Rush Home Road: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It stinks of piss in the room..." (more)
Key Phrases: blue plaid blanket, mud lane, walnut squares, Lori Lansens, Mary Alice, Addy Shadd (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Certain novels recall fairy tales. Their heroes are banished, repeatedly challenged, until finally, foes vanquished, they make their triumphant homecoming. Though it opens in 1978 in a Chatham, Ontario, trailer park, Lansens's poignant debut is just such a novel. At its heart is Adelaide Shadd, a 70-year-old black woman who takes in five-year-old Sharla Cody when Sharla's "white trash" mother abandons her. As Addy turns Sharla from a malnourished, heedless child into a healthy, thoughtful girl, she recollects her own past. Addy grew up in Rusholme, a fictional cousin to the many Ontario communities founded by fugitive slaves brought north by the Underground Railroad. By 1908, when Addy is born, Rusholme is settled almost entirely by black farmers and is close to idyllic. But a rape and subsequent pregnancy force Addy to run away from Rusholme (she thinks of it as a command: "Rush home"), not to return for many years. Addy's life her marriage, her children, her journey to Detroit and back to Canada is the rich core of a novel also laden with history: Lansens manages to work in not only the Railroad, but also Prohibition and the Pullman porter movement. This is artfully done, but Lansens doesn't handle the novel's smaller scenes quite as well: she tends to drop narrative threads and confuse chronology. Some readers will resent the repeated plucking of their heartstrings, too, given how much Addy and Sharla suffer. Nonetheless, Lansens has created in Addy a truly noble character, not for what she suffered in the past but for what she does in the novel's present.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As this first novel opens, 70-year-old Addy Shadd is living a peaceful trailer-park existence in the company of down-and-outers like Collette, who leaves her daughter with Addy and then disappears. Five-year-old Sharla is neither lovely nor lovable, and Addy's habit of solitude is hard to break, but as the two outcasts learn to care for each other, they begin healing from the abuse that they have suffered. Memories of Addy's childhood days in Rusholme, a Canadian border town settled by runaway slaves in the 1800s, come rushing back and carry the reader away. Addy recalls intimate details a small brother who died, past lovers, children now gone, and the many people who betrayed her while historical events like the Underground Railroad, the Pullman porter movement, and Prohibition frame her account and reflect some of the hardships suffered by African Americans, even in Canada. Though Addy has led a hard life, her beautiful, gentle spirit, her wise and loving way with Sharla, and an ultimate message of hope redeem the book from melancholy. A beautiful debut; recommended for all public libraries. Jennifer Baker, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316069027
• ISBN-13: 978-0316069021
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #727,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Rushed Home to Read It!, August 9, 2006

By	Mary Lins (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rush Home Road (Paperback)

If you are looking at these reviews in 2006, it may be because you have just read Lori Lansens latest novel, "The Girls" and found it to be so enthralling that you want more more more. That's why I picked up "Rush Home Road", and am I ever glad I did because it is every bit as enthralling, page-turning, heart-wrenching and endearing as "The Girls". This woman can write a story! Maybe it's her experience as a screenplay writer that makes her able to keep you interested, to teach you something you didn't know, and to make you want to know what happens next. I can't wait for her next novel! Brava!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MOVING READING BY AN ACCLAIMED ACTRESS, June 24, 2002

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Rush Home Road (Audio Cassette)

Acclaimed actress Ruby Dee has an enviable roster of credits: she co-starred with Sidney Poitier in several films, and she's an Emmy Award-winner. Miss Dee gives another award winning performance in the reading of this story of a 70-year-old woman who is forced to relive much of her painful past so that she might save a child.

As a child herself living in Rushholme Addy Shadd learned the history of her community, which was settled by runaway slaves in the 1800s. When she is a teenager circumstances compel Addy to leave the home she loves. But, the name of her town becomes a mantra to her: "Rush home, rush home."

Fate intervenes when a five-year-old girl, Sharla Cody, is left at Addy's trailer doorstep. Surely, Addy thinks, she is not up to raising this child, yet she takes the waif into her home and heart. Sharla brings more than a presence into Addy's life, she brings an amazing gift.

- Gail Cooke

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars May make you re-think your next judgment of a person..., August 20, 2002

By	Colorado Cupcake (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This novel is a page turner. I simply could not put it down, and read it all in one day. The story of an old lady with many stories to her life and a little girl with terrible stories of her own. You will want only the best for Addy and Sharla- and burn with the need for justice when the best doesn't always happen. Lori Lansens is a wonderful story teller, I found myself compelled to keep going to find out what would happen next, and sad when I awoke this morning to realize that I had already finished the book and the story was over. It is written in a rather spare style, which makes the events even more poignant. It is non-sentimental, and Addy Shadd is one of the best heroines I had recently read. Five stars is the least award I would give this wonderful book.