten by Enso Rivera and is told that Alessandro must ride Archangel, the horse favored to win the Derby.

Enso had one of his thugs break the leg of one of the horses at the stable, and then sends Neil a wooden horse with a broken leg to let him know it was not an accident. Realizing that Enso had the power to destroy the stable he agreed to take on the teenage apprentice.

Neil's father, Mr. Griffon, thinks Neil is not experienced enough to run the stables. Neil talks about his difficult relationship with his father saying, "[Neil] spent most of [his] childhood fearing [Mr. Griffon]"(47). Neil resented the punishments his father gave him when he was a child and by the age of sixteen had run away from home. Mr. Griffon never forgave him for running away. Mr. Griffon was self-absorbed, enjoyed the finer things in life like drinking aged champagne, and was convinced he...