Customer Reviews

Pelican Road

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautifully written novel about a couple of days in the life of railroad men, written by a former railroad man. You see life through the eyes of the engineers, the firemen, brakemen, railroad detectives, conductors, and yard men. The novel is rich in detail and authenticity. This is not a novel about the lives of passengers, chance meetings in the dining car, that kind of thing. The characters are wonderfully drawn--no one-dimensional or two-dimensional people here. You get a very good feeling for the life of the railroad.

There's A.P. Dunn, the engineer on the southbound freight, a longtime veteran who appears to have problems with Alzheimer's. Rufus Payne is the engineer on the crack express Silver Star, out of New Orleans bound for Atlanta and Washington, running late and stubbornly determined to make up time. Artemus Kane, conductor on the Silver Star, keeps thinking back to his days in France in the Great War. Eddie Cox is Dunn's firemen, and due to retire the following day. Donny Luttrell, disgraced college student from a wealthy family, runs the tiny isolated Talowah depot as a penance--he's the only one there, and manages the switches, yardwork, telegraphy, waybills, etc--in some ways he's one of the most interesting characters in the novel. The lives of these men and others are all intertwined.

The sense of time and place is unforgettable--the grime and soot, living conditions aboard a caboose, the always present threat of death and disfigurement for those who aren't careful enough (one of the characters is missing three fingers). The characters in the novel at one point discuss "boomers"--skilled railroad men with a wanderlust who move from railroad to railroad, often crisscrossing the country. Bahr himself served with 5 railroads. There's an excellent railroad novel titled, appropriately, "The Boomer" by Harry Bedwell. This is an episodic work about Eddie Sand, a skilled telegraph operator--these are always in short supply, and the railroads have too many Talowahs, tiny depots that need telegraphers who can manage the switches and the signals the way Donny Luttrell does. Boomer and Pelican Road are both "railroaders' novels", told from an insider's point of view. Up to now, Boomer perhaps stood on its own as the only good railroad novel--but now we also have Pelican Road. Great reading!

Those who are familiar with Howard Bahr's work know that he is one of those rare writers that Mark Twain referred to as "word musicians." Just about anyone can tell a story, but it takes a true talent to make music with words. Bahr does it again with Pelican Road, his fourth novel.

The setting is a bit of a departure for those readers who are accustomed to the 19th century historical fiction of Bahr's three previous novels, but no one should be disappointed by that. Christmas Eve 1940 on the railroad comes alive in this book, thanks to Bahr's beautifully vivid descriptions of people and places. The characters become the reader's steadfast friends - we hope the best for them, and weep for their tragedies. And while Pelican Road may be a tragic story, it is not without hope.

Buy this book, early and often. Give a real writer the recognition he deserves.

First, in the interest of full disclosure, I must say that I loved Bahr's Civl War triology. Boy, can he write. In this novel about railroading in the 1940's Bahr applies the same wonderful techniques of character development and setting descriptions that he so successfully used in that Civil War trilogy. All of the characters are memorable, and though I wasn't around during the early 40's as a railroad man, his descriptions of that whole scene strike me as eerily right on the money. I enjoyed the novel immensely and reccomend it for anyone but especially for the reader who not only enjoys a rip roaring tale, but one told with unbelievable eloquence. You're gonna love this book.

Pelican Road is the fascinating tale of men who worked on the great American railroads. The author himself worked as a brakeman and yard clerk on several railroads in the Midwest and South.

The time is Christmas Eve, 1940. The Germans have rolled into Poland, and the Japanese are swarming over the Pacific Rim. Bahr's story, however, deals with a tragedy closer to home.

The sleek Silver Star, extra-fare, all Pullman, New Orleans to New York City, speeds along the storied Pelican Road. Approaching the Silver Star on the same track is another train, Extra 4512 South.

Pervading the story is an ominous foreboding of impending catastrophe. As the snow falls and a cold wind blows, the lonesome sound of the train whistle at night heralds the approaching disaster.

A haunting, existential novel dealing with "the cruel and fundamental mathematics of time," Pelican Road contains stunningly beautiful poetic prose.

As we approach the end, we mourn the dying of the light, as the characters we have come to know are enveloped in darkness.

An excerpt from the novel: "In the car ahead, the crowded hogs grunted and squealed. . . . Smith wondered how the animals must feel, what they talked about, if they reassured one another. Perhaps the wisest among them knew they were going down to death and so would calm the rest, speaking of unfenced cornfields and troughs of turnips at the journey's end, all the while their hearts breaking with the truth."

About the author: Howard Bahr was born in Meridian, Mississippi. During the Vietnam War, he was a gunner's mate in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a brakeman and yard clerk on five railroads in the South and Midwest. He earned a Master's degree in English from the University of Mississippi. The author of three previous novels--The Black Flower, The Year of Jubilee, and The Judas Field--two of which were named New York Times Notable Books--he currently resides in Jackson, Mississippi, and teaches at Belhaven College.

Howard Bahr is noted for his novels regarding the american Civil War. His novel, The Year of Jubilo was a New York Times notable book of the year. Now, Mr. Bahr turns his attention to the american railroads in the deep south just before the start of World War 2, and once again, he has written a fine book which captures the era in a very intimate way. Mr. Bahr is an ex railroad man himself, and his knowledge of the business and the people who work on it runs true in every page of the book. Mr. Bahr has always written beautifully, and this novel is no exception. He sets moods which will linger with you for quite awhile. He also likes to touch his books with a amall piece of the supernatural in all his works, just a small touch to really set the mood. The story involves two railroads destined to meet on Christmas eve, and the characters whgo you wil become involved with are richly drawn. You will be caught up in the inevitability of the outcome, hoping against hope that something will be allowed to intercede to stop the rush against time and rail space on the railroad.

Pelican Road is a vivid and graphic account of the steam locomotive age and those who worked on the trains. The dangers of not only the trains but the railroad yards are masterfully recounted. The writing is so rich and deep that I kept reminding myself to slow down and notice every word and phrase. Now that we are living in the electronic age it is important to remember the risks and crushing work involved in the world of steam engines and other machine driven industry.

I am a great fan of Howard Bahr's work, HOWEVER, it is a CRYING SHAME that the KINDLE edition of Pelican Road is so poorly "set" that paragraphs are hard to discern, words are run together (for some reason especially if the first word is "a"), and sentences hop sideways in the middle of a line and drop to the next line.

THIS EXCELLENT NOVEL DESERVES BETTER THAN THIS SHODDY TREATMENT! PLUS IT US DISTRACTING AND DIMINISHES ONE'S ENJOYMENT.

For the full reading pleasure, buy a paper copy or check it out of the library.

Howard Bahr in this excellent new book gets away from the Civil War of his earlier trilogy and gets into the subject of the men and their surroundings on the isolated stretch of railway which ran between Meridian, Mississippi and New Orleans. The book which is set at Christmas time in 1940, has all the flavor of Bahr's earlier books. Much has been said of his poetic style, his ability to draw word pictures, and that is all present in this book. Bahr's writing style surely does run counter to that of the popular"pulp fiction" variety, but his attention to detail and his ability to evoke vivid pictures of his rural southern scenes, as well as a few snippets of urban New Orleans are what I thought commendable about this book. He puts together a group of characters in this story which are compelling each in their own way. This is not an action packed thriller, but the plot contains enough suspense to have held my interest to the end.

One earlier critic mentioned that the railroad jargon got a bit difficult, but I would say that the context would pull one through the unknown railroad terms easily enough, and I think the critic acknowledged that to be the case. It should in no way scare anyone away from this fine novel.

I am not a reader who looks only to a plot to attract me to and keep me going through an entire novel. Style, vocabulary, setting, history, characters, and overall content are all important to me. On the subject of overall content, has anyone ever remarked on how often birds of different kinds get mention in Bahr's books? Of dozens of possible examples I thought this one from pg. 197 hautingly descriptive: "..a flock of crows has followed him. These have set up a camp of their own in a dead oak tree, from which they offer doleful warnings. Frank understands the language of crows, and he wishes the would go away and find someone else to torment. Finally, he falls asleep, wrapped in his blanket, with the muttering of the dark birds interfering in his dreams."

Bahr has been compared in his style to William Faulkner, and I would not disagree, but I found the dialogue that Artemus has with a young boy who has coasted in a pirogue up to the bridge over the Pearl River where the Silver Star is stopped to be very much in the style of Mark Twain. Some of the sense of nostalgia, and solitary that Bahr may himself have felt about railroads ( and that Twain may have felt about days on the Mississippi River) are summed up when the "Huck-like" boy says, "I hear you-all in the night, and I hear the engines whistle for the crossin' down at Gant's Store. Such a lonesome sound in the dark." "Yes it is, said Artumus. "You don't ever get used to it."

I would like to give the book 4 and one half stars because it is a book that I would highly recommend to old and young alike; fans of Bahr; as well as those who do not know his writing, but who are interested in the sights, sounds, and feelings of good literature and the America in which it has been created. 5 stars is to me a one in a hundred or one in a thousand book that I feel will be read 100 years from now. I will not go that far in rating this book yet. It is a mighty good one though.

As a railroad employee from the 60's, I can heartily endorse the handling the subject of life on the railroad. The terminology is just right, and the feeling of being on a train, in a yard, or on spot is as accurate as anything I've read.
Most books that describe trains have to do with real fancy streamliners, this book comes up from the cinders under the ballast, into a well-worn caboose and onto the mainline.
Not a perfect finish to the novel, but close enough. If you enjoy railroading, this is an absolute must read.

This is the fourth book I have read by Mr. Bahr. I was, and still am, a Faulkner fan and started reading him when I discovered he is the curator of the Faulkner museum in Oxford. Mr. Bahr's style of writing is gripping, evocative and stunning in its purity. The man does not waste words. He creates images and characterizations that are at times so poetic that passages have to be read and reread [ this is where kindle bookmark comes in handy] to appreciate. I can't wait for his next work.