Blind Pony

As True A Story As I Can Tell

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones.com
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 15 Mar 2021 | Archive Date 17 Apr 2021

Talking about this book? Use #BlindPony #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

BLIND PONY: AS TRUE A STORY AS I CAN TELL is a coming-of-age memoir detailing the poignant journey of Samantha Hart, a precocious runaway teen who lands in 70s Los Angeles.

The narrative follows her harrowing childhood of abuse in Pennsylvania, fleeing to reconnect with an estranged father in Phoenix, and thrown to the wolves among the bright lights and wild nights of L.A. in the heyday of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. She was hustling Backgammon in Hollywood and flogging nude photos in Europe, all before 17. Readers have made comparisons to Jeanette Walls' best-selling The Glass Castle and Cheryl Strayed's Wild.

At 14, she ran away from home to escape her grandfather's sexual abuse and made her way to Arizona, searching for her father, a distant memory she knew only as "Wild Bill."  But the heroic figure she clung to in hear heart was not the drunk she came to know as Bill, and she was on her own to scrabble between finishing high school and supporting herself working underage as a barmaid. She had only herself to rely on and to protect her from the predatory world of men around her.

But when one of those men gave her the chance to leave Phoenix for Los Angeles, she fled one precarious situation for another. At 15, she already had nothing left to lose. She encountered a Dionysian spectacle of drugs, decadence, and money in Hollywood, where good times flowed, erasing bad memories. She was quickly swept up in a life that tested every strategic resource she had learned to survive. And when a wealthy playboy mistook her Pittsburgh accent for British, a new spiral of white lies began, and a new identity was born.

Soon, the stones of Europe were under her feet, and self-preservation was the only thing on her mind as she floated through this new dimension of champagne parties, sexual adventures, and a whirlwind of international escapades.  As she trekked on, a portfolio of nude photos under her arm, new worlds of promise and love began opening to her. Against all odds, her young, broken spirit found the strength to persevere, survive the un-survivable, and transcend the temptation to give up in a world that seemed so set against her. All these years later, she is a mother and grandmother with an award-winning career in Hollywood, but she is also still that young woman, a survivor, trying to find her true self among the ashes of her past.

BLIND PONY: AS TRUE A STORY AS I CAN TELL is the tale of one young woman's unwillingness to accept the circumstances life dealt her, and instead, took the reins into her own hands to find success beyond her wildest dreams.

BLIND PONY: AS TRUE A STORY AS I CAN TELL is a coming-of-age memoir detailing the poignant journey of Samantha Hart, a precocious runaway teen who lands in 70s Los Angeles.

The narrative follows her...


Marketing Plan

There will be a free Book Soup virtual Book Signing on 3/19. :
https://www.booksoup.com/event/samantha-hart-discusses-blind-pony-conversation-melissa-maerz-author-alright-alright-alright

There will be a free Book Soup virtual Book Signing on 3/19. :
https://www.booksoup.com/event/samantha-hart-discusses-blind-pony-conversation-melissa-maerz-author-alright-alright-alright


Available Editions

ISBN 9781648710100
PRICE

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)

Average rating from 16 members


Featured Reviews

Blind Pony is an account of Samantha Hart's life growing up in America in the early 1970s. It's the kind of book that has you constantly asking yourself, 'surely this isn't real, surely it's a work of fiction?'

Samantha has a troubled childhood - (initially named after the woman her Dad had an affair with) she is one of five sisters and her father is a drunk named Wild Bill who disappears from Sam's life in her early adolescent years. She lives with her large family and her grandparents on their farm - this is where she suffers the most horrendous abuse which takes place right in front of her mother's eyes.
Wild Bill is Sam's escape route to a better life and she leaves the farm to live with him. Sam's journey takes her places a teenager should never visit, she gambles, poses nude, drinks, and later succumbs to hard drugs.

The book is harrowing, sad, joyful, and happy, you'll definitely run a whole range of emotions reading it.
It is very well written and I was truly absorbed.

Was this review helpful?

Blind Pony is Samantha Hart's story of her abusive childhood and her incredible adventures as a teenage runaway. Samantha was originally named Pammy Sue after her father's latest mistress when she was born, which is a hint as to quite how dysfunctional her family was, and after years of suffering the attentions of her grandfather,the denial and lack of love from her mother and the death of her beloved grandmother she leaves home at the age of 14. Her father,a charismatic man with a host of tall tales,has already left the family home. Also left behind was Princess, the pony her grandfather gave her who was blind in one eye while her sisters were given physically perfect ponies.

Lying about her age and often relying on the kindness of strangers and her intelligence Sam gets through school bur finds herself ,like many runaways, alone in the sleazy Hollywood of the early 1970's
From there her life is a roller-coaster ride of doing what she has to to survive, relationships with much older men purely to keep a roof over her head, parties with drugs on tap and flying around Europe trying to sell a portfolio of nude pictures to publishers of Men's magazines,all before the age of 18.
As she crashes through a life that seems to lift her up only for it to throw her to the floor again all she really wants is the love of her mother and answers to the question ,"why me?" as her abuse continues to play on her mind.
Samantha tells the story of her young life quite openly,the drugs,the sex,the ill-advised marriages until ending with her finding some kind of reconciliation, not least asking her grandfather why she got the "Blind Pony" of the title.
Samantha's book is hard-hitting and superbly written,she's obviously a very intelligent woman and ,hard as it must have been, leaves the reader in no doubt as to her feelings of abandonment ,isolation and even worthlessness because of the failings of others. By way of balance the kindness of strangers more than once helps her out of bad situations.

This is a great read and after finishing it I spent a couple of hours Googling Samantha, who went on to happiness in her personal life and a very successful in various creative industries, and others who feature in her story so it obviously left an impression.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: