Shack Road

by Hallam Whitney

A sharecropper’s women... what a life they led a man!

Callie May, his wife, just couldn’t help being friendly to strangers...a warm friendliness that was forever attracting strangers to her...

May Ellen, his elder daughter, ran away from the cabin on Shack Road to look for a nice, respectable husband..but came running home again on her honeymoon!

Grandma, his mother-in-law, had stories to tell that would make a wild stallion blush...and there was no stopping her when she began talking about her young days!

Lorraine, the younger daughter...she was the real one! Down in Tampa, where she “worked”, or back home on Shack Road, the men couldn’t keep away from her...and whether it was the Colonel, who owned the land the family lived on, or the nice boy May Ellen married, or a chance bill collector who came around...when they saw Lorraine, there was the devil to pay!

168 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

A pseudonym used by Harry Whittington.

Reviews

[L J Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half stars. This is a delightful story taking place in the Deep South. A lay-about farmer finds a car with the key in the ignition on the side of the road. In his usual fashion of thought, he decides that, since the owner hadn’t taken the key, he had just deserted the car. Therefore the car was available to anyone who found it. Of course, it didn’t run but Juba quickly finds that that the carburetor is bad and, using his mule, drags the car to his farm. Now to replace the carburetor… well, that will cost sixteen dollars and Juba hasn’t seen that kind of money in many years. The rest of the novel describes Juba’s actions in hopes of finding that money. This doesn’t sound like too engaging of a plot, but it’s a blast.

[Randy Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fast-Moving And Entertaining Southern Gothic

Set in rural Florida, Shack Road is the story of failed sharecropper Juba Pray and his family during a tumultuous 24 hours. The story begins when Juba finds an abandoned car by the side of road and convinces himself that if he can get it home and get it running, every aspect of his life will change for the better. There follows a series of events that make for an entertaining and often funny tale. Hallam Whitney is a pseudonym of Harry Whittington, one of the most prolific writers of post-war pulp paperbacks, and this is one of Whittington’s lighter tales. There are no murders or beatings or any other violent crimes and there’s only a little sex at the end (where it suddenly seems to be the solution to a lot of problems). I’ve never read Tobacco Road, but given the title, the characters and the setting, I’m assuming this is meant to be what I’ll politely call an homage to that more famous novel. It’s a short novel, easily read in a day, so it’s perfect for a long bus, train or plane ride. You may not learn anything by reading it, but you will be entertained for a few hours.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much of a crime novel per se and not all that good. If you need to read more books like Caldwell's Tobacco Road or Faulkner's (John, not William) Cabin Road, you might enjoy it more than I did. Still, I would rather read a bad novel by an otherwise good writer like Harry Whittington than just any bad Tobacco Road rip-off. Like Charles' Williams Diamond Bikini and Uncle Sagamore's Girls.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whittington's country pulp.

[Victor Whitman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this story of man who thinks his life will turn around only if he can scrounge the money to buy a carburetor for the broken down Caddy he finds by the side of the road.