Lullaby Road, by James Anderson

REVIEW:  I enjoyed reading this novel and cared about the characters.  The story was very engrossing which made me want to keep reading and look forward to when I could get back to the book.  I particularly enjoyed the author’s descriptions of the desert and the people who might choose to live such an isolated life style.  The only problem I had was that it was at times hard to follow and connect the small details throughout the story.  At the end I had several unanswered questions, even though I went back through the book to see if I missed anything.   I received a complimentary copy of the book for this review.  Rating: four stars out of five.

Characters
Price, Utah	Route 117	Rockmuse, Utah
Ben – truck driver Cecil Boone – Stop ‘n Gone Truck Stop Ana –works at truck stop -  in picture on missing poster with Manita at end of novel Pedro – tire man at truck stop Juan – Manita Dog Ginny – lived in duplex connected to Ben’s Annabelle – infant daughter Nadine – mother Rod – Nadine’s boyfriend Dr. Wanda Stafford Los Ojos Negros Michaela Josefina Tiffany (Julieta)	Walt Butterfield – Well-Known Desert Diner Bernice – wife – raped Claire – daughter, cellist – killed by ex-husband Walt’s Son with a married rancher’s wife – smuggling tires from Mexico with Cecil, also involved in child smuggling Dan Brew Andy Smith – State Trooper	John “Preach” – First Church of the Desert Cross Phyllis Bradford Joe – Rockmuse Mercantile Peggy -wife Lenny – nephew Toby – Collision Center Roy Cuthbert – inventor Eckhardt – Rockmuse Shell Station Ginger – Ginger’s Glass, Whatnots, Handmade Soap and Ballroom Dance Emporium George Dr. Rupert Conway Hector and family

 For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition of the book.

1. On page 18, after being hit by the truck Ben wonders if he should have made “the harder” choice and just gone home with the boy and Belle.   He thought, “Like a good many people, when faced with a hard decision, most of my thinking involved trying to come up with a good excuse not to do what I knew I should do.”   Do you think this is true for most people?   Why do some people make the harder decisions?
2. Why did Ginger run over John?  Was it on purpose or an accident?  Why did George call the hospital and tell them he had died?
3. Were you able to picture the town of Rockmuse as you were reading?
4. Which characters did you connect with the most?  Which would you like to learn more about?
5. When thinking about Roy on page 86, Ben saw Roy in a different light, “resourceful, hardworking, determined, even ingenious…”   Did this novel make you think of people who might be worse off than you in a more positive or different way?
6. What happened to Manita in the end?  How was Ana at the truck stop connected to Manita?  When was the picture taken for the missing poster?
7. How did Claire get such an expensive cello?  Was that important to the story?
8. Why do you think Pedro said the child was a boy?
9. Did you think the man driving the truck that hit Ben at the beginning of the novel and then attacked Ben, Walt and Andy at the end was Walt’s illegitimate son?  Why did he attack the three men?
10. On page 303 Ben muses that, ‘There was only one reason why all three of us were still alive.”   What was the reason?
11. What part did Los Ojos Negros play in the novel?  Why did they seem so connected with Ben?   What part did they play in the three men’s survival at the end of the novel?
12. Discuss your reading experience.  What was positive and what, if anything, was negative?

*****

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