Ancient Highway [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Bret Lott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2008

From the bestselling author of Jewel and The Difference Between Women and Men comes a haunting novel of home, family, and the pursuit of lost dreams. Ancient Highway brilliantly weaves together the hopes and regrets of three characters from three generations as they reconcile who they are and who they might have been.

In 1925, a fourteen-year-old boy leaves his family’s farm and hops a boxcar in a dusty Texas field, heading for Hollywood and a life in the “flickers.”
In 1947, a ten-year-old girl aches for a real home with a real family in a wide-open space, far from the crowded Los Angeles streets where her handsome cowboy father chases stardom and her mother holds a secret.
In 1980, a young man just out of the Navy visits his elderly yet colorful grandparents in Los Angeles, eager to uncover his family’s silent history.

For the Holmeses, a longing for something else–another place, a second chance–seems to run in the family DNA. From Earl’s journey west toward Hollywood glory, to his daughter Joan’s wish for a normal existence away from the bright lights, to his grandson Brad’s yearning for truth, this deep-rooted desire sustains them, no matter how much the goal eludes them. But ultimately, in each generation, a family crisis forces a turning away from the horizon and the acceptance of a reality that is by turns harsh and healing.

Inspired by stories of his own family, Bret Lott beautifully renders the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary faith in a mesmerizing and finely wrought tale of love and letting go.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lott picks up the themes that dominated his 1999 Oprah Book Club Selection, Jewel, in this multigenerational saga. In 1927, 14-year-old Earl Holmes runs away from his unhappy home in Hawkins, Tex., for Hollywood to become a movie star. But poor bumpkin Earl has better luck in marrying big band singer Saralee Kennedy than he ever does building his acting résumé. Earl and Saralee's only child, Joan, grows up to resent her father's dogged pursuit of a practically nonexistent film career at the expense of his family's happiness. She has plenty of her own residual problems by the time she has her son, Brad, who joins the navy and returns in 1980 to live with his grandparents, Earl and Saralee, in L.A. Estranged from Joan, Brad takes it upon himself to heal the family's rifts. The colorful off-camera anecdotes of filmmaking are gems, particularly how Earl lands a bit role in a forgettable Three Stooges skit. This chronicle of the Holmes family is sluggish in spots, but Lott's handling of characters and domestic conflicts picks up for readers who stick through the first act. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Lott is at his best writing about ordinary working people whose lives fall short of their expectations, and here he describes three members of a multigenerational family with issues of truth and illusion. At 11, Earl Holmes falls in love with the “flickers,” and at 14, he leaves his unhappy Texas home for Hollywood. Scrambling for parts, the handsome Earl continues his “sidewalk screen tests” in hopes of being seen after marrying singer Saralee Kennedy. Their only child, Joan, feeling surrounded by her parents’ secret pasts and exploited for her father’s future, flees to make an unwise marriage, becoming estranged from her son, Brad, who runs away to the navy while remaining close to his grandparents. Lott mixes persons and chronology in the stories of Earl, Joan, and Brad, tying them together in a sad yet hopeful reconciliation. The real strength of this book lies in its vivid set pieces, among them Brad’s observation of Vietnamese evacuees on the deck of his ship and Earl’s getting a bit part in a Three Stooges short; the strength of such pieces alone is worth the price. --Michele Leber --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 383 pages
• Publisher: Center Point Large Print (August 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602852332
• ISBN-13: 978-1602852334
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,636,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bret Lott is the author of thirteen books, most recently the novel Dead Low Tide(Random House 2008); other books include the story collection The Difference Between Women and Men, the nonfiction book Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of the Writer's Life, and the bestselling novels Jewel, an Oprah Book Club pick, and A Song I Knew by Heart. His work has appeared in, among other places, The Yale Review, The New York Times, The Georgia Review and in dozens of anthologies. Born in Los Angeles, he received his BA in English from Cal State Long Beach in 1981, and his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1984, where he studied under James Baldwin. From 1986 to 2004 he was writer-in-residence and professor of English at The College of Charleston, leaving to take the position of editor and director of the journal The Southern Review at Louisiana State University. Three years later, in the fall of 2007, he returned to The College of Charleston and the job he most loves: teaching. His honors include having been named Fulbright Senior American Scholar and writer-in-residence to Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel; having spoken on Flannery O'Connor at The White House; and being appointed a member of the National Council on the Arts. He and his wife, Melanie, and live in Hanahan, South Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb novel about ambition and desire, September 10, 2008

By 

A reader (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ancient Highway: A Novel (Hardcover)

ANCIENT HIGHWAY is one of the richest, smartest books ever written about fame and its fallout. The book explores the underside of Hollywood, exploring with gorgeous precision the blind hunger that can drive people's yearning for celebrity--and, with special clarity, the cost of that hunger. Lott sees with unflinching compassion the terrible selfishness of ambition, and his characters ring true in their rage as well as their desire. Readers who admire Nathanael West's "The Day of the Locust" will find much to satisfy them in Lott's superb novel; in place of West's grotesque caricatures are human, humane portraits that are all the more moving because in them we are likely to recognize ourselves.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful portrayal of hope in the face of shattered dreams and healing in the face of pain, August 18, 2008

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ancient Highway: A Novel (Hardcover)

On the day 11-year-old Earl Holmes plops down a nickel to watch a "flicker show," he dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. One night, three years later, he gathers up his belongings, sneaks out of the house and hops a passing train with his sights set on stardom in California. To support himself while waiting to be discovered in Hollywood, he works menial jobs, uses up his stack of glossies and wears out shoe leather going to auditions. With each faint whisper of promise, he jumps on any lead in hopes of being cast in a part --- any part --- and eventually lands one in a "Three Stooges" short.

While celebrating his minor victory at the Cocoanut Grove, Earl meets Saralee Kennedy, a lovely and talented singer from St. Louis who smiles and winks at him while she is auditioning for Kay Kyser and His Orchestra. Earl is immediately smitten: "He was in love...and he showed her his love the only way he knew how: He winked back, and smiled his Buddy Rogers smile."

While Earl dreams of stardom, Saralee dreams of settling down. After their marriage, they have a daughter, Joan. Years later, while Earl is off serving in the Merchant Marines, Saralee and Joan move in with Earl's family in East Texas --- a place of lush trees and wide sky that young Joan comes to consider home. When the war ends, they return to California, where Joan and her mother once again live in the shadow of her father's dream.

Decades later, Joan is divorced and leading a quiet existence in Arizona. In 1980, her estranged son Brad returns from service in the Navy to live with his grandparents in California. After participating in the evacuation of Saigon and witnessing hope in the face of chaos, Brad desperately seeks to be part of a family, no matter how damaged.

Bret Lott's strong portrayal of place and time, his graceful descriptions and elegantly drawn characters leap from the pages. His behind-the-scenes peek through Earl's eyes at a bygone era of Hollywood is flavored with rich detail. Brad's observations about Vietnam evacuees aboard the USS Denver brought tears to my eyes, for both their sentiment and the author's use of language.

ANCIENT HIGHWAY is a thoughtful portrayal of hope in the face of shattered dreams and healing in the face of pain. It is a book about which I echo Earl's word: "Hurrah!"

--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His best work - a masterpiece - a must read, June 22, 2010

By 

Julius Forte "Jules" (London, England) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ancient Highway: A Novel (Hardcover)

Edith Sitwell, who was the "mother" of rap music (about sixty years ago), worked with word-rhythms'. A bit like the lyrics of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Brett Lott does the same. You want to read brilliance? Read the first chapter of "Ancient Highways" out loud. You will be hooked, and so will anyone within ear-shot. It begins with a young boy running away from home. He is following a midnight train. To jump aboard and escape the horror of his life, and go to Hollywood to become an actor. The words begin to speed up, taking on the rhythm both of his determined legs, and of the "clackity-clack" of the train. Faster and faster. Both a grand percussion solo, mixed with almost biblical grandeur. At the end of the chapter when the boy finally leaps onto the flatbed, you are sweating, breathing hard, relieved. You need a moment to catch your breath, and can't wait to turn the page to see how it all comes out. The book is like that from beginning to end. It is a bit dark. A bit sad. Hard to read at times. Because it is so real. It has very little to do with Hollywood, and everything to do with our own make-believe. A make-believe that wears us out, ruins our mind and body like a chain smoker.People don't get everything they want, or dream about. It works its magic layering three generations of this family. Mixing them up like a casino card shark shoveling the deck. There's nothing pretentious about it. Everything works. A long and magnificent section about our hero, now older, and getting his first chance of "stardom" in a "Three Stooges" short (really, I kid you not), is some of the best writing you'll find anywhere. And the "punch line" to that moment of glory with his bride-to-be will tear your heart out. Lott is the only writer who can make a day selling garage-sewn robes at a swap meet have the power of Tolstoy. This is one of his later works. I await something even more amazing. My only footnote is that I immediately bought up several of his earlier novels. Though his "Vermont" story was lovely, none of the others shows the power of "Ancient Highways". There is too much reputation in theme and style. He wrote then, as he does here of loss and death and petrified dreams. Themes that deserve mention, but once done, it seems it's time to move on. You wonder if he can. Or even wants to. But that is then, and "Ancient Highway" is now. And he is now at the top of his craft.

However forget all that. Buy this book. Find a quiet place. Turn off your cell phone. Don't let anyone bother you. And start to tap your feet to the rhythm of the story of three generations of people you will want so desperately to at least smile once in their lives.