Customer Reviews

Tin Lizard Tales: Reflections from a Train

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Author Schuyler Wallace is an ex-paramedic and retired fire chief who, with wife Carol, sets out on a 30-day railway transit of the United States and Canada using the North American Rail Pass. Both are in their eighth decade; Schuyler lacks rose-colored glasses and Carol is short on bladder capacity. TIN LIZARD TALES is Wallace's narrative of the journey. The book is written:

"FOR CAROL: Wife, best friend, and fantastic traveling companion."

Any man with such a pal is blessed beyond measure.

The couple's odyssey takes them from their home in Bakersfield (CA) to Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Rockies to Fort Morgan (CO), onwards to Naperville (IL) and Chicago, Erie (PA), New York City, Washington (DC), Niagara Falls, Toronto, back west across Canada through Sudbury and Edmonton to Vancouver (BC), then home via Seattle, Portland and Sacramento. A route map, which would have added a nice visual element, is, sadly, not included.

The primary destinations of interest, based on the amount of dedicated text, were Chicago, New York, Washington, Niagara Falls, and Toronto. The author took voluminous notes along the way, which allowed him to describe their perambulations in those places almost step by step as well as their meals dish by dish. Both Schuyler and Carol like their chow.

Through much of TIN LIZARD TALES, Wallace expounds upon places and things he admires or likes: the Central Pacific's building of the RR across the Sierra Nevada range, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the Naperville Riverwalk, the evolution of the Pullman car, General MacArthur's farewell address to the West Point cadets, the construction of the World Trade Center, a boat trip circumnavigating Manhattan Island, the Empire State Building, Sing Sing Prison, the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame, the Hudson's Bay Company, and West Edmonton Mall. But, being the occasional curmudgeon, Wallace also excoriates locales, situations, and people he finds objectionable: Excel Corporation's past scandals at its Fort Morgan beef packing plant, chicken processing in general, 19th century life for Chicago's stockyard workers, the Chicago Black Sox Scandal, New York's Easter Parade, Amtrak's bad service, the mass marketing of prescription drugs by the pharmaceutical companies, pollution along the Hudson River, society's inability to grapple with the problem of the homeless, the reality shows "Jackass" and "Bumfights", and Howard Stern, whom Wallace calls "a despicable human being." If nothing else, Schuyler is gloriously opinionated. I like that a lot.

The author's writing style is reflective of one who, as a former fire chief, probably wrote many administrative reports. While not demonstrating the relaxed casualness of my favorite travel writer, Bill Bryson, it's solid and determined. And, while Bryson's pervasive humor suggests a puzzled smile and a cocked eyebrow, Schuyler's, when it occasionally surfaces, is wryly sarcastic.

TIN LIZARD TALES is Wallace's first book. The fact that it's as engaging, entertaining, and instructive as it is demonstrates that its author is a tremendously intelligent and literate man. I hope that Schuyler enjoys a long and healthy retirement with the urge and opportunity to write more.

What an interesting, enjoyable and honest read. I stress the honest part, because unlike so many "travel books" I read, here the author has told it like it is, sort of the good, the bad and the ugly kind of thing. Mr. Wallace, a retired Fire Chief and his wife set out on a journey across the United States, from the West Coast to the East, and then back again through Canada, traveling via train. Apparently the author and, I assume his wife, are in their seventies, which is pretty near my age, so I could certainly relate. Anyway, this is the story of their journey and as the title of the book would reflect, the author's reflections.

It is sort of difficult to tag this book and place it in a particular genre. It is indeed a travel log, yet it is also the story of an adventure of two people. It is also a series of mini-historical lessons as the author lets us know a bit about each place they visit or pass through. This must have taken a great amount of hard work and research, and being a trivia fan, I loved ever word of it. It is also a commentary on the state of our country at this time, looking through the eyes of an individual who has obviously seen a lot in his life time. The author also makes some wonderful observations concerning his fellow travelers, the condition of the country side, and the services which were to be had here and there, or the lack of service, as the case may be. Mr. Wallace has an acute sense of humor and it shines through story after story. He is also a wonderful observer and his description of the country side is some of the best descriptive writing I've come across in quite some time.

I liked this book. I like travel books, books that tell me something, give me information and entertain me. I could not ask for more with this offering. It is well written, well organized and easy to read and follow. The author, while not always being absolutely politically correct, dose call things the way he sees them and says it the way it should be said. Not much mincing of words found here. I find this very refreshing. I also like trains (there is a bit of little boy in all of us, you know) and found his commentary quite educational. Having ridden trains in the U.S. during from the early 1950s, to trains in Europe and the Mid-East, I have some familiarity with traveling via this mode so I was able to relate too much of what the author recorded. This was nice as there are few books out there where travel is done by train anymore.

Another reason I appreciated this book, was its honest observations of train travel. My wife and I have been contemplating a similar trip. After reading this, I do not think we will be traveling via Amtrak anytime soon. I have to agree with another reviewer. Amtrak officials should give this one a close read and heed the author's observations, if they want to stay viable into the next decade or so.

Thank you Mr. Wallace, for giving us a very personal, touching and entertaining read. I Loved ever word of it. Very much recommend this one.

Don Blankenship

Excellent travel read. Short chapters and subject matter keep the book moving. Everything you wanted to know about going cross-country by train(and some you didn't) Highly recommended.

This book, categorized in the travel/essays genre, was written while author Schuyler Wallace was taking a month-long train trip through the United States and Canada with his wife. I was attracted to the book because I have always wanted to travel by train myself, and so I thought it would be interesting to read tales of train travel. To my surprise, however, very little of this book was about train travel itself. Rather, the book's subtitle, "Reflections from a Train," more accurately captures its essence, as author Wallace offers his commentary on the places and people he and and his wife encounter during their travels.

For the most part, I enjoyed Wallace's reflections on places. He does a nice job of providing historical information on the many areas of the country they visit, from reviewing the Lincoln vs. Douglas debate while traveling through Illinois to providing to statistics on Niagara Falls and even my own city, Rochester NY. But in addition to his interesting educational commentary on various American locales, Wallace takes more of a lecturing stance about certain people and companies, and that's where I wanted to get off the train. For example, what starts off as "Beef with the Excel Corporation" turns into a three-chapter rant about how beef and chicken are processed and how the group PETA just makes everything worse. Wallace, a retired fire chief, also comments about how the World Trade Center situation was handled when visiting NYC, and throughout the book, he makes frequent jabs at things/people he does not like, from graffiti to Howard Stern. I didn't necessarily disagree with Wallace's opinions, I just found them to be glaringly out of place in what was supposed to be a "travel" book. However, I definitely did enjoy parts of this book, especially those that focused more on the experience of train travel itself; Wallace talks more about the onboard experience when he and his wife are traveling on Canada's VIA Rail, which he compares very favorably to Amtrack.

The book's back cover describes the author as "an opinionated man who has been around," and I think that's a fairly apt description. Given this, I think this book would be best enjoyed by those who are older (Wallace is in his 70s), and just as opinionated, especially if they share Wallace's take on things. Finally, note that this is a self-published book; I did find errors in the text throughout.

When I was a young girl, I used to ask my mother if we could "go to town and watch the people." I enjoyed wondering about them. Who they were. Where they were going. What they were thinking.

Well, I thought this book might be something like that. But it turns out it's mostly a sort of travelogue. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as they say on Seinfeld. It was more about places and structures than about people.

I noticed too that much of the book was written in the passive tense, which sort of takes the energy from any writing.

I gave the book three stars because I think the author made a fine effort for his first book and it deserves a read. But I would like to see less writing about places and more about people. I'd prefer more crisp writing too.

Having said that, I think it's an interesting read and it's worth buying. You get a feel for the various places and it's a bit of an escape. And in defense of the author, perhaps he intended the book as a travelogue.

I am both a traveler and a lover of traveler's tales. I read John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley several times with I was a girl and as a teenager I poured over William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways. Oh the places they talked about. How badly I wanted to go. I was born with the road in my gens and my jeans. I wanted to follow the setting sun and be there when it came up.

So I could hardly wait to dive into Mr. Wallace's book. I'm not a little girl anymore, not a teenage anymore either. I've traveled the world wide and plan to keep right on a travelin' till I die, but I can't get everywhere, so sometimes I have to read the accounts of others to see and understand those places I'll never get to. I've ridden trains all over Europe and Asia, but have never set foot on one in the States, except for that steam locomotive that goes from Williams, Arizona to the Grand Canyon, but that's a touristy thing and doesn't really count.

From the first paragraph in the prologue I knew that I was giving myself over to a gifted writer and by the time I finished the first chapter on train safety, I knew I'd be spending the whole day with the book. Mr. Wallace spins many little, often humorous stories in his punchy short chapters, each one begging you to read just one more and before I knew it I was halfway thought the book and hungry.

I made a cheese sandwich, then got on with the book, reading well into the night. I loved the book, the stories, Mr. Wallace's wit, his descriptions and his bits of history. At first, I must admit, I was a bit put off, because sometimes Mr. Wallace isn't always politically correct, but who is. However, at first reading, when he said he saw a smiling little brown boy outside the train window, I gripped the book hard, then I remembered Mr. Wallace is a couple generations older than me and he's not being disrespectful. That little bit aside, I've gotta say, this is one heck of a travel book and it inspired me to go online the day after I read it and check out getting my own North America Rail Pass.

PS. I didn't know Tin Lizard was Rail Road Jargon for a Streamliner. Now, after reading this book, I'll forever be calling passenger trains, the Tin Lizard Express.

Tin Lizard Tales: Reflections from a Train
Tin Lizard Tales is a book about a journey. It's not a travelogue, one of those handy pocket guides (a Baedeker) for vacationers, honeymooners or the retired, those seeking travel to wile away their stress and woes, ramp up their libidos or add another bumper sticker to their travelal ("I visited Yosemite" or "I climbed the Eiffel Tower"). No, this book is travel literature, the kind of book that takes you to places that provide theatre for exemplifying moral or aesthetic values. Tin Lizard Tales is more akin to Homer's Odyssey or Dante's Inferno or Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress or Swift's Gulliver's Travels than to Pausanias' Description of Greece or Johnson's A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland or Steve's Europe Through the Back Door.

That is not to say that Tin Lizard Tales won't help ease your way if you're intent on riding the rails to the destinations Mr. Wallace describes, places such as Chicago, Buffalo, New York City and Washington, D.C., both big and slope shouldered cities. It is just that its real value lies elsewhere--it's a tale of virtues, a morality tale of the consequences of good and bad behavior. It recounts a visit to that most adventuresome place, the human zoo in situ, and then, after all that gawking there, it recounts the Odyessean joy of safely returning home to those who truly care about you, to your Penelope.

This is an honest book, the kind of book you would expect from a virtuous, plain speaking man. Mr. Wallace is that man, a retired fireman from Bakersfield, California, the sort of man who gives Californian's a good name--a life long, hardworking public servant who loves his wife and family and his country, a man secure enough in what he is and what he believes to dare speak truth to the powers of socio-political sappiness (which seem to oppress us from the seaboard states these days) without off-putting self righteousness but with an ingratiating sense of humor. "Man is his own star; and the soul that can render an honest and a perfect man, commands all light, all influence, all fate."

This is a book about the aesthetics of association, with a slant reminiscent of the ancient Greek reverence for the virtue of hospitality. In this book, you will meet both Polyphemus (the rude and inhospitable) and Nausicaa (the gracious and hospitable). Mr. Wallace sees hospitality and solidarity as twinned and intertwined values: You cannot feel a sense of solidarity with rude, ill-mannered people, those who delight in abrasion or in using others to met their needs, whether those people are poor or rich or somewhere in between. Here, what is inculcated is that virtuous behavior is not matter of social class. It is a matter of family and culture, of micro and macro influences in how people mature. But fair warning: There is no balm in this book either for lip service Leftists ("blighters ... living in luxury and talking about socialism" whose inauthenticity betrays a lack of virtue) or for rapacious free marketeers (greed is not good). Unvirtuous ill-mannered behavior is not excused here on the grounds that it's impelled either by some social disadvantage or by the needs of personal freedom. Behaving in a way that allows humans to associate tolerably does not require an aristocratic pedigree or a pilgrim ancestor; it does not require wealth or membership in any particular class; it does not require athletic prowess; it does not require any particular ethnicity or racial heritage or sexual orientation. It is something learned usually from well mannered parents and peers; it's self control; a desire to restrain the narcissistic impulse. Simply, the play of virtue or its absence is not a prerogative of either the working class or the bourgeoisie; it embraces everyone.

The virtues extolled in Tin Lizard Tales have a stoic cast, the values that would be second nature to a Scot's Presbyterian, the cultural heir to the likes of John Calvin or John Knox. "Joy for humans, said M. Aurelius, lies in human actions: kindness to others, contempt for the senses, the interrogation of appearances, observation of nature and of events in nature." Virtuous are those who are brave, hard working, well mannered, courteous, efficient, family oriented, honest, loyal, clean, frugal, humble, thankful for life's simple pleasures, and able to suffer with quiet dignity. In this book, you will meet those who have the right stuff--for instance, the generous cab driver; Eleanor and George; the Langfields; the Thomas's; Priscilla; and the courageous fireman and policeman of New York City during 9/11.

Unvirtuous are those who are dishonest, envious, greedy, ill-mannered, discourteous, rude, slothful, gluttonous, irresponsible, disloyal, unclean, revengeful, and all those matriculating in the School of Tricksters. Unforgettable are the rude and vulgar characters that emerge from the baseboards during this journey: The "Balkan Bitch;" "Pizza Boy;" the perpetrators of the Chicago Black Sox scandal; the Cab Hustler and the outlaw cab driver--"Jesse James;" the ill-mannered doughboy nitwits; Mr. Bootstraps; and the ill-mannered ragamuffins on the Ferry.

In Tin Lizard Tales, we also receive a dose of the omnipresent, vulgar, ill-mannered celebrities, shilled in the media, such as Rosie O'Donnell--the vulgar victim of ambiguous gender discrimination--and Howard Stern--the vulgar exhibiter of exhibitionists, to whom virtue is pornography--and Donald Trump--the bloated huckster, cousin to Gordon Gekko but with a publicist (said Robert Hughes, "one of America's chief vulgarisms")--all role models for strident rudeness. These buffoons are worthy of their forbears in great literature--for example, those morally wayward travelers in that donkey train parodied in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--such as the narcissistic Wife of Bath and the hypocritical Pardoner. "I preach for nothing but for greed of gain and use the same old text, as bold as brass, radix malorum est cupiditas... ."

There is a wisp of nostalgia in Tin Lizard Tales, a quiet longing for a vanishing America--that rugged untamed land of the hardworking pioneer, people such as the Tryon's hacking a life from the backwoods of Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. "Virtues are," said Emerson, "in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule."

In Tin Lizard Tales, we realize that we are in the midst of a revision of American values. The virtues of striving, and rugged individualism--the ethic of self reliance (laggards are unwelcome) expressed in Emerson's Self Reliance--are waning. Nudged they are, slowly but inexorably, from their pride of place by that juggernaut of collectivist virtues, that ethic of self promotional positioning for government deals and identity privileges, that scheme virtues the purpose of which is to promote accidents of birth: gender or race or sexual orientation--"virtues" that appear now to trump the virtues of acquired skills and sentiments: manners, modesty, courtesy, and personal responsibility.

That is not to suggest that Mr. Wallace is not insensitive to the abuses of the past, the absence of virtue of some of our forbears. Quite the contrary. No one could fail to feel the misery of so many struggling immigrants working, so vividly described in this book, in hellish places such as the Andersonville-like Chicago stock yards in the late 19th century. After reading his chapter entitled "Life Around the Stockyards," who could not decry the base exploitation of the significantly disadvantaged? What manner of man could so callously use his fellow man? The unvirtuous of course.

Tin Lizard Tales also has a vein of American Romanticism, particularly in the chapter entitled "Culture on the Hudson." This is perhaps the thematic core of this interesting book. There we are reacquainted with the likes of Washington Irving, John Burroughs, William Cullen Bryant, the Hudson River School of painters, and James Fenimore Cooper and his famous Natty Bumppo--"the rugged individualist, self-reliant, and morally upright." Tin Lizard Tales reminds us of William Cullen Bryant's, Letters of a Traveler. And reading this chapter stirs images from the likes of Frederic Edwin Church, in his painting Twilight in the Wilderness. Here we appreciate the longstanding American love of nature, to be contrasted with the images of the city as a place of moral corruption, poverty and death. Here we have a romantic journey to the countryside, where "American nature," said Robert Hughes, "was one vast church." We have all prayed in that church. The short description of Mr. Wallace's canoe trip as a young boy with his brother up Soquel Creek in a chapter entitled "Land of the Hudson's Bay Company" stirred the same sense of awe that I had in reading for the first time Twain's description of Lake Tahoe in Roughing It or Hemingway's description of the trout streams in Northern Michigan in The Big Two Hearted River.

This book is worth reading--it has humor, moral instruction, fascinating characters in both beautiful and dangerous places, tossed with some rewarding lessons on anthropology, geography and history. Overall, it brims with personality.

This book is categorized as Travel/Essays. I never buy books on travel or essays.I've never been interested in hearing about someone else's trip or opinions. However, I have been interested in taking a train trip since we lived in Arvada, Colorado in the eighties and Amtrak went practically through our backyard. I thought this book might give me some insight to train travel. It did exactly that, and so much more. Mr. Wallace's book was a delightful surprise. It has everything. If he had taught my history classes way back when, I would have learned a lot more,and definitely would have enjoyed them more. The most pleasant surprise was his humor. It is my favorite type from a writer--low-key and natural;I didn't see it coming. I smiled, I chuckled, and sometimes I laughed out loud.

I talked to myself, out loud,throughout the book: "Well, I'll be darned." "Wow!" "I didn't know that." There were even tears--especially in the chapter about the World Trade Center and the events of 9/11.

I recommend this book as a fun, interesting, informational and educational read. I will be looking forward to more books by this author.

If you have read other personal travel books and found them to essentially the same;you are in for a surprise with this one.
Most travel books just talk about things the author encountered day by day during the journey and become somewhat tedious in the end;but not this one.
Chief Wallace has a great lesson inbedded in this book.Just as much as the background,history,culture,roots etc.are essential in knowing anything about a person;even more so are these things important when travelling from one place to another. Although this trip with his wife took place in March and April 2004;the actual dates are not very important as virtually everything talked about in his book could be talked about,experienced and observed by anyone taking the same trip at this time in the history and development of both the United States and Canada. Though it would be totally impossible to cover every part of these countries in this amount of time;the approach taken by Chief Wallace could and should be taken by anyone who travels.What one should learn from this book is if one just travels from one place to another without thinking about the history and making the kind of observations that the author does ;would be akin hearing the score of a sports event,but not bothering to watch the game.After reading this book,maybe you will stop when coming to a place,and ask yourself a few questions such as,why is this place here?,why is it like this?,what has been it's past?, what is it known for?,what important things have happened here?,have any famous people come from here?, and on and on. Of course all these things can be observed without extensive travelling;but it is sure a shame to visit new and distant places,without even bothering to take time to look for these sorts of things.
Chief Wallace does make a lot of comments on the service,food,hotels,travel,cleaniness,others travelling along with him,but when the trip is over, and all those aggravations are behind one,they become minimal and even humorous.
The author reveals his feelings ,thoughts and ideas on many things as the trip unfolds. He really gets close to the reader in revealing his thoughts as he visited the WTC site, 2 1/2 years after 9/11.
Chief Wallace has seen a lot in his very active life and makes many observations along the way. He writes with an open manner and when you finish the book;you can't help feel that you have come to knowing him,and would be honored to have a chance to meet him.
Let's hope this is not the last book from Chief Wallace, as he is an excellent writer and must have many stories,ideas and thoughts to tell us.

Great book for all train riders, or those who might like to do so. Tales of their travels move right along. Amtrak should read this. Mr. Wallace tells it like it is, and it isn't always as delightful as the Amtrak brochures would have us believe! Nice Christmas gift for anyone.