Rush Home Road

March 18, 2002
Certain novels recall fairy tales. Their heroes are banished, repeatedly challenged, until finally, foes vanquished, they make their triumphant homecoming. Though it opens in 1978 in a Chatham, Ontario, trailer park, Lansens's poignant debut is just such a novel. At its heart is Adelaide Shadd, a 70-year-old black woman who takes in five-year-old Sharla Cody when Sharla's "white trash" mother abandons her. As Addy turns Sharla from a malnourished, heedless child into a healthy, thoughtful girl, she recollects her own past. Addy grew up in Rusholme, a fictional cousin to the many Ontario communities founded by fugitive slaves brought north by the Underground Railroad. By 1908, when Addy is born, Rusholme is settled almost entirely by black farmers and is close to idyllic. But a rape and subsequent pregnancy force Addy to run away from Rusholme (she thinks of it as a command: "Rush home"), not to return for many years. Addy's life—her marriage, her children, her journey to Detroit and back to Canada—is the rich core of a novel also laden with history: Lansens manages to work in not only the Railroad, but also Prohibition and the Pullman porter movement. This is artfully done, but Lansens doesn't handle the novel's smaller scenes quite as well: she tends to drop narrative threads and confuse chronology. Some readers will resent the repeated plucking of their heartstrings, too, given how much Addy and Sharla suffer. Nonetheless, Lansens has created in Addy a truly noble character, not for what she suffered in the past but for what she does in the novel's present. (May 1)Forecast:This is resolutely women's fiction, as jacket copy comparisons to
White Oleander and
She's Come Undone underscore. Though it lacks the finesse of either of those two novels, the well-drawn portrait of Addy will capture and hold readers' attention and could make the book a popular reading group choice. Time Warner Audio; foreign rights sold in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.

Starred review from May 15, 2002
As this first novel opens, 70-year-old Addy Shadd is living a peaceful trailer-park existence in the company of down-and-outers like Collette, who leaves her daughter with Addy and then disappears. Five-year-old Sharla is neither lovely nor lovable, and Addy's habit of solitude is hard to break, but as the two outcasts learn to care for each other, they begin healing from the abuse that they have suffered. Memories of Addy's childhood days in Rusholme, a Canadian border town settled by runaway slaves in the 1800s, come rushing back and carry the reader away. Addy recalls intimate details a small brother who died, past lovers, children now gone, and the many people who betrayed her while historical events like the Underground Railroad, the Pullman porter movement, and Prohibition frame her account and reflect some of the hardships suffered by African Americans, even in Canada. Though Addy has led a hard life, her beautiful, gentle spirit, her wise and loving way with Sharla, and an ultimate message of hope redeem the book from melancholy. A beautiful debut; recommended for all public libraries. Jennifer Baker, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2002
Five-year-old Sharla Cody, a child of mixed racial heritage, is abandoned by her mother, who takes off with her latest boyfriend. Addy Shadd, their 70-year-old neighbor in the trailer park, takes Sharla in and finds new meaning in her long and tragic life. Addy has never fully recovered from a series of traumatic events in her life, beginning when she was hurt and deserted by her family and friends in the small town of Rusholme, a town settled by fugitive slaves who arrived in Canada via the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. Emotional demands triggered by Sharla's presence in her life reignite many painful memories. As the story moves back and forth over much of the 70 years of Addy's life, the reader learns of her personal struggles and the changes in race relations along the border of Canada and the U.S. But as Addy's flashbacks become more pronounced, they hint at her deterioration and heighten the need to find a home for Sharla. A poignant novel about the power of love and forgiveness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)