Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Rush Home Road
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Rush Home Road [Paperback]

Lori Lansens (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 21.00
Price: CDN$ 15.16 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.84 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Monday, February 13? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback CDN $13.97   -- --
Paperback, Jan 21 2003 CDN $15.16   -- --

Frequently Bought Together

Rush Home Road + The Girls + The Wife's Tale
Price For All Three: CDN$ 45.48

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together

  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details

  • The Girls by Lori Lansens Paperback CDN$ 15.16

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details

  • The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens Paperback CDN$ 15.16

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product Details

Product Description

Amazon.ca

Screenwriter Lori Lansens has created an international buzz and impressive foreign sales with her first novel, Rush Home Road, set within the black community of southwestern Ontario. Addy, Lansens's central character, is an elderly black woman who was raised in a settlement founded by fugitive slaves, the fictional village of Rushholme, and now lives in a trailer park near Chatham. When the mother of a five-year-old neighbour girl named Sharla runs off, Addy becomes the girl's caregiver. Her young charge helps give Addy the will to live, and also inspires a mental journey of bittersweet remembrance back through a tragic life filled with rape, racism, murder, and the death of her own children.

Lansens, who is white, has had mixed reviews from black Canadian literary critics: her portrayals of black characters have been alternately praised for their credibility and damned for sentimentality. Structurally, Lansens has also set herself a big challenge since she must juggle past and present storylines without giving either short shrift. Inevitably, since the past events of Addy's life are so dense with incident, the present events often feel like filler: we can't wait for Addy's mind to drift again among the decades. But ultimately the story manages to overcome its elements of melodrama--the litany of suffering inflicted upon Addy and Sharla would do any soap opera plotline proud--and become the kind of richly detailed epic that readers who miss Oprah's Book Club will especially enjoy. --Nigel Hunt --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(4)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful look at the Black Canadian heritage, April 14 2002
By 
Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Rush Home Road (Hardcover)
In 1978 in the Chatham, Canada Lakeview Trailer Park white woman Collette asks black Canadian senior citizen Adelaide Shadd to take in her five-year-old daughter Sharla Cody for the summer so she can live with a man. Addy agrees if she is paid. However when the little girl arrives, Addy knows from Sharla's appearance that Collette has abandoned her mixed race child.

Still Addy showers love and sustenance onto the pathetic child turning her into a caring healthy girl. While doing so, Addy looks back on her life growing up in Rusholme, an Ontario community founded by fugitive American slave passengers of the Underground Railroad. Addy loved her hometown until her father's bootlegging partner raped her and subsequently the pregnant teen was thrown out of her home. She lost the child and then marryies Mose. They had a child but the girl and Mose died in a railway accident. With Addy's health now ebbing, she and Sharla "rush home" seeking closure.

When RUSH HOME ROAD focuses on the history of blacks in Canada it is quite a fabulous historical tale. However, when the subplot concentrates on the plight of Addy and Sharla it feels like an overdone soap opera. Simply, the historical elements are so superbly done and intriguing, the other aspects of the tale pale in comparison even though they are well written and smoothly intertwined into the story line. Lori Lansens provides an engaging historical fiction novel that genre fans will relish though many will skip the present dilemmas facing the marvelous two women.

Harriet Klausner

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5.0 out of 5 stars I Have a New Favorite Author, Oct 4 2010
This review is from: Rush Home Road (Paperback)
This was far and above one of the best books I have ever read! A friend lent it to me and I devoured it! I then passed it on to another friend and she too couldn't put it down. I had no idea of the black history of Chatham, which is an hour drive from where I live. I immediately bought 2 more of her books and enjoyed them too but definitely "Rush Home Road" was her best so far.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5.0 out of 5 stars LOVED IT, Nov 22 2009
By 
A. Wedemire "Luvs2Read" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Rush Home Road (Paperback)
This was my first purchase on Amazon; actually online EVER!
I'm so happy I did it, I saved money & didn't have to leave my house.
Rush Home Road was an amazing story, very well written; I purchased The Girls (written by the same author) prior to completing Rush Home because I enjoyed this author so much! <3
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 54 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars 
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews









Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges