Customer Reviews

Ancient Highway: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

One of the major threads running through Ancient Highway seem, to me, to be about self-centeredness. Earl's family suffered for his devotion to an unrealistic and unrealized dream; then his daughter repeated the pattern with her detachment from her own child. Earl's wife seems to love her daughter, but gives her little attention. The ups and down of the characters' financial lives (the depression, oil boom and bust, comfortable retirement) serve to emphasize that, regardless of external circumstances, having good relationships is paramount. But this family never quite got it right.

I really can't add much to Donna Volkenannt's excellent review. It's a very well written "human" story. As I was nearing the end of this book, I thought, "Drat...it's almost finished".