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The Night Train
In 1963, at the age of 17, Dwayne Hallston discovers James Brown and wants to perform just like him. His band, the Amazing Rumblers, studies and rehearses Brown's Live at the Apollo album in the storage room of his father's shop in their small North Carolina town. Meanwhile, Dwayne's forbidden black friend Larry -- aspiring to play piano like Thelonius Monk -- apprentices to a jazz musician called the Bleeder. His mother hopes music will allow him to escape the South.
A dancing chicken and a mutual passion for music help Dwayne and Larry as they try to achieve their dreams and maintain their friendship, even while their world says both are impossible. In The Night Train , Edgerton's trademark humor reminds us of our divided national history and the way music has helped bring us together.
A dancing chicken and a mutual passion for music help Dwayne and Larry as they try to achieve their dreams and maintain their friendship, even while their world says both are impossible. In The Night Train , Edgerton's trademark humor reminds us of our divided national history and the way music has helped bring us together.
215 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
23 people are currently reading
898 people want to read
About the author
Clyde Edgerton
48 books274 followersClyde Edgerton is widely considered one of the premier novelists working in the Southern tradition today, often compared with such masters as Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor.
Although most of his books deal with adult concerns--marriage, aging, birth and death--Edgerton's work is most profoundly about family. In books such as Raney, Walking Across Egypt, The Floatplane Notebooks, and Killer Diller, Edgerton explores the dimensions of family life, using an endearing (if eccentric) cast of characters. "Edgerton's characters," writes Mary Lystad in Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers, "have more faults than most, but they also have considerable virtues, and they are so likable that you want to invite them over for a cup of coffee, a piece of homemade apple pie, and a nice long chat."
Raised in the small towns of the North Carolina Piedmont, Edgerton draws heavily on the storytelling traditions of the rural south in his novels. Without the distractions of big-city life and the communications revolution of the late twentieth century, many rural Americans stayed in close touch with their relatives, and often shared stories about family members with each other for entertainment.
Among Edgerton’s awards are: Guggenheim Fellowship; Lyndhurst Prize; Honorary Doctorates from UNC-Asheville and St. Andrews Presbyterian College; membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers; the North Carolina Award for Literature; and five notable book awards from the New York Times.
Although most of his books deal with adult concerns--marriage, aging, birth and death--Edgerton's work is most profoundly about family. In books such as Raney, Walking Across Egypt, The Floatplane Notebooks, and Killer Diller, Edgerton explores the dimensions of family life, using an endearing (if eccentric) cast of characters. "Edgerton's characters," writes Mary Lystad in Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers, "have more faults than most, but they also have considerable virtues, and they are so likable that you want to invite them over for a cup of coffee, a piece of homemade apple pie, and a nice long chat."
Raised in the small towns of the North Carolina Piedmont, Edgerton draws heavily on the storytelling traditions of the rural south in his novels. Without the distractions of big-city life and the communications revolution of the late twentieth century, many rural Americans stayed in close touch with their relatives, and often shared stories about family members with each other for entertainment.
Among Edgerton’s awards are: Guggenheim Fellowship; Lyndhurst Prize; Honorary Doctorates from UNC-Asheville and St. Andrews Presbyterian College; membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers; the North Carolina Award for Literature; and five notable book awards from the New York Times.
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May 28, 2012
The Night Train: Clyde Edgerton's Mix of Jazz, Soul, and Life on Both Sides of the Tracks
"Ladies and Gentlemen, are YOU READY? LIVE FROM THE APOLLO, IT'S JAMES BROWN!!!"
Clyde Edgerton
I can't find Starke on any North Carolina map, anymore than I can find Listre on a map of that State. But Clyde Edgerton has the knack of convincing his readers they're real places, and if not, they should be.
I've been an Edgerton fan since the publication of his first novel Raney. The Night Train: A Novel is his tenth novel. It's full of the gentle humor and charm to which his readers have become accustomed. But there's a bit more of an edge to this Edgerton than most--but not enough of one.
It's 1963 and Edgerton brings the year alive with allusions to popular cultural events. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" is playing at the theater in East Stark. It's not playing at the theater in West Starke. For, you see, Starke is divided down the middle by a railroad track. If you live on the East Side of the tracks, most likely you're white. If you live West of the tracks, you're most likely black, see the second run movies, live in poorer houses, and work for the folks who live on the East side for little of nothing.
Theater Poster for "The Birds"
So, it's unusual that two unlikely young men become fast friends. Dwayne Hallston 3works in his father's furniture refinishing business. Larry Lime works side by side with him. But he's black. Their friendship is questionable. Each is aware that Dwayne's father wouldn't approve of their socializing.
But each is bound to the other by their love of music. Larry learned piano from the organist down at his church. However, Larry knows that much more is involved with music than the simple chords played on the church piano. It's Jazz that lures Larry to learn what else is out there. Dwayne is enthralled by R&B, but, goodness gracious, white people don't play that stuff.
The rumblings of the Civil Rights Movement are rolling up from Mississippi and Alabama. Back in February 1961, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggered many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters were served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities.
A section of the Greensboro, NC, Woolworth's Lunch Counter now preserved in the Smithsonian Institute
News of the sit ins has reached Stark. The local Klan is rumbling that something ought to be done to put those people in their place. But in Clyde Edgerton's world, the local Klan just don't have the meanness of the Klan down in Mississippi and Alabama. Short shrift is given to the tragedy of Emmett Till. I don't recall any mention of Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. And, although, Medgar Evers was gunned down the summer in which The Night Train occurs, there's no mention of that either. However, the minister over in West Starke is friends with this fellow Martin Luther King, Jr. That's causing some consternation among the white citizenry, but little more happens than folks getting the jitters.
In typical fashion, Edgerton succinctly points out the foolishness of racism in his description of the people of Stark, both black and white.
Larry Lime is taken under the wing of the Bleeder, a hemophiliac white jazz musician, who recognizes Larry's talent. Before long Larry's understanding what Theolonius Monk is all about. And to help his friend Dwayne who has formed his own group, The Amazing Rumblers, Larry teaches Dwayne and his buddies some riffs they would never have gotten on their own. Larry's method is to give Dwayne the immortal album "Live at the Apollo," featuring the one and only James Brown. GOOD GAWD!
Thelonius Monk
Live at the Apollo Featuring James Brown and the Flames
Now the big dawg in Stark is a fellow named Barclay who runs a dog food plant. Barclay's up with the times and starts a Saturday Night television show featuring local talent auditioned on a weekly basis. Larry Lime and his kin are never going to make it on that show. But Dwayne and the Amazing Rumblers are a sure thing. When the Rumblers take the stage, everything's just fine when they play through a routine country western hit. But all Hell breaks loose when the audience calls for an encore.
In his own gently humorous way Clyde Edgerton deals with the sensitive issues of race relations in a small Southern Town. I suppose it was his version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Is it a good read? Oh, yes. It's as good as I've come to expect from Clyde Edgerton. However, Edgerton's conclusion amounts to a fractured fairy tale of a violent and turbulent era. It would have been nice if things had happened that way. But they didn't. For Edgerton's story, all I can say is, "Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?"
Perhaps I'm just being a bit too serious today. However treating The Night Train as reality is about like judging people of color on the basis of watching "Amos and Andy."
Three Stars.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, are YOU READY? LIVE FROM THE APOLLO, IT'S JAMES BROWN!!!"
Clyde Edgerton
I can't find Starke on any North Carolina map, anymore than I can find Listre on a map of that State. But Clyde Edgerton has the knack of convincing his readers they're real places, and if not, they should be.
I've been an Edgerton fan since the publication of his first novel Raney. The Night Train: A Novel is his tenth novel. It's full of the gentle humor and charm to which his readers have become accustomed. But there's a bit more of an edge to this Edgerton than most--but not enough of one.
It's 1963 and Edgerton brings the year alive with allusions to popular cultural events. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" is playing at the theater in East Stark. It's not playing at the theater in West Starke. For, you see, Starke is divided down the middle by a railroad track. If you live on the East Side of the tracks, most likely you're white. If you live West of the tracks, you're most likely black, see the second run movies, live in poorer houses, and work for the folks who live on the East side for little of nothing.
Theater Poster for "The Birds"
So, it's unusual that two unlikely young men become fast friends. Dwayne Hallston 3works in his father's furniture refinishing business. Larry Lime works side by side with him. But he's black. Their friendship is questionable. Each is aware that Dwayne's father wouldn't approve of their socializing.
But each is bound to the other by their love of music. Larry learned piano from the organist down at his church. However, Larry knows that much more is involved with music than the simple chords played on the church piano. It's Jazz that lures Larry to learn what else is out there. Dwayne is enthralled by R&B, but, goodness gracious, white people don't play that stuff.
The rumblings of the Civil Rights Movement are rolling up from Mississippi and Alabama. Back in February 1961, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggered many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters were served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities.
A section of the Greensboro, NC, Woolworth's Lunch Counter now preserved in the Smithsonian Institute
News of the sit ins has reached Stark. The local Klan is rumbling that something ought to be done to put those people in their place. But in Clyde Edgerton's world, the local Klan just don't have the meanness of the Klan down in Mississippi and Alabama. Short shrift is given to the tragedy of Emmett Till. I don't recall any mention of Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. And, although, Medgar Evers was gunned down the summer in which The Night Train occurs, there's no mention of that either. However, the minister over in West Starke is friends with this fellow Martin Luther King, Jr. That's causing some consternation among the white citizenry, but little more happens than folks getting the jitters.
In typical fashion, Edgerton succinctly points out the foolishness of racism in his description of the people of Stark, both black and white.
"People from both sides of the track in Starke ate about the same amount--per capita--of corn bread, chicken, vegetables, pork, pies, cakes, stews...
We could accurately say that the railroad divided a community of corn bread, vegetable, and chicken eaters; or a community of pet lovers, or a community of rural dialects, of families with men who hunted quail and rabbits; people who owned chickens; women who cooked and sewed; or people who had, in their lifetimes, 'worked in tobacco'--picked it, carted it behind mule or tractor, tied it to sticks, hung it in barns to cure, took it to the market, complained about suckering and sand lugging.
And since about the same percentage of people called themselves Christian on both sides of thetrack, we could say that the railroad track divided a single Christian community. But something begins to break down there, doesn't it? The truths of their pasts gave each group a different God (one of deliverance, the other of dominion), a different mode of worship service (one with energy and joy trumping solemnity and fear, the other almost reversing that). And their histories brought hardships to the people of West Starke not understood by the people of East Starke, and guilt to the East not understood by anybody--a guilt that if moving in a lake, would leave the surface flat calm.
Larry Lime is taken under the wing of the Bleeder, a hemophiliac white jazz musician, who recognizes Larry's talent. Before long Larry's understanding what Theolonius Monk is all about. And to help his friend Dwayne who has formed his own group, The Amazing Rumblers, Larry teaches Dwayne and his buddies some riffs they would never have gotten on their own. Larry's method is to give Dwayne the immortal album "Live at the Apollo," featuring the one and only James Brown. GOOD GAWD!
Thelonius Monk
Live at the Apollo Featuring James Brown and the Flames
Now the big dawg in Stark is a fellow named Barclay who runs a dog food plant. Barclay's up with the times and starts a Saturday Night television show featuring local talent auditioned on a weekly basis. Larry Lime and his kin are never going to make it on that show. But Dwayne and the Amazing Rumblers are a sure thing. When the Rumblers take the stage, everything's just fine when they play through a routine country western hit. But all Hell breaks loose when the audience calls for an encore.
In his own gently humorous way Clyde Edgerton deals with the sensitive issues of race relations in a small Southern Town. I suppose it was his version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Is it a good read? Oh, yes. It's as good as I've come to expect from Clyde Edgerton. However, Edgerton's conclusion amounts to a fractured fairy tale of a violent and turbulent era. It would have been nice if things had happened that way. But they didn't. For Edgerton's story, all I can say is, "Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?"
Perhaps I'm just being a bit too serious today. However treating The Night Train as reality is about like judging people of color on the basis of watching "Amos and Andy."
Three Stars.
December 14, 2024
Other than the fact that this book’s storyline was extremely difficult to follow, I was incredibly irritated the whole time that the author doesn’t use quotation marks for speech. I’ve NEVER seen an author make that choice before? Please someone help me understand why an author would do this other than to be different just for the sake of being different…
November 7, 2011
When I go to the library, it's usually because I have reserved books waiting. I have a tendency to stay away from the stacks, especially the new books, because I have a tendency to "load up." After reading several unsatisfactory books, I was in the mood for some Richard Russo. I had read his recent books, so I thought I would reach back. Unfortunately the library didn't have Mohawk. They only had his recent novels, all of which I've read.
However I found this book on the new acquisitions shelf. I don't know how I've missed Clyde Edgerton. He is a wonderful writer and was just what I needed. He was born in Durham, NC and lives in Wilmington, NC. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and has had five books on the New York Times Notable Book List. After reading THAT on the book jacket, I felt really stupid.
The story takes place in 1963. It centers on the "forbidden friendship" of two boys, one black and one white, in a small SC town. Dwayne, the white boy, loves James Brown. Larry Lime is learning about jazz from a local musician known as The Bleeder. He is a fan of Thelonius Monk. It's a gentle story.
There is no dramatic climax. I love the way the author compares and contrasts the two sides of "the tracks." They work together yet separately. They eat the same kind of food. Yet they see each other as so different. Their commonalities are seen through the filter of a local television show. It's a great story, and it has made me an Edgerton fan.
However I found this book on the new acquisitions shelf. I don't know how I've missed Clyde Edgerton. He is a wonderful writer and was just what I needed. He was born in Durham, NC and lives in Wilmington, NC. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and has had five books on the New York Times Notable Book List. After reading THAT on the book jacket, I felt really stupid.
The story takes place in 1963. It centers on the "forbidden friendship" of two boys, one black and one white, in a small SC town. Dwayne, the white boy, loves James Brown. Larry Lime is learning about jazz from a local musician known as The Bleeder. He is a fan of Thelonius Monk. It's a gentle story.
There is no dramatic climax. I love the way the author compares and contrasts the two sides of "the tracks." They work together yet separately. They eat the same kind of food. Yet they see each other as so different. Their commonalities are seen through the filter of a local television show. It's a great story, and it has made me an Edgerton fan.
November 18, 2020
If you ever want to experience Cackalacky dialect and absurdist humor in stories that also get under the skin, Clyde Edgerton is your man. He grew up near Durham and teaches writing in Wilmington, so his ear for the sound of the way people talk in Carolina and what they mean in the crevices between words is fine-tuned. This story, his 11th novel, is about racial division in a small town. It won't hit you over the head with anything; it just points out issues like Southerners do -- around it, under it, beside it, but never right to it. It's not beating around the bush, not skirting the issues. No, it's just there, lurking between the lines like a copperhead. If you're guilty, it's gonna bite you, and it's gonna hurt. The characters in this racial divide find a bridge through music, movies, food, and kindness -- and the story ends on a note of hope that maybe there is a way forward for us.
June 25, 2011
I was born and raised in the South. So, I am ashamed to admit that I had never heard of clyde Edgerton until Anna from Little Brown & Company contacted me about this book. I have since learned that not only is he Southern author, he is a great Southern Author that has many book credited to him! However, it may have the first book I have read by him but it will not be the last.
This was a wonderful story set inrural North Carolina dudring the early 1960's. While the rest of the world was being turned upside down by Civil Rights issue, the folks in Starke North Carolina went on with everyday life as normal. Unknown to them they were also making progress toward equal rights for everyone.
This is a story of two teenage boys and the friendship they shared, even though society frowned upon friendships between white and black children. Dewayne was white and Larry Lime was black Their mutual love of music forged a clear path that allowed their friendship to grow.
Dewayne loves James Brown music and has a band called The Amazing Rumblers. His immediate goal is to get his band on the Bobby Reese Show that is sponsored by the local Dog Food Factory. Larry Lime is taking lessons from a guy called the Bleeder at a bar called The Frog. He wants to play Jazz music. They love to lisiten to and love James Brown's Live at the Apollo Theatre album and especially The Night Train number.
This story is leading up to the bid night of whehter the Amazing Rumblers will be on The Bobby Reese show or not. Along the way, you will laugh with the boys and sometime be a little sad. But, you will alsosee how people managed to overcome their differences by just living their lives. both Dewayne and Larry Lime were interesting characters, but by far my favorite was Larry Lime.
I truly loved this bookand if you (like me) have never read a Clyde Edgerton book, I recommend that you remedy that situation soon! You will be glad that you did. Also, this would make ab awesome summer book for a teenage boy.
Quotes from the book:
Don't you want some more butterbeans? said Donnie's mother to Crystal, Donnie's seven year old sister.
Now the child be farting all night, thought Aunt marzie. She done ate her plate clean.
I o-'ont no more, said Crystal.
Thank God, thought Aubt marzie.
We laughed our Asses off sitting there on the couch, Baby Mercy and me-I-and we came up with the dog food eating idea early on-after about a year, I think- and that's when the show took off for sure.
This was a wonderful story set inrural North Carolina dudring the early 1960's. While the rest of the world was being turned upside down by Civil Rights issue, the folks in Starke North Carolina went on with everyday life as normal. Unknown to them they were also making progress toward equal rights for everyone.
This is a story of two teenage boys and the friendship they shared, even though society frowned upon friendships between white and black children. Dewayne was white and Larry Lime was black Their mutual love of music forged a clear path that allowed their friendship to grow.
Dewayne loves James Brown music and has a band called The Amazing Rumblers. His immediate goal is to get his band on the Bobby Reese Show that is sponsored by the local Dog Food Factory. Larry Lime is taking lessons from a guy called the Bleeder at a bar called The Frog. He wants to play Jazz music. They love to lisiten to and love James Brown's Live at the Apollo Theatre album and especially The Night Train number.
This story is leading up to the bid night of whehter the Amazing Rumblers will be on The Bobby Reese show or not. Along the way, you will laugh with the boys and sometime be a little sad. But, you will alsosee how people managed to overcome their differences by just living their lives. both Dewayne and Larry Lime were interesting characters, but by far my favorite was Larry Lime.
I truly loved this bookand if you (like me) have never read a Clyde Edgerton book, I recommend that you remedy that situation soon! You will be glad that you did. Also, this would make ab awesome summer book for a teenage boy.
Quotes from the book:
Don't you want some more butterbeans? said Donnie's mother to Crystal, Donnie's seven year old sister.
Now the child be farting all night, thought Aunt marzie. She done ate her plate clean.
I o-'ont no more, said Crystal.
Thank God, thought Aubt marzie.
We laughed our Asses off sitting there on the couch, Baby Mercy and me-I-and we came up with the dog food eating idea early on-after about a year, I think- and that's when the show took off for sure.
November 19, 2011
From the cover of this book, I thought it was going to be this awesome story of these two guys trying to form a band. Instead, I got some strange book that had no plot whatsoever. The Bleeder and Larry meet in the beginning of the book and the Bleeder wants to teach Larry how to play more music. From there, the book goes on to talk about random things, random scenes, and even more random people. By page 80 I had to stop because there was honestly no point to the story. Online, I read reviews where people say it's such a real book about racism in the south, but I got non of that from the book I was reading. Maybe I'm just not "deep" enough to understand this story, but if it takes deep, critical thought to even get close to the meaning of this book, then it's not the book for me. I didn't care about the characters and the lack of quotation marks when there was a conversation really bugged me. I know this review is a little harsh, but if you're looking for the next great book to read, stay far away from this one.
October 25, 2011
Not bad but not great. A good read for a long plane or bus ride. As with many novels by white people about black characters, the African Americans are unconvincingly one dimensional--in this case tending toward positive stereotype. The troubled politics of white appropriations of black musical culture are present but muted, and Dwayne's triumphant transformation into a white James Brown seems complicated only by its challenge to definitions of appropriate white behaviour, not by the way it continues to depend on structures of white privilege. Ironically, I thought the best character was in some ways the least like able white character. The obnoxious and racist flash--Dwayne's boss at the factory--is humanized by his helpless dealings with his dead and dying mother. This part of the novel was too slight and not fully integrated with everything else, but compelling nonetheless.
August 28, 2011
I enjoyed the pacing and the jazz-infused story, but I feel like I've heard this story over and over in different forms (usually in musicals - Hairspray, Memphis...). Racial tensions have reached an all-time high [somewhere in the south] especially now that [white character] has discovered a love for ["race" music]. The parents/town/church/KKK does not approve, but it is too late because the music is universal/exciting/what-we've-been-waiting for, and something shocking/devastating/senseless/forward-thinking is about to happen.
August 30, 2019
I'm honestly baffled that this book has so many positive reviews. I just didn't like it. At all. There are multiple storylines that aren't resolved, the plot never really shows up, and while the characters could've been great, the writer never delved into them enough to really show their personalities. The relationship between Larry and Dewayne could've been explored more, instead of just the shallow bit that it did go into it. So much of the story just seemed to glean the surface, and I just couldn't get into it. I finished this book, but reluctantly. I just really wanted it to get better.
September 25, 2011
I fell in love with Clyde Edgerton on reading 'The Floatplane Notebooks' and while I still love that book, I have not felt the same with any of his novels, ever since. This one is too little, no meat on its bones. It should have been a short story, maybe. I read it through because I was expecting...something, maybe a whole book. But it didn't deliver...please, Mr. Edgerton, sit still, concentrate, and produce a real book next time.
September 11, 2011
**DISCLAIMER: THIS WAS A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY TITLE THAT I WON*
What a great little book. And by little, I mean size. Subject matter is huge here. Set in 1963 in the deep South, Dwayne and his friend Larry(the black kid he's not supposed to hang out with, because, well, because he's black) find music. Dwayne loves James Brown and Ray Charles. Larry is apprenticing with a jazz musician named the Bleeder, and he hopes to be Thelonious Monk someday. Their mutual love of music draws them together and keeps their friendship intact, as the KKK ravages through their town, as Martin Luther King is honored and then murdered, as their families and aquaintances in their hometown get drawn further into their prejudices and further apart in their lives. By the end of this book, you have a heightened appreciation for the power of music and how it can overcome the hardest of hardships.
What a great little book. And by little, I mean size. Subject matter is huge here. Set in 1963 in the deep South, Dwayne and his friend Larry(the black kid he's not supposed to hang out with, because, well, because he's black) find music. Dwayne loves James Brown and Ray Charles. Larry is apprenticing with a jazz musician named the Bleeder, and he hopes to be Thelonious Monk someday. Their mutual love of music draws them together and keeps their friendship intact, as the KKK ravages through their town, as Martin Luther King is honored and then murdered, as their families and aquaintances in their hometown get drawn further into their prejudices and further apart in their lives. By the end of this book, you have a heightened appreciation for the power of music and how it can overcome the hardest of hardships.
July 15, 2011
It is the 1960's south and teenager Larry Lime Nolan is an aspiring jazz and blues piano player. He meets the famous Bleeder who takes him under his wing a teaches him how to play. Larry is black and lives on the black side of town. He works on the white side of town doing furniture repair.
The is a piano in the back of the furniture repair shop where Larry practices during his breaks. The owner's teenaged son, Dwayne Hallston also works there and becomes "secret" friends with Larry. His father will not allow him to have a black friend. Negros need to know their place, after all. Read my full reviewhere
The is a piano in the back of the furniture repair shop where Larry practices during his breaks. The owner's teenaged son, Dwayne Hallston also works there and becomes "secret" friends with Larry. His father will not allow him to have a black friend. Negros need to know their place, after all. Read my full reviewhere
September 25, 2012
This seems to be a book in search for a plot. Atmosphere and characters are not enough to sustain a book in which nothing really happens. It all surrounds a show in which amateurs try out to become stars but frankly I never cared a bit whether they succeeded or failed by the end. I have read other Edgerton books and my recollection was I liked them - but not this time around. I think the attempt here was to show racial attitudes in North Carolina in the 1960's but this is not The Help.
September 6, 2011
Having read Walking Across Egypt and loved it, I was looking forward to this novel. It just sounded like a "good read", sadly for me it was lacking in so many ways. Too many characters I cared nothing about, not much plot, and endless thoughts about music I couldn't relate to in any fashion. Perhaps a musician or artist would love this book, but I can't recommend it. Really disappointed.
September 22, 2023
The Night Train awakens a lot of memories for me. Clyde Edgerton and I are about the same age and I grew up with the same musical influences from the 50's and 60's. James Brown's "Live at the Appollo, 1962" remains one of my favorite albums of all times. I think that one of my college roommates may have "borrowed" my LP and when I mentioned once to my wife that two of my favorite R & B albums were "Live at the Appollo, 1962, and Bobby Blue Bland's "Two Step From the Blues" (another LP that "disappeared", she surprised me one Christmas with the CD version of both of these great albums. I had an early appreciation for R & B and early rock and roll from listening to WLAC AM radio from Nashville sponsored by Randy's Record Shop in Gallatin, TN, where you could mail order 45's that were not readily available in my hometown and often included special offers where you got six 45's for $5.00, postage included! Our maid's teenage daughter Cleo would babysit for me and my younger sister and we would sit up listening to all of the R&B greats like Ruth Brown and the Honey Drippers, Big Joe Turner, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Coasters and even Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis in the rock and roll section. Our mutual love of music made Cleo one of my first Black pals in a still very much segregated South. Her older sister worked in a beauty shop and when Little Richard came to perform in my hometown (at an all-black nightclub), she did his Marcelle hairstyle and I told all of my friends. We thought she was pretty cool! I was never a musician like Mr. Edgerton, but was and still remain an almost maniacal music lover. One of my high school pals had a rock band along with some more of my friends and he was an accomplished musician at an early age playing alto sax, keyboards and later as an adult a pretty fair drummer. He also introduced me to jazz with Ray Charles at Newport and the wonderful Mose Alison's Parchman Farm, etc. On the darker side, I still remember how everything was segregated in those days and as a privileged white kid, I was never particularly troubled by it. That was the norm and was not something we questioned. It was not until I reached adulthood that I realized that something was drastically wrong with a system that endorsed segregation and I'm still learning to this day about how far apart the races still are. Clyde Edgerton has again managed to teach us all a lesson in his gentle, soft spoken and often humorous way of our ignorance and short comings of how we treat our fellow human beings. I've been reading Mr. Edgerton's books since my introduction to his work with the "Floatplane Papers" many years ago and continue to enjoy his writing.
May 30, 2017
Clyde Edgerton's Walking Across Egypt is one of my favorite novels. It is the sort of peculiar that can happen in the country.
The Night Train was not my favorite when I began, but has a more important message than his others. It's 1963 and Larry Nolan and "a hemophiliac called the Bleeder" are in a bar called the Frog just north of Starke, North Carolina. (p 3) When the Bleeder asks Nolan, age sixteen, his entire name it is, "Larry Lime Beacon of Time Reckoning Breath on Me Nolan. They Call me Larry Lime." From here you know you're in Edgerton country with odd events and characters.
Larry Lime's, Uncle Young, whose whole name is "Young Prophet of Light and Material Witness to the Creation Trumpet Jones," (p 7) drives the meat run in a refrigerated truck to get "fresh lungs, livers, stomachs, spleens, and hearts from a beef slaughterhouse" to bring to the dog food plant in their community. On Larry Lime's first trip he and Uncle Young are talking about the marches and sit-ins going on. (p 18-19)
This book describes desegregation in small towns where people must interact. Flash works as a foreman in the (furniture) refinishing room. When his mother becomes ill, to her dismay, the only person who will come sit with the homebound are across the track.
But mostly this town desegregates through music. On both sides of the track people are listening to the Bobby Lee Reese TV Show (sponsored by the dog food company and featuring "this white (man), eating dog food, tossing it up a nugget at a time, catching it in a tin funnel he was holding in his mouth p 61) with stale jokes and local talent and the rock and roll invasion.
Edgerton's saga has Redbird, the talented chicken, segregated movie theaters, drive-ins, skating rinks, food and more about a way of life that has faded from the common era. "Over a supper of tomato sandwiches--mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and tomato slices on white bread--navy beans, and biscuits..." (p 52)
"We could accurately say that the railroad divided a community of corn bread, vegetable, and chicken eaters; or a community of pet lovers; or a community of rural dialects; of families with men who hunted quail and rabbits; people who owned chickens; women who cooked and sewed; or people who had, in their lifetimes, "worked in tobacco"--picked it, carted it behind mule or tractor tied it to sticks, hung it in barns to cure, took it to the market, complained about suckering and sand lugging." ( p 71-72)
This is Edgerton in a small town noodling (p 81) and writing about Thelonious Monk.
The Night Train was not my favorite when I began, but has a more important message than his others. It's 1963 and Larry Nolan and "a hemophiliac called the Bleeder" are in a bar called the Frog just north of Starke, North Carolina. (p 3) When the Bleeder asks Nolan, age sixteen, his entire name it is, "Larry Lime Beacon of Time Reckoning Breath on Me Nolan. They Call me Larry Lime." From here you know you're in Edgerton country with odd events and characters.
Larry Lime's, Uncle Young, whose whole name is "Young Prophet of Light and Material Witness to the Creation Trumpet Jones," (p 7) drives the meat run in a refrigerated truck to get "fresh lungs, livers, stomachs, spleens, and hearts from a beef slaughterhouse" to bring to the dog food plant in their community. On Larry Lime's first trip he and Uncle Young are talking about the marches and sit-ins going on. (p 18-19)
This book describes desegregation in small towns where people must interact. Flash works as a foreman in the (furniture) refinishing room. When his mother becomes ill, to her dismay, the only person who will come sit with the homebound are across the track.
But mostly this town desegregates through music. On both sides of the track people are listening to the Bobby Lee Reese TV Show (sponsored by the dog food company and featuring "this white (man), eating dog food, tossing it up a nugget at a time, catching it in a tin funnel he was holding in his mouth p 61) with stale jokes and local talent and the rock and roll invasion.
Edgerton's saga has Redbird, the talented chicken, segregated movie theaters, drive-ins, skating rinks, food and more about a way of life that has faded from the common era. "Over a supper of tomato sandwiches--mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and tomato slices on white bread--navy beans, and biscuits..." (p 52)
"We could accurately say that the railroad divided a community of corn bread, vegetable, and chicken eaters; or a community of pet lovers; or a community of rural dialects; of families with men who hunted quail and rabbits; people who owned chickens; women who cooked and sewed; or people who had, in their lifetimes, "worked in tobacco"--picked it, carted it behind mule or tractor tied it to sticks, hung it in barns to cure, took it to the market, complained about suckering and sand lugging." ( p 71-72)
This is Edgerton in a small town noodling (p 81) and writing about Thelonious Monk.
December 13, 2020
The Night Train, a novel, is actually a novella which would have told its tale more poignantly as a short story. There are too many asides, too many characters thinly developed, and too much down home flavor without the underlying sympathy of what down home means to those who live it on a daily basis. The racism is familiar to me in my own upbringing in Reidsville, NC, yet its ubiquitousness belies the relationship among the teens who share their love for the music that gives them common ground beyond race. As an example: in chapter 27, Dwayne and Larry Lime are shooting hoops behind Dwayne's house when Dwayne's father emerges from the shop to tell his son that Larry Lime shouldn't be there, that "it just don't look right." This is exactly what happened to my brother while shooting hoops in our backyard with his black classmate. Our stepfather objected to the black boy being in our yard. The description doesn't flesh out the underlying basis of a friendship where children diverge from their progenitors and create a new path for peace and harmony. This is literally the beginning of progression in society evolving.
The story has strong points, including Dwayne's and Larry Lime's separate but equal drives to put the music out there, whether jazz or soul or rockabilly. This portion of the story is well written and, even though I am not a trained musician or even able to read music, I understood the jargon and the language of The Bleeder's syncopation. It would have been better if Edgerton had held to his theme and disregarded the superfluous concerns such as Flash's struggles with caring for his mother while still needing to work his job. Here again, I can relate because my aunt always said if she were sick and needed care at home, she did not want a black woman to be her caregiver. Racism is pervasive, yes today. These teens are dealing with it in the early to mid '60s. For me it was the early to mid '70s when I was their age. If one message persists today, it is that laws change our ability to seek restitution for the crimes of racism, but laws do not change minds. Only open hearts and minds can change the effects and the prevalence of racism.
This novella reads like a first-time author, not like the powerful writing of the Edgerton I have read for years. I'm afraid if I'd read this one first, I would not have explored his other works. However, I do believe it is a story worth telling.
The story has strong points, including Dwayne's and Larry Lime's separate but equal drives to put the music out there, whether jazz or soul or rockabilly. This portion of the story is well written and, even though I am not a trained musician or even able to read music, I understood the jargon and the language of The Bleeder's syncopation. It would have been better if Edgerton had held to his theme and disregarded the superfluous concerns such as Flash's struggles with caring for his mother while still needing to work his job. Here again, I can relate because my aunt always said if she were sick and needed care at home, she did not want a black woman to be her caregiver. Racism is pervasive, yes today. These teens are dealing with it in the early to mid '60s. For me it was the early to mid '70s when I was their age. If one message persists today, it is that laws change our ability to seek restitution for the crimes of racism, but laws do not change minds. Only open hearts and minds can change the effects and the prevalence of racism.
This novella reads like a first-time author, not like the powerful writing of the Edgerton I have read for years. I'm afraid if I'd read this one first, I would not have explored his other works. However, I do believe it is a story worth telling.
September 10, 2021
The cover of this book compares it to such classics as my all time favorite, A Separate Peace. Indeed, I had high hopes, since it was being billed as another story about a friendship between two teenage boys. In the end, though I didn’t really dislike the book, it was rather disappointing. The biggest issue I had was chapter five, thankfully a short chapter but still too suggestive. While that was the only such moment the book still had bad language including the n word ( though considering it’s setting that shouldn’t be a surprise). Though I’m a devout Christian, I did think there was a bit too much rambling about religion. The book also ends too soon, just as things were taking off. I still appreciate the friendship between Dwayne and Larry, the reason I give the book three stars.It could of been explored more though. It would be nice if Edgerton wrote a sequel with Dwayne and Larry as adults, finding a place for their friendship in a slowly changing south.
August 14, 2017
Clyde Edgerton is a big deal in my adopted state. He's called North Carolina's Mark Twain. He teaches creative writing at UNC-Wilmington, and he's like this renaissance right brainer. He's a musician, painter, teacher, father and writer. And yep, he can turn a phrase. And with "Night Train," his 10th book, he did. He used 1963, James Brown and a friendship between two co-workers at a furniture factory -- one black, the other white -- to delve into the thorny issue of race in small-town North Carolina. "Night Train" is a quick read, full of laughable scenes and scenes full of Southern nuance. Still, I wanted more. "Night Train" ended flat for me. It definitely wasn't Brown's "Live at the Apollo." That had all kinds of electricity. "Night Train" didn't for me.
December 13, 2017
Clyde Edgerton -- Bahama native, Red Clay Rambler, English professor at Elon and other NC colleges, Rainy --lst book to gain prominence humor/satire. Discusses/describes the way racial/social prejudices and attempts to ignore that social issues muddy the fabric of every day life.
This books explores the emergence of a jazz pianist.
Full of humor, adolescence angst, and parental ambition for their child,
This books explores the emergence of a jazz pianist.
Full of humor, adolescence angst, and parental ambition for their child,
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April 21, 2020I see what you were going for here, Clyde. Kind of written in a bluesy sing song style. It's a story about a rising band in the early 1960s and the black friend who helps them find their sound, and about racism and civil rights I guess, but I just did not care for the writing style. I finished it more out of a sense of obligation than any feeling of care for the characters.
June 30, 2025
Sometimes hard to follow, but a rewarding end. The Night Train is funny, sad, and happy all at the same time. Boys chasing their dreams to become musicians -- the next James Brown and Theolonius Monk. And the situations they find themselves. Takes place in 1963 during a time of interracial strife in North Carolina. Edgerton's love of music shines through in this novella.
April 20, 2018
Fast read. Slyly funny and maybe subtly sad (the racism implications), but he has others I liked much better (like Walking Across Egypt I still remember parts). This one was not all that memorable, because I see I read it several years ago, and I remembered absolutely nothing about having done so.
July 19, 2018
Very confusing book. Very hard to follow. In my opinion there were no "laugh-out-loud moments" as expressed by an author on the cover flap of book. The only way I knew what the story was about was to read the flap on book cover.
July 2, 2017
Reading Clyde Edgerton is like spending time with the best storyteller in your grandparents' home town.
July 20, 2017
Hilarious and moving. And short. Would have given 5 stars if he had used quotation marks. A pointless affectation that only adds confusion.
May 4, 2018
This was a quick read. It focuses mainly on race and music and how the two cross. I liked that it is based on his life
July 25, 2018
Quick read in the vein of his usual cast of characters.
January 11, 2019
Interesting character study. I am a big fan of Clyde Edgerton, but this one was not my favorite. A couple of storylines didn't seem to resolve themselves. Maybe just my poor reading.
October 3, 2019
Clyde Edgerton is one of my favorite storytellers. The story captures race relations in 1963 North Carolina, and the ability of music to connect lives and provide hope and change.
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