Jaimy Gordon's novel "Lord of Misrule" is set in 1970 at a small horse racing track in West Virginia. Gordon once worked at such a place-her book immerses readers in a lost world of language and dialect as we experience a series of claiming races and the dramatic intrigues that are unfolding. She has created a cast of unusual and highly memorable characters here.Her book won the National Book Award in 2010. Gordon is a 1966 graduate of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.