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Pelican Road
From the acclaimed author of The Judas Field, a beautiful and haunting portrait of the men who served on the great American railroads.
It’s Christmas Eve, 1940. Along an isolated stretch of railway between Meridian, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana, two locomotives travel toward one another through the dark winter landscape. A.P. Dunn, engineer aboard the 4512 southbound freight, reminisces about the last trip he made through the snow. And though he can remember every detail about that voyage in 1923, what he can’t recall are the events of a few hours ago — where he ate breakfast, how he got the gash on his forehead, or what he did to make his crew treat him so strangely.
On the northbound Silver Star, a luxury passenger train packed with returning college students and gift-bearing families, brakeman Artemus Kane has his own memories to contend with: French trenches and German snipers, a failed marriage, and a too-short layover spent with Anna, the brilliant and lonely woman he has just left behind in the Crescent City.
In Pelican Road, Howard Bahr returns to his greatest theme — the tragic nobility of those attempting to overcome difficult situations through love, honor, and sacrifice — and shows that on the railway, catastrophe is never more than a distracted moment away.
It’s Christmas Eve, 1940. Along an isolated stretch of railway between Meridian, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana, two locomotives travel toward one another through the dark winter landscape. A.P. Dunn, engineer aboard the 4512 southbound freight, reminisces about the last trip he made through the snow. And though he can remember every detail about that voyage in 1923, what he can’t recall are the events of a few hours ago — where he ate breakfast, how he got the gash on his forehead, or what he did to make his crew treat him so strangely.
On the northbound Silver Star, a luxury passenger train packed with returning college students and gift-bearing families, brakeman Artemus Kane has his own memories to contend with: French trenches and German snipers, a failed marriage, and a too-short layover spent with Anna, the brilliant and lonely woman he has just left behind in the Crescent City.
In Pelican Road, Howard Bahr returns to his greatest theme — the tragic nobility of those attempting to overcome difficult situations through love, honor, and sacrifice — and shows that on the railway, catastrophe is never more than a distracted moment away.
299 pages, Hardcover
First published May 9, 2008
13 people are currently reading
238 people want to read
About the author
Howard Bahr
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Howard Bahr (1946- ) is an American novelist, born in Meridian, Mississippi. Bahr, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and then worked for several years on the railroads, enrolled at the University of Mississippi in the early 1970s when he was in his late 20s. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Ole Miss and served as the curator of the William Faulkner house, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi for nearly twenty years. He also taught American literature during much of this time at the University of Mississippi. In 1993, he became an instructor of English at Motlow State College in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where he worked until 2006. Bahr is the author of three critically acclaimed novels centering around the American Civil War. He currently resides in Jackson, Mississippi, and teaches courses in creative writing at Belhaven College.
Bahr began his writing career in the 1970s, writing both fiction and non-fiction articles that appeared in publications such as Southern Living, Civil War Times Illustrated, as well as the short-lived regional publication, Lagniappe (1974-75) which he and Franklin Walker co-edited. His first published book, a children's story entitled Home for Christmas, came out in 1987 and was re-published in 1997 in a different edition (with new illustrations) following the release of his first novel, The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War. This latter book, set during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee in 1864, was nominated for a number of national awards, including from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gettysburg College, and the Book-of-the-Month Club, and was a New York Times Notable Book, but its release was somewhat overshadowed by the release at the same time of the bestseller, Cold Mountain.
In 2000, Bahr's second novel, The Year of Jubilo, was released. This novel, set in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War in the fictional Mississippi town of Cumberland, deals with the dehumanizing effects of war and its aftermath on Southern society. The Year of Jubilo, like The Black Flower, was a New York Times Notable Book.
Bahr's third novel, The Judas Field, was released in 2006. In The Judas Field, Bahr again returns to the Battle of Franklin theme, but this time it is through the eyes of one of its participants, again from Cumberland, who travels back to the battlefield in the 1880s to recover the body of one of the fallen, and, in doing so, relives the horror of that fateful day in 1864.
Howard Bahr is a Freemason, having served as Master of the Lodge while he was in Oxford. He is also a member of the Episcopal Church.
Jump to: navigation, search
Howard Bahr (1946- ) is an American novelist, born in Meridian, Mississippi. Bahr, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and then worked for several years on the railroads, enrolled at the University of Mississippi in the early 1970s when he was in his late 20s. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Ole Miss and served as the curator of the William Faulkner house, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi for nearly twenty years. He also taught American literature during much of this time at the University of Mississippi. In 1993, he became an instructor of English at Motlow State College in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where he worked until 2006. Bahr is the author of three critically acclaimed novels centering around the American Civil War. He currently resides in Jackson, Mississippi, and teaches courses in creative writing at Belhaven College.
Bahr began his writing career in the 1970s, writing both fiction and non-fiction articles that appeared in publications such as Southern Living, Civil War Times Illustrated, as well as the short-lived regional publication, Lagniappe (1974-75) which he and Franklin Walker co-edited. His first published book, a children's story entitled Home for Christmas, came out in 1987 and was re-published in 1997 in a different edition (with new illustrations) following the release of his first novel, The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War. This latter book, set during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee in 1864, was nominated for a number of national awards, including from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gettysburg College, and the Book-of-the-Month Club, and was a New York Times Notable Book, but its release was somewhat overshadowed by the release at the same time of the bestseller, Cold Mountain.
In 2000, Bahr's second novel, The Year of Jubilo, was released. This novel, set in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War in the fictional Mississippi town of Cumberland, deals with the dehumanizing effects of war and its aftermath on Southern society. The Year of Jubilo, like The Black Flower, was a New York Times Notable Book.
Bahr's third novel, The Judas Field, was released in 2006. In The Judas Field, Bahr again returns to the Battle of Franklin theme, but this time it is through the eyes of one of its participants, again from Cumberland, who travels back to the battlefield in the 1880s to recover the body of one of the fallen, and, in doing so, relives the horror of that fateful day in 1864.
Howard Bahr is a Freemason, having served as Master of the Lodge while he was in Oxford. He is also a member of the Episcopal Church.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
December 7, 2016
This book starts out slowly, just like a locomotive chugging along, then picks up speed as it goes, until at the very end you are reading as fast as you can, just to get to the ending that you knew all along would happen, just the way it did. And then you still can't believe it.
While you're reading, you get to know these men who work the railroad between New Orleans and Meridian, MS. The old pros who've been there forever, the young kids trying to get a start, the middle aged guys who watch both ends of the spectrum just to make sure everyone is paying attention. Because paying attention is important, and a lapse of just a few seconds can get you killed, along with a lot of others who have put their lives in your hands without giving it a second thought, because they trust you to do your job.
"Men died for a moment lost, or because they were tired and misread a train order in the dark. Time was everything, and trust was everything. Graveyards were full of men who were there because they hadn't paid attention, or because somebody else hadn't. That's why you had to do right, for every man had the lives of others in his hands. Still, they were only men, flawed, sometimes hungover, usually tired, often distracted, and the wonder was that someone was not killed every day."
In Howard Bahr's hands these men become bigger than life, who take responsibilities seriously and do what is needed, because that's what it means to take pride in a job well done.
"The world the railway men inhabited was an alien masculine world with a language all its own - the runic timetables, the peculiar idioms, the complicated rules. Artemus thought of himself and his comrades as the last tragic heroes, traveling forever into the darkness, forever apart, with nothing for their passage but a hint of coal smoke."
I loved this book, these men, the locomotives, and boxcars, and passenger trains that became characters themselves. The setting was 1940, in a time before computers took over the thinking and decisions, when doing the right thing mattered. It still matters for a lot of us.
While you're reading, you get to know these men who work the railroad between New Orleans and Meridian, MS. The old pros who've been there forever, the young kids trying to get a start, the middle aged guys who watch both ends of the spectrum just to make sure everyone is paying attention. Because paying attention is important, and a lapse of just a few seconds can get you killed, along with a lot of others who have put their lives in your hands without giving it a second thought, because they trust you to do your job.
"Men died for a moment lost, or because they were tired and misread a train order in the dark. Time was everything, and trust was everything. Graveyards were full of men who were there because they hadn't paid attention, or because somebody else hadn't. That's why you had to do right, for every man had the lives of others in his hands. Still, they were only men, flawed, sometimes hungover, usually tired, often distracted, and the wonder was that someone was not killed every day."
In Howard Bahr's hands these men become bigger than life, who take responsibilities seriously and do what is needed, because that's what it means to take pride in a job well done.
"The world the railway men inhabited was an alien masculine world with a language all its own - the runic timetables, the peculiar idioms, the complicated rules. Artemus thought of himself and his comrades as the last tragic heroes, traveling forever into the darkness, forever apart, with nothing for their passage but a hint of coal smoke."
I loved this book, these men, the locomotives, and boxcars, and passenger trains that became characters themselves. The setting was 1940, in a time before computers took over the thinking and decisions, when doing the right thing mattered. It still matters for a lot of us.
August 21, 2023
This writing style fit. The novel centers on the work, and yet the very souls of the many men working Pelican Road, which is the railroad line between New Orleans and Meridian MS during the early and mid-20th century. It's one of those intensely railroad paradigm books and also holds context and minutia of the Southern railroad men who defined themselves as just that. First and always, railroad men and with their job function- both.
Bahr does a 5 star job of writing. It starts out slow and there are so many characters of interchange and dialect name; that is where it lost the star with me. Yet, it completely holds your interest, although several times I needed to self-review. Who is retired now or next? Who is spoken of in memory? Who is this one's boss? That kind of thing. I read this in different decades, but not the entire. I remember I had to have it back and the dire and horrific accidents pulled me up short. This time I did finish and had much improved context.
Tremendous flavor of detail! Both for the men and their equipment. And just like working on a aircraft carrier, you absolutely require to not lose your awareness of where you stand, move, sit etc. Not for a moment. Day dreaming or just plain instant length by-thought of distraction can cost you life or limb. And often did. Still does today. Lifting piggy backs or changing tires on that equipment or any loading/unloading is dangerous work now. Heavily weighted moving objects may hold no ill motives, but they kill more easily for the fact.
Railroads and the men who made the railroads their lives! Exceptions. During my lifetime in the USA they have been exempted from Social Security and have their own special pensions too. And widows hold railroad medical insurance until remarriage or their own deaths.
Read this book and you'll understand why and the strong self-identity to their work.
Bahr does a 5 star job of writing. It starts out slow and there are so many characters of interchange and dialect name; that is where it lost the star with me. Yet, it completely holds your interest, although several times I needed to self-review. Who is retired now or next? Who is spoken of in memory? Who is this one's boss? That kind of thing. I read this in different decades, but not the entire. I remember I had to have it back and the dire and horrific accidents pulled me up short. This time I did finish and had much improved context.
Tremendous flavor of detail! Both for the men and their equipment. And just like working on a aircraft carrier, you absolutely require to not lose your awareness of where you stand, move, sit etc. Not for a moment. Day dreaming or just plain instant length by-thought of distraction can cost you life or limb. And often did. Still does today. Lifting piggy backs or changing tires on that equipment or any loading/unloading is dangerous work now. Heavily weighted moving objects may hold no ill motives, but they kill more easily for the fact.
Railroads and the men who made the railroads their lives! Exceptions. During my lifetime in the USA they have been exempted from Social Security and have their own special pensions too. And widows hold railroad medical insurance until remarriage or their own deaths.
Read this book and you'll understand why and the strong self-identity to their work.
December 17, 2016
I’ve been wanting to read Howard Bahr’s books for a long time but it wasn’t until Diane at the Goodreads On the Southern Literary Trail group chose Pelican Road as a group selection that I finally had a chance to read and discuss one with others, so thank you ma’am for that.
If you are in any way interested in trains, this is the book for you. It even reads like a train ride, starting out slowly with lots of fits and starts, then building up steam until soon it is barreling along at a break-neck pace closing in relentlessly on its inevitable final destination. We meet many people on our journey, most of them train crewmen, but even in the midst of their shared camaraderie there is a sense of loneliness. It is Christmas Eve and everyone else is rushing home to be with their families for the holidays. But not Frank Smith, or A.P. Dunn, or Eddie Cox, the fireman making his last run before retiring, or Bobby Necaise, or Artemus Kane or even Ira Nussbaum, the irascible conductor who is as determined as any to get his passengers home safely.
Theirs was a dangerous job. The slightest lapse in attention could cause a trainman a finger, if he is lucky, or his life if he wasn’t. To successfully run a railroad, with multiple trains running in different directions at different speeds required intricate timing where a error in judgement could spell disaster.
And so the tension builds. The reader knows that disaster looms ahead. But can the eminently capable train crews avert disaster? Who is to say? Howard Bahr, of course.
Bottom line: This book holds few surprises but it is still very enjoyable. Bahr’s prose and descriptive ability is magnificent. I am very interested in reading his Civil War trilogy starting with The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War.
✭✭✭✭✭
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
If you are in any way interested in trains, this is the book for you. It even reads like a train ride, starting out slowly with lots of fits and starts, then building up steam until soon it is barreling along at a break-neck pace closing in relentlessly on its inevitable final destination. We meet many people on our journey, most of them train crewmen, but even in the midst of their shared camaraderie there is a sense of loneliness. It is Christmas Eve and everyone else is rushing home to be with their families for the holidays. But not Frank Smith, or A.P. Dunn, or Eddie Cox, the fireman making his last run before retiring, or Bobby Necaise, or Artemus Kane or even Ira Nussbaum, the irascible conductor who is as determined as any to get his passengers home safely.
Theirs was a dangerous job. The slightest lapse in attention could cause a trainman a finger, if he is lucky, or his life if he wasn’t. To successfully run a railroad, with multiple trains running in different directions at different speeds required intricate timing where a error in judgement could spell disaster.
And so the tension builds. The reader knows that disaster looms ahead. But can the eminently capable train crews avert disaster? Who is to say? Howard Bahr, of course.
Bottom line: This book holds few surprises but it is still very enjoyable. Bahr’s prose and descriptive ability is magnificent. I am very interested in reading his Civil War trilogy starting with The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War.
✭✭✭✭✭
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
December 12, 2016
Pelican Road is a screaming train ride of a book, with sharp curves and downhill grades that are taken at breakneck speeds, but it is a not a train you want to stop and not a train you wish to alight from until the bitter end. It follows the world of steam engine trains on the cusp of WWII and the men who run the route between Louisiana and Mississippi, most of them aging as are the trains themselves.
There was an added level of enjoyment for me, brought about by the fact of my brother being a railroad man back in the days when telegraph was still the method of communication and when handing off messages to the moving trains was still a practice. I have heard his stories of traveling the railways and staying the small towns up and down the Eastern Seaboard. I recognized some of the language and, while the time portrayed here is far earlier than my brother’s time, I could recognize the special camaraderie he felt with his fellow railroad men.
I cared about all of these men, flawed as they were, and loved them for their devotion to the job and to one another. I especially felt the connection to Artemus and Frank and thought the flashbacks to their war days added a level of depth and understanding to them that would have missed without that background.
What an amazing writer Howard Bahr is. His descriptive passages are remarkable in their ability to touch all your senses. At the same time, I felt no word was unnecessary or wasted. There was meaning in every sentence. Bahr is a careful writer, he is as careful and professional with his craft as those men he portrayed on the Pelican Road were with theirs.
There was an added level of enjoyment for me, brought about by the fact of my brother being a railroad man back in the days when telegraph was still the method of communication and when handing off messages to the moving trains was still a practice. I have heard his stories of traveling the railways and staying the small towns up and down the Eastern Seaboard. I recognized some of the language and, while the time portrayed here is far earlier than my brother’s time, I could recognize the special camaraderie he felt with his fellow railroad men.
I cared about all of these men, flawed as they were, and loved them for their devotion to the job and to one another. I especially felt the connection to Artemus and Frank and thought the flashbacks to their war days added a level of depth and understanding to them that would have missed without that background.
What an amazing writer Howard Bahr is. His descriptive passages are remarkable in their ability to touch all your senses. At the same time, I felt no word was unnecessary or wasted. There was meaning in every sentence. Bahr is a careful writer, he is as careful and professional with his craft as those men he portrayed on the Pelican Road were with theirs.
January 9, 2017
A Bookclub choice I enjoyed much more than expected, about a train catastrophe in the 1940's, and the men who spent their lives laboring aboard the great steam engined " beasts."
Howard Behr is a poetic writer whose words truly bring the page to life. I'm looking forward to reading his other books which focus mainly on the Civil War.
Read for On The Southern Literary Trail- 4.5 stars
Howard Behr is a poetic writer whose words truly bring the page to life. I'm looking forward to reading his other books which focus mainly on the Civil War.
Read for On The Southern Literary Trail- 4.5 stars
December 28, 2023
Anyone who appreciates great, atmospheric prose is likely to love this book. It’s a story both temporal, of the moment — and yet timeless, reflecting the evanescent nature of the lives of men. A sensory journey into 1941 Louisiana, in company with a group of men who are entirely captives of a railroad and the environment it creates. It’s a deeply immersive book, steeped in the experiences of these men; and the women who wait for them — or not. Deeply evocative scenes, both bucolic and horrific.
On their own, the half-dozen paragraphs that open the chapter titled “Crescent City” constitute a minor masterpiece, some of the finest prose I’ve encountered in a long time; and the entire chapter titled “Sweet Pearl River” is equally good.
One of the men we’re introduced to is Donny Luttrell, a lone telegraphist consigned to an isolated station deep in the piney woods, where once had existed a small town:
“Donny wondered about the town that once lay here, and the people who had dwelt in it, and if any of them ever suspected, in their own deep winters, that all they had built would vanish into silence. Of course they did, he thought. They had no illusions, for the evidence lay not only in their own lives, but in the old wisdom of man that told them all their striving would come to this: a few bricks, an old safe, a burying ground hidden in the vines and no one to look upon it but the high circling birds. The virtue, however, lay not in their knowing, but in their refusal to yield to what they knew. Men strove and strove, and it all came to naught, but no matter, for only in their striving could they prove themselves worthy of anything.”
The book grew on me, chapter by chapter and I found myself slowing down every so often, to marinate in the mellowness of that world, finding myself ensconced in a corner of a caboose, surrounded by the smell of hot brakes, grease, damp wool, stale coffee. Or steaming along in style, at the height of sophisticated travel on a luxury express in the heyday of rail travel. And then, the pace further picks up near the end, rushing toward the inevitable conclusion that we all knew was to come.
Howard Barr is a writer entirely new to me. My thanks to fellow reader Sara, whose review pointed the way to this book. This was a perfect choice to finish off my year of reading.
On their own, the half-dozen paragraphs that open the chapter titled “Crescent City” constitute a minor masterpiece, some of the finest prose I’ve encountered in a long time; and the entire chapter titled “Sweet Pearl River” is equally good.
One of the men we’re introduced to is Donny Luttrell, a lone telegraphist consigned to an isolated station deep in the piney woods, where once had existed a small town:
“Donny wondered about the town that once lay here, and the people who had dwelt in it, and if any of them ever suspected, in their own deep winters, that all they had built would vanish into silence. Of course they did, he thought. They had no illusions, for the evidence lay not only in their own lives, but in the old wisdom of man that told them all their striving would come to this: a few bricks, an old safe, a burying ground hidden in the vines and no one to look upon it but the high circling birds. The virtue, however, lay not in their knowing, but in their refusal to yield to what they knew. Men strove and strove, and it all came to naught, but no matter, for only in their striving could they prove themselves worthy of anything.”
The book grew on me, chapter by chapter and I found myself slowing down every so often, to marinate in the mellowness of that world, finding myself ensconced in a corner of a caboose, surrounded by the smell of hot brakes, grease, damp wool, stale coffee. Or steaming along in style, at the height of sophisticated travel on a luxury express in the heyday of rail travel. And then, the pace further picks up near the end, rushing toward the inevitable conclusion that we all knew was to come.
Howard Barr is a writer entirely new to me. My thanks to fellow reader Sara, whose review pointed the way to this book. This was a perfect choice to finish off my year of reading.
December 14, 2018
Beautiful. Eloquent. Suspenseful. Haunting. Another first-rate offering from Howard Bahr.
Full review to follow.
Full review to follow.
January 23, 2018
"Pelican Road, whence the train had come and to which it would soon return, was the name given to the two hundred and seven miles of ballasted heavyweight main line rail between Meridian, Mississippi and New Orleans. The name had always been there, older than any of the men who worked on it now."
Such begins the journey on Pelican Road shortly before World War II as we begin to know the railroad men of the Southern Railroad Company with the primary focus on the Silver Star, a streamlined passenger train with the illusion of safety and contentment. "Only the trainmen understood that luck was their sole protection, and that any train - even the Silver Star - could run out of it." Many of these men fought in the Great War so there are many comparisons and flashbacks to those experiences. There is also the development of the character of the trainmen on the steam engine running on Pelican Road to New Orleans that Christmas Eve 1940 as well.
The writing was not only very descriptive and haunting but had the wonderful rhythm of a train and as it steamed forward to its stunning conclusion, the rhythm becomes faster and faster. I found myself racing through this book, even though you know the tragic outcome. I have always loved trains since I was a child sitting in the railway station listening to my grandfather's stories of when he worked for the Rio Grande Railroad and that could be why these men meant so much to me.
Such begins the journey on Pelican Road shortly before World War II as we begin to know the railroad men of the Southern Railroad Company with the primary focus on the Silver Star, a streamlined passenger train with the illusion of safety and contentment. "Only the trainmen understood that luck was their sole protection, and that any train - even the Silver Star - could run out of it." Many of these men fought in the Great War so there are many comparisons and flashbacks to those experiences. There is also the development of the character of the trainmen on the steam engine running on Pelican Road to New Orleans that Christmas Eve 1940 as well.
The writing was not only very descriptive and haunting but had the wonderful rhythm of a train and as it steamed forward to its stunning conclusion, the rhythm becomes faster and faster. I found myself racing through this book, even though you know the tragic outcome. I have always loved trains since I was a child sitting in the railway station listening to my grandfather's stories of when he worked for the Rio Grande Railroad and that could be why these men meant so much to me.
January 23, 2011
This is a well-crafted story of railroad men and passengers traveling on Christmas Eve 1940 on 2 different trains on the
Pelican Road line that runs between Meridian MS and New Orleans LA.
These trains and all who are aboard them are unknowlingly headed toward one another on the same track. Pelican Road is the story of several of the people on these trains and the how and the why of this catastrophe waiting to happen?
Howard Bahr's writing is like very well-crafted music. The rhythm and flow of the story and the characters were so captivating. The story flows between characters on both trains, between their memories of the past and their present-day issues and situations and the fact that both trains are running late.
It's a very haunting story with a much-too-abrupt ending, in my opinion. That's why I gave it the 3-star rating.
Pelican Road line that runs between Meridian MS and New Orleans LA.
These trains and all who are aboard them are unknowlingly headed toward one another on the same track. Pelican Road is the story of several of the people on these trains and the how and the why of this catastrophe waiting to happen?
Howard Bahr's writing is like very well-crafted music. The rhythm and flow of the story and the characters were so captivating. The story flows between characters on both trains, between their memories of the past and their present-day issues and situations and the fact that both trains are running late.
It's a very haunting story with a much-too-abrupt ending, in my opinion. That's why I gave it the 3-star rating.
August 21, 2023
3.5 rounded up to 4.
The writing was really good but the story itself was slow. Strong character driven story. It felt like I was reading a narrative non-fic story, I had to keep checking that it was ficiton.
The writing was really good but the story itself was slow. Strong character driven story. It felt like I was reading a narrative non-fic story, I had to keep checking that it was ficiton.
August 26, 2013
I accidentally left 'Coldwater Revival' by Nancy Jo Jenkins at home as I dashed out the door for a week on the shores of sparkling Lake Chelan. So, hmm... what do do?
The only solution was to head out for a shopping spree and a visit to Riverwalk Books. A stroll along the sidewalks of main street Chelan is a summer's day delight.
As I pecked through the published pods, Pelican Road came to my attention. Why? A) New Orleans B) The specter of a train wreck.
A) I'm from New Orleans [Slidell, specifically] - and with a total lack of Southern-Smooth I was transplanted to Seattle midway through high school, thus interrupting a glorious social network. B) My grandfather was killed at a railroad crossing on his way home from work in 1955 - at midnight. It was the midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The result was haunting, with the Christmas tree glowing in my grandmother's parlor like a beacon beckoning us to cross to the unknown. (Oops! I'm easily drawn off-track!)
Anyhow, I'm now on page 7 of Pelican Road which to my delight mentions Slidell. I'm thinking about New Orleans in the 1940s - Page 1, I laughed. I'm not sure why the author began the novel with a letter from a young woman as a prologue, but now that I've gotten through the back story and progressed past the first several pages of Chapter One I am settling in, happy with my choice of book.
Style? Think Saramago with his lengthy, meandering sentences and vivid sights, sounds, and smells. Bahr describes the smell from the brine of pickles, and the sight of long-dead leeches in a apothecary jar bearing the emblem of the Confederacy.
--- pg. 55 -- June Watson just died in the coupling accident. The mockingbird sang. It was so sad, so well paced.
***
On Christmas morning, 1955, a train hit the car my grandfather was driving. He was on his way home from work to unwrap presents with my grandmother and their daughter. The wreckage decorated 500 feet of railroad track outside Hillsboro, Ohio.
That’s why I’m reading ‘Pelican Road’ by Howard Bahr.
How many lives (in our family) were changed that day, I’ve often wondered. But I never – until now – gave one iota of thought to the lives of the railroad crew.
Within one year, because of whatever psychic trauma involved, my mother and I began seeing my grandfather's ghost. His apparition would pass in and out of our lives for nearly forty years. After my parents died we children left behind, for other owners to deal with, the house that his ghost inhabited. That house has sold four times in the last six years. That’s true.
So now, and for whatever ‘goes around, comes around’ synchronicity of life, I find myself reading about the lives of the railroad workers on an ill-fated ride to Death, and wonder again about that Christmas morning 1955 and how many more lives were changed than I imagined back then as a five-year old missing my grandfather – on Christmas morning.
page 107
***
page 240: Hours later, when he finds sleep at last, Mr. Dunn dreams of a monstrous shape, black under the pale moon, shrieking through the maw of hell's own furnace, while a great bell tolls and tolls for the lost lives of men. [oh my!! Snooki's bio - as I keep repeating - has NO best seller cache on THIS title.]
The only solution was to head out for a shopping spree and a visit to Riverwalk Books. A stroll along the sidewalks of main street Chelan is a summer's day delight.
As I pecked through the published pods, Pelican Road came to my attention. Why? A) New Orleans B) The specter of a train wreck.
A) I'm from New Orleans [Slidell, specifically] - and with a total lack of Southern-Smooth I was transplanted to Seattle midway through high school, thus interrupting a glorious social network. B) My grandfather was killed at a railroad crossing on his way home from work in 1955 - at midnight. It was the midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The result was haunting, with the Christmas tree glowing in my grandmother's parlor like a beacon beckoning us to cross to the unknown. (Oops! I'm easily drawn off-track!)
Anyhow, I'm now on page 7 of Pelican Road which to my delight mentions Slidell. I'm thinking about New Orleans in the 1940s - Page 1, I laughed. I'm not sure why the author began the novel with a letter from a young woman as a prologue, but now that I've gotten through the back story and progressed past the first several pages of Chapter One I am settling in, happy with my choice of book.
Style? Think Saramago with his lengthy, meandering sentences and vivid sights, sounds, and smells. Bahr describes the smell from the brine of pickles, and the sight of long-dead leeches in a apothecary jar bearing the emblem of the Confederacy.
--- pg. 55 -- June Watson just died in the coupling accident. The mockingbird sang. It was so sad, so well paced.
***
On Christmas morning, 1955, a train hit the car my grandfather was driving. He was on his way home from work to unwrap presents with my grandmother and their daughter. The wreckage decorated 500 feet of railroad track outside Hillsboro, Ohio.
That’s why I’m reading ‘Pelican Road’ by Howard Bahr.
How many lives (in our family) were changed that day, I’ve often wondered. But I never – until now – gave one iota of thought to the lives of the railroad crew.
Within one year, because of whatever psychic trauma involved, my mother and I began seeing my grandfather's ghost. His apparition would pass in and out of our lives for nearly forty years. After my parents died we children left behind, for other owners to deal with, the house that his ghost inhabited. That house has sold four times in the last six years. That’s true.
So now, and for whatever ‘goes around, comes around’ synchronicity of life, I find myself reading about the lives of the railroad workers on an ill-fated ride to Death, and wonder again about that Christmas morning 1955 and how many more lives were changed than I imagined back then as a five-year old missing my grandfather – on Christmas morning.
page 107
***
page 240: Hours later, when he finds sleep at last, Mr. Dunn dreams of a monstrous shape, black under the pale moon, shrieking through the maw of hell's own furnace, while a great bell tolls and tolls for the lost lives of men. [oh my!! Snooki's bio - as I keep repeating - has NO best seller cache on THIS title.]
January 3, 2012
I like reading about trains--usually the stories have to do with the passengers but this one centered around the men who run the trains. It was a moving story with lots of good character development and even though the ending was inevitable, it was a great ride till the end.
Going forward in 2012, I have decided that I will base my star rating on whether or not a book has made me change the way I think about everyday things or events. Having said that, I will never look at trains the same way again. They are powerful, dangerous machines. . .
Going forward in 2012, I have decided that I will base my star rating on whether or not a book has made me change the way I think about everyday things or events. Having said that, I will never look at trains the same way again. They are powerful, dangerous machines. . .
November 15, 2012
I finished this book two weeks ago and was going to only give it 3 stars, in spite of Howard Bahr being one of my favorite authors. I felt that even though the characters were richly realized, the story (or various stories) was just too fractured and didn't have enough narrative flow. But I'm still thinking about those characters--and stories-- two weeks later. I think that deserves 4 stars.
August 17, 2012
Had this not been by Howard Bahr, I would probably have never purchased it, but having loved all of his other work I thought I'd give it a try. As always, his characterizations are wonderful and the writing just short of poetry. I never thought a novel about railroadmen in the early twentieth century would hold my attention, but this is well worth reading.
February 10, 2009
I really liked this slow moving but beautifully written book about life on the railroad in Missippi and Louisiana in the 1940's. Very evocative of the era, thoughtful about relations between men and women, and between races.
September 6, 2008
One of the better books I have read in a while. The characters were well developed and grabbed me right from the beginning.
October 7, 2008
This guy can write. Should be a pleasure for anyone who loves the language. A bonus for geezerly types such as I, who actually remember the era of steam railroading
January 21, 2013
This book was pretty good until the pages ran out before the story ended.
Read
January 1, 2019Beautiful, intentional prose. A story glimmering with quiet, poignant moments. Yet I struggled to find my footing with the characters. We were introduced to so many in quick succession that I found it easy to confuse them, especially when the narrative shifts POV, time, place. Artemus Kane was the most memorable, which I attribute largely to the fact that he receives the most thorough introduction in the text. Overall, the book has a strong sense of atmosphere and what I can only assume is an impeccable portrayal of railroad life and terminology.
January 1, 2021
Just as 2020 was racing towards it's inevitable and long awaited finish, so too were the 4512 and the Silver Star and the many men (beautiful and tragic backstories that were a little difficult to keep track of) who made them run. Not the most cheery story to read at the end of 2020, but as usual, the beautiful writing made it worth it.
February 5, 2017
I am not sure how I feel about this book. I finished it a few minutes ago and am not sure whether to give it three or four stars. At this time I am giving it three stars but may come back and change it after I have had more time to think about it and hopefully give a more thorough review.
June 16, 2018
I am breathless from the ride.
I was recommended this book as a glimpse into the railroading life of my great grandfather. I did not expect the juxtaposition of train info with the weaving of all the characters. BRAVO!
I was recommended this book as a glimpse into the railroading life of my great grandfather. I did not expect the juxtaposition of train info with the weaving of all the characters. BRAVO!
February 17, 2020
Good read
Liked the railroading lore, its history, and the terminology and slang that made the railroaders world. Also the stories of the individual characters brought deeper texture into the storyline the Pelican Road.
Liked the railroading lore, its history, and the terminology and slang that made the railroaders world. Also the stories of the individual characters brought deeper texture into the storyline the Pelican Road.
May 15, 2017
Compelling story. Superb writing.
February 27, 2021
A cast of memorable characters woven masterfully and mystically into a great American story. I won’t say more because I wouldn’t want to reveal a single surprise.
December 17, 2022
This was a Great Read - Railroading at Christmas time in 1940
July 27, 2024
Read in 2011.
I didn’t like the writing style, characters, or plot.
I didn’t like the writing style, characters, or plot.
September 15, 2024
I really wanted to like this more than I did. The prose is poetic, the epic story sprawls, and the attention to historical and operational detail as to the operation of locomotives in the early 40s is near Melville-ian. But, and this just happens sometimes, the mannered prose kept me outside. I was never able to immerse myself in this novel. It's clearly an impressive accomplishment. I'd consider reading it again sometime.
November 10, 2009
Cast of Characters....
Artemus Kane-brakeman of the Silver Star. Failed marriage. Girlfriend Anna Rose Dangerfield. Brother Gideon. In the war.
A.P. Dunn-engineer of freight train. Has bouts of memory loss.
Eddie Cox-Engine maintenance black man
Frank Smith-was in the war with Artemus, smart, conductor of the freight train. Has 2 daughters Iris and Dahlia. Wife Maggie left him.
Ira Nussbaum-conductor of the Silver Star
Special Agent Hermann Schreiber-Hido-Detective on the southern.
Roy Jack Lucas-Detective on the southern
June Watson-black man caught in the train coupler and Roy Jack pulls the pin and he dies.Willie Wine is his brother
Earl January-a carman on the freight train. Has a daughter Pearl River
George Watson-hiding out on the freight train running from the law. Also known as sweet willie wine
Donnie Lutrell is the college student who quits school and joins the railroad workforce.
Story about a freight train and a passenger train and the people who work on them. The setting is the deep south, Mississippi to Louisiana at the beginning of WWII.
I read all 10 reviews on Amazon about this book and I'm amazed. This just might not be my type of book. The reviews rave about how beautifully written this book is. My beautiful and their beautiful don't jive. First of all, the first half of the book is focused on the development of the characters. A lame attempt. I don't think there was much development. I had a difficult time keeping them straight. To me, some of this did not have much relevance to the main plot. A lot of words with little substance. It didn't help that the author bounced back and forth between present and past and I had a hard time figuring out what time it was. On a positive note, I did enjoy the train part of the story. Trains fascinate me. Other than that though, I had a hard time getting thru this book. Glad I'm done.
Artemus Kane-brakeman of the Silver Star. Failed marriage. Girlfriend Anna Rose Dangerfield. Brother Gideon. In the war.
A.P. Dunn-engineer of freight train. Has bouts of memory loss.
Eddie Cox-Engine maintenance black man
Frank Smith-was in the war with Artemus, smart, conductor of the freight train. Has 2 daughters Iris and Dahlia. Wife Maggie left him.
Ira Nussbaum-conductor of the Silver Star
Special Agent Hermann Schreiber-Hido-Detective on the southern.
Roy Jack Lucas-Detective on the southern
June Watson-black man caught in the train coupler and Roy Jack pulls the pin and he dies.Willie Wine is his brother
Earl January-a carman on the freight train. Has a daughter Pearl River
George Watson-hiding out on the freight train running from the law. Also known as sweet willie wine
Donnie Lutrell is the college student who quits school and joins the railroad workforce.
Story about a freight train and a passenger train and the people who work on them. The setting is the deep south, Mississippi to Louisiana at the beginning of WWII.
I read all 10 reviews on Amazon about this book and I'm amazed. This just might not be my type of book. The reviews rave about how beautifully written this book is. My beautiful and their beautiful don't jive. First of all, the first half of the book is focused on the development of the characters. A lame attempt. I don't think there was much development. I had a difficult time keeping them straight. To me, some of this did not have much relevance to the main plot. A lot of words with little substance. It didn't help that the author bounced back and forth between present and past and I had a hard time figuring out what time it was. On a positive note, I did enjoy the train part of the story. Trains fascinate me. Other than that though, I had a hard time getting thru this book. Glad I'm done.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2022
Beautiful storytelling, in the simplest sense of the word. If you need a strong or complex plot, this is not your book. But if you like good characters, and prose that transports you, read it. You may not be a fan of trains or engineers, but the human side of this world should appear nonetheless. It's a world removed in time and far from the experience most readers will ever know.
There is a certain insanity to this era of trains, when the steam engines could easily explode, when tracks and trestles failed, but mostly when many routes were single-tracked, and the only thing preventing catastrophic collisions was a coordination system subject to human error and ad hoc communications that involved engineers grabbing a note as they rolled through occasional outposts. Bahr brings to life the men that worked in these conditions, the families that waited for them, and the poor that lived on and around the trains and stations.
There is a certain insanity to this era of trains, when the steam engines could easily explode, when tracks and trestles failed, but mostly when many routes were single-tracked, and the only thing preventing catastrophic collisions was a coordination system subject to human error and ad hoc communications that involved engineers grabbing a note as they rolled through occasional outposts. Bahr brings to life the men that worked in these conditions, the families that waited for them, and the poor that lived on and around the trains and stations.
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