Lucidity, Faith, and Generations: A Review of Scott Cheshire’s “High As the Horses’ Bridles”

High As the Horses’ Bridles by Scott Cheshire Henry Holt & Co.; 320 p. “They sit” begins Scott Cheshire’s remarkable debut, High As the Horses’ Bridles, a curt, evocative line that summons us to a 1980 Richmond Hill church where the young, prophetic twelve-year-old Josiah Laudermilk is about to give a sermon to a crowd of thousands. Laudermilk is, like his father and mother and the worshippers amassed there, part of a sect of Jehovah Witnesses that believes the world […]

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Religious History and “Distorted Takes on Genre”: A Conversation with Scott Cheshire, Part One

I first met Scott Cheshire at an Electric Literature event in the winter; not long after that, I worked on a piece for the Tottenville Review, where he’s a contributing editor. Soon after that, I read his debut novel, High as the Horses’ Bridles. It’s a bold novel, abounding with contrasts: Cheshire is equally at home writing scenes of domestic conflict and theological debate; Queens and southern California are evoked in equal measures. There’s plenty to ponder here: long discussions of family, […]

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