The Lost Traveler

by Sanora Babb, Douglas Wixson (Introduction)

An autobiographical novel, long out of print, continues Sanora Babb's story as begun in her memoir, An Owl on Every Post. Set in Kansas in the early 1930s, it is a rich character study of a classic American individualist and his family. The father, a complex and magnetic man, is portrayed from the perspective of his brave and proud daughter, Robin. Against the dark background of his declining fortunes stand Robin's high spirits and intelligence as she experiences the turbulent emotions of first sexual love and rebels against the circumstances of the gambler's rambling life. The novel's depiction of the Great Depression era and its lost families is one that will haunt readers long after the final page. The author's first book manuscript was her Dust Bowl novel Whose Names Are Unknown, which Random House didn't publish because The Grapes of Wrath came out first. Thus, The Lost Traveler, published in 1958, was her first published, and well-received, novel. "There is a good deal of laughter in The Lost Traveler. There is a good deal of tragedy in it, too, for Miss Babb has given us a living and unflinchingly honest picture of a wandering gambler and his family. This is her first novel and she shows herself to be a searching storyteller." New York Times "Strongly recommended. A fascinating story of a professional nomadic gambler who starts by being a hero in the eyes of his wife and daughters and ends in lonely occasionally embarrassing, frequently funny, and as an account of the development of family relationships good by any standards."London Sunday Times ". . . a remarkable job of making the hero sympathetic and understandable in spite of his occupation and occasional brutality. [The author] has made the whole family come alive, particularly Robin, the only member of the family with fortitude enough to stand up to her father." Los Angeles Mirror News

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

301 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Sanora Babb was an American novelist, poet, and literary editor.

Reviews

[CullenWhisenhunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very engaging, very complex family story. More than any book I've read, Lost Traveler does a great job of depicting the process of disillusionment that comes with realizing your parents are as utterly, fallibly human as anyone else. As is the case with much of Babb's work, this is a beautifully-written coming-of-age story, though unlike Whose Names are Unknown or An Owl on Every Post, this tackles the theme from a teenager's perspective.

[C Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sonora Babb is a secret diamond! This is the third book of hers that I have read. All are excellent! I prefer her story of the dust bowl, Whose Names Are Unknown, to Grapes of Wrath.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sanora Babb is a hidden gem. I’m so glad I found her writing.

[Anni Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts out promising. Sanora Babb was doubtlessly a brilliant writer. In this largely autobiorgraphical novel, she deals with family relationships and the fate suffered by a family under the dominance of the father, Des, who is a gambler, often tender with his favorite daughter Stevie, and often brutal with his own wife, Belle. The story is mostly seen through the eyes of the daugher Robin, who has a mind of her own...that is, mostly. The action takes place in Kansas during the depression years. The Tannehill family moves from place to place, wherever Des manages to make money gambling. As most gamblers, he does not gamble honestly, but rather marks the cards and so earns his money cheating. He gets Robin to help him mark the cards, and the reader often wonders why she does not stand up more to her father. Her relationship with him often seems inconsistent, on the one hand yearning to receive his praise, on the other hand rejecting the type of life he is making the whole family live.
Most of the dialogue, especially at the beginning, seems stilted and unconnected. Some of the time, I failed to understand what the characters were really talking about. The mother Belle is a soft and weak character who lets herself be bullied by her husband. The daughter Stevie is her father's favorite, but rejects him in the end.
The last third of the story was charged with tension. Some other parts throughout the book promised that something would happen, but it never did.
I found the ending weak, Des did not seem to have a consistent character and sounded almost "flippant" when he leaves the family in the end.
The book is worth reading, but be prepared for some disappointments.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shouldn't have captured me as it did based upon my current and past preferences for novels. It is a captivating look at family and status and conflict. Characters waver between disparate emotions all within the length of a sentence. I cared for each character and read on hoping to learn more about each.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed Babb’s “An Owl on Every Post”, and some of the descriptive passages in this book share Babb’s gifted writing. However, I was disappointed in the characters of this book. Their monologs and dialogs seemed stilted and unrealistic. The story, which should have been heart-wrenching, simply left me cold. I did finish the book, but I admit to several urges not to.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Babb details the complexities and intimacies of a 1920s midwestern family that is slowly imploding. She touches on many universal themes and some that are unique to the family. There's a whiff of Faulknerism in her writing style - some of the descriptions run long and the dialogue can seem a bit stiff. But overall a valuable addition to the literary canon.

[Carolyn]

DNF, 50 pages in. Not feeling it this time, after loving her first book. The dialogues seem forced and stilted, the story is going in a sad direction and I’m not willing to invest the time. I have too many other books piled up on kindle and my nightstand that I want to try.

[Mary Tuttle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad. But good characterization and clear motivation.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before I began my Big Fat Reading Project, I was doing my Tree Grows in Brooklyn Project: trying to read all the fiction books in the library by working through the authors alphabetically. Which is how I happened to read The Lost Traveler. That was in 1994 and here is what I wrote in my reading log about the book:

Les Tannehil is a professional gambler with a wife and two kids. This is not a good combination and it finally explodes in family violence with Les on the run from the law. The writing is good, not as dreary as Joyce Carol Oates but almost. One daughter, Robin, comes to understandings about life, love and people. The rest are lost in the shuffle.

Since the book was published in 1958, it later made its way onto my reading lists. Today I looked up the author Sanora Babb and wow! She was raised in the Dust Bowl area and her first novel got bumped just before publication because John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath suddenly achieved best seller levels. Her publisher did not think the reading public would buy two books on the same subject!

Here is a great link to the story of Babb's life,(http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obit...) which was more varied, exciting and difficult than any novel. Also I read somewhere else that Robin, the female character in The Lost Traveler, was noted as having more strength and free will than was usual in 1958 fiction. Cool.