Ancient Highway

by Bret Lott

Book Overview

In 1927, a fourteen-year-old boy hops a boxcar in a dusty Texas field headed for Hollywood and life in the "flickers." His aim is to get as far away from the farm he thinks holds nothing for him. In... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400063744
• ISBN13: 9781400063741
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A very powerful story!

I really can't add much to Donna Volkenannt's excellent review. It's a very well written "human" story. As I was nearing the end of this book, I thought, "Drat...it's almost finished".

Superb novel about ambition and desire

ANCIENT HIGHWAY is one of the richest, smartest books ever written about fame and its fallout. The book explores the underside of Hollywood, exploring with gorgeous precision the blind hunger that can drive people's yearning for celebrity--and, with special clarity, the cost of that hunger. Lott sees with unflinching compassion the terrible selfishness of ambition, and his characters ring true in their rage as well as their desire. Readers who admire Nathanael West's "The Day of the Locust" will find much to satisfy them in Lott's superb novel; in place of West's grotesque caricatures are human, humane portraits that are all the more moving because in them we are likely to recognize ourselves.

A thoughtful portrayal of hope in the face of shattered dreams and healing in the face of pain

On the day 11-year-old Earl Holmes plops down a nickel to watch a "flicker show," he dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. One night, three years later, he gathers up his belongings, sneaks out of the house and hops a passing train with his sights set on stardom in California. To support himself while waiting to be discovered in Hollywood, he works menial jobs, uses up his stack of glossies and wears out shoe leather going to auditions. With each faint whisper of promise, he jumps on any lead in hopes of being cast in a part --- any part --- and eventually lands one in a "Three Stooges" short. While celebrating his minor victory at the Cocoanut Grove, Earl meets Saralee Kennedy, a lovely and talented singer from St. Louis who smiles and winks at him while she is auditioning for Kay Kyser and His Orchestra. Earl is immediately smitten: "He was in love...and he showed her his love the only way he knew how: He winked back, and smiled his Buddy Rogers smile." While Earl dreams of stardom, Saralee dreams of settling down. After their marriage, they have a daughter, Joan. Years later, while Earl is off serving in the Merchant Marines, Saralee and Joan move in with Earl's family in East Texas --- a place of lush trees and wide sky that young Joan comes to consider home. When the war ends, they return to California, where Joan and her mother once again live in the shadow of her father's dream. Decades later, Joan is divorced and leading a quiet existence in Arizona. In 1980, her estranged son Brad returns from service in the Navy to live with his grandparents in California. After participating in the evacuation of Saigon and witnessing hope in the face of chaos, Brad desperately seeks to be part of a family, no matter how damaged. Bret Lott's strong portrayal of place and time, his graceful descriptions and elegantly drawn characters leap from the pages. His behind-the-scenes peek through Earl's eyes at a bygone era of Hollywood is flavored with rich detail. Brad's observations about Vietnam evacuees aboard the USS Denver brought tears to my eyes, for both their sentiment and the author's use of language. ANCIENT HIGHWAY is a thoughtful portrayal of hope in the face of shattered dreams and healing in the face of pain. It is a book about which I echo Earl's word: "Hurrah!" --- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt