The Return

Review: Lullaby Road: A Novel James Anderson Crown 2018 I’d read The Never-Open Desert Diner from this author, and when I found this book I knew I had to read it too.   This author has a way of constructing his stories that really works for me.   Easy reading narrative, simple narrative, belies its power.   I have not read any other I like better in quite a while.   He can weave so many colors and patterns without losing a thread or the reader along the way.    Ben, a single, amiable, independent trucker with a bit of a past who lives in a Utah desert town, lets himself be talked into babysitting for a neighbor girl who is OK with him taking the baby with him while he makes his deliveries.   She was desperate, and Ben couldn’t say no.   Sounds a bit unusual, but they have the history that makes it work.   Within a few minutes he also has gained two more passengers for the run, an abandoned child and a dog. ...

Review: The Never-Open Desert Diner James Anderson Crown Publishers 2015 If you haven’t read this one, I think you are missing a good book.   Feels like a flashback to an earlier time when reading was enjoyable, the story absorbing, tender but authentic, and well spun.   The title says much more than I first thought.   Lots of other things are not open in this desert.   Doors are locked and behind them the pasts that hold people in the desert.      The dust cover front leaf says, “ The Never Open Desert Diner powerfully evokes an unforgettable setting and introduces readers to a cast of characters who will linger long after the last page.”   Generally, these descriptions go overboard, but this one describes what I found in this book.   Ben Jones and Walt will remain with me for a long time.   They might be archetype characters.   The author does have an MFA after all and has done some editor type work.   He ...