Rome Haul

by Walter D. Edmonds

A Collectible First Printing (has a complete 5 to 1 print number line); Syracuse University Press 1987 (stated); trade paperback; no remainder mark, text unmarked, a very light bookstore number stamp on the half-title page, but no bookstore stickers or labels; page 12 had the corner folded, but now is unfolded; uncreased spine; smoke-free; ships quickly in protective packaging; for even quicker delivery, the expedited shipping option is available; SKUp4963

Genres: Historical Fiction, Classics

347 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Walter Dumaux Edmonds has been a National Book Award winner and recipient of the Newbery Medal. He is the author of Bert Breen’s Barn, The Boyds of Black River, In the Hands of the Senecas, Mostly Canallers, Rome Haul, Time to Go House, and most recently the autobiographical Tales My Father Never Told, all available from Syracuse University Press.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book about a young man and his experiences as a canal boater on the old Erie and Black River canals. Walter Edmonds does a wonderful job evoking what it must have been like to live and work on the canals in their heyday. As a resident of the Mohawk Valley, I've often wondered what life must have been like on the canal. The present-day towns on the old Erie must have been very different then, with the canals snaking through them along routes that are today mostly paved over as streets. The kind of historical detail that Edmonds provides is exactly what I was hoping for when I picked up this book. The Five Combine locks on the Black River canal, at which two pivotal scenes are set, can still be seen next to Rte. 49 south of Boonville.

Beyond the wonderful historical detail, Edmonds is also a fine writer. He knows how to pick out little details in each scene that make them come alive to the reader, making you feel as if you are standing in the cabin of the boat, or walking the towpath, or looking out over the beautiful country of the Tug Hill plateau. His dialogue is delightful, and his ear for the local language, much of which can still be heard in the speech of local residents, is impeccable. You can be confident, reading Rome Haul, that you are getting an authentic taste of what canal life and "canawlers" were like in mid-nineteenth century New York.

The plot of Rome Haul is well balanced, the characters each authentic and well drawn without being caricatures, and the story stays true to their natures. The story proceeds at a pace that a canawler would appreciate--not too fast, not too slow, with a little something happening all the time, and not much time wasted waiting for the next development. As a novel, I give it four stars. I give it a fifth star for its impeccable historical detail and for the many local references, which I enjoyed immensely.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a book discussion at the public library in Rome, from which the book gets its name. Edmonds was from the Boonville area just north of Rome. This, his first novel, wasn’t his best. Certain events remained unresolved or undeveloped, and would have made for a fuller plot. Yet the book was highly enjoyable for its colorful, rather eccentric characters and the gorgeous descriptions of scenery and places, making you feel as if you’re right there. Edmonds grew up in Black River Canal country and talked to people who had lived and worked on the canal, so his details were authentic, especially the unique vocabulary and speech of the canallers. (Hint: keep a copy of the article “Erie Canal Colloquial Expressions” handy: http://docs.kedc.org/schools/TAH/Docu.... A vocabulary at the end of the book would have been welcome). His mention of specific places in the Black River Canal/Erie Canal area were sometimes real, sometimes imagined, which goes to show that authors take liberties when writing fiction, and that it’s best not to mistake historical fiction for history. Edmonds is considered to be one of the first writers of regional literature for upstate New York, and Rome Haul is certainly a perfect example of the genre. (For a brief description of what regional fiction is, see: https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/aml... ). All the elements that make the book so good—the colorful characters, rich descriptions, use of dialect, and a plot that is secondary to those things—are the definition of regional fiction. Living in the region described made the book more meaningful and interesting for me, and I recommend it especially for those who live in New York State, but also for those interested in life on the Erie Canal.

[Dalton Hyde]

A thoroughly enjoyable book. The characters were hyper realistic but perhaps a bit simple at times, yet over the course of the book you become fully invested in them all the same. The plot took a while to build and I found certain happenstances a bit hard to believe. My favorite part of the book however was the description of places familiar to me all my life, Boonville, Rome, Utica. Totally separate from the plot there are perhaps 12 or so passages in the book where Edmonds is writing about something untaggable; the sound of a blizzard, the cold of winter, the simple beauty of a good draft team, the coming of spring. They are easily the most beautiful passages of literature I’ve ever read. As this is just Edmonds first novel, I can only imagine the others are just as good if not better.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is an excellent piece of regional historical fiction, with very realistic and lively characters holding our attention from beginning to end.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read; a coming-of-age story, but one in which the young man struggles his way through in a very ordinary way: he stumbles along until he figures out what he wants to do with his life.

Part of what makes it a good read is that he, Dan Harrow, finds his way to the Erie Canal in 1850. The canal's busiest days are ahead, but the canal's end--railroads--has also begun. Edmonds gives us a vivid picture of the lives of the people who actually worked the canal, but it's worth remembering that these are lives that he imagined. The canal workers, like the garbage men and grocery store clerks of our days in the Covid-19 pandemic, left little record in their own voice.

So the other thing that makes this a good read is Edmonds' ability to sketch, not just individual characters, but their subtle and shifting relationships with each other. In this book, he's especially good at showing, not telling.

Another thing I like about Edmonds' work is how firmly it's situated in the time he was writing: this book is from 1929. I grew up reading books written in the first part of the 20th century, and I remain firmly convinced that the best way to get a feel for a time is to read the fiction written then. It's a time before I was born, but it's the world that animated my childhood imagination, and I can see in these books attributes of both the character and culture of that period, and how those attributes have changed over the last century in America.

[Raymond Bial · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good historical novel about the culture and social life along the Erie Canal. Lovely, almost magical descriptions of varied landscapes and seasons, colorful characters, and lively dialogue. The plot was thin and predictable, with a dark undercurrent throughout, but nonetheless an interesting literary work.