Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

RAILWAY GHOSTS AND HIGHWAY HORRORS

By Daniel Cohen and illustrated by Stephen Marchesi

Scholastic, 2003, New York and London.

 

HELPING THE HOMELESS

 

 

           At some critical point in our lives we hope that some stranger might intervene to save us from going over the brink. There seems to be a deeply rooted part in people which yearns for an angel, helper or benefactor to show us a way out of an impasse. It is only natural for people in a desperate predicament to yearn for a miracle at the 11th

hour. For instance, a person who inadvertently walked into a swamp hopes that someone will pull him out or a person whose car breaks down in a remote place hopes for a passerby to stop and help. In fact, fairy tales, folk tales and epics often reflect this desire. This might be why a small book of ghost stories by Daniel Cohen, has a wider appeal to readers who want more than just to hear a good yarn or

feel the sensation of intense fear. The book is titled 'Railway Ghosts and Highway Horrors.' In this book Cohen argues in his introduction that since there are practically no castles or very old houses in America then you are not going to come across ghosts in this setting, but more likely on roads and railways.

 

           I have been using this book for teaching some English lessons for more than a decade. One Russian student told me she could never forget the strange illustration of a headless bummer carrying a lamp in a tunnel to warn his friend of imminent danger ahead on the track. She found it more amusing than scary. She was hardly traumatized!

 

           Quite a number of those stories are about a ghost intervening to aid people and save them from either potential accidents or misfortune.

           For instance, in one 18th century legend, 'The Ghost of the Great North Road', the former wife comes back from the dead to help drive the coach of coachman Tom Driffield just in time to deliver an urgent message to York from Durham. She later warns Driffield's son whose coach is threatened by highway men waiting to ambush him. The headless dead colleague of Chuck Dolly turns up with a lamp in a tunnel to warn him that a huge boulder up ahead threatens to derail the train unless they stop. But it is the story of Big Joe the trucker which strongly impressed me. This is not only because of Cohen's down to earth and lively style of narration, but because he displays a lot of empathy with the characters he portrays. You almost feel you are walking in their shoes.

 

           The legend of 'Big Joe' begins with a 19 year youth, Randy Talbot, who is homeless and alone on a rainy and desolate highway. He is trying to hitch a lift, but practically every vehicle passes by. Cohen writes: 'It looked like another night spent in the open, cold and hungry. Randy was feeling as about as low as he ever had in his life.

           Randy had half run away, half been kicked out. Try as he might, he couldn't remember a single really good day in those 15 years. Life had been an unending string of arguments and fights, and when he wasn't fighting with his parents, a sullen silence reigned. They never talked, not even said hello'.

           Anyone who has worked with homeless people will immediately identify the tense atmosphere in a dysfunctional family which they have fled. We read on that Randy had hitchhiked all over the country begging, shoplifting and taking the odd job to get by.

          'Randy kept on moving because he never found  any place he really wanted to stay. He always hoped the next place would be better than the last.

           It never was. It was just more of the same. Now he felt his string about to run out'.

           Then suddenly a big 18-wheeler truck pulls to a halt. The driver invites him in. He is a huge man with a deep commanding voice who immediately inspires trust and respect. He asks Randy, "A lousy place to catch a ride....How'd you wind up here?." Despite usually reacting to some questions with a grunt or distrusting silence, Randy tells him his whole life story. The driver is listening attentively. He doesn't preach or judge, but simply listens. The driver replies, "You've had it real rough. But don't give up hope. You're young, you've got time, and you never can tell what is going to happen". Then Big Joe drops him off, gives him a 5 dollar bill for food and asks him to eat in a cafe. Before he can thank the stranger Joe drives away.  

 

           When Randy drops into the restaurant ordering food and coffee he tells them he was dropped off by Big Joe. Because Randy has never heard of Big Joe, the waiter tells him how he died in an accident while driving his truck. He swerved to avoid a bus full of school children driving up the long lane. None of the children were killed, but Big Joe was. After his death his ghost truck picks up and gives money to homeless hitchhikers.

 

           There are many versions of this story. Some people believe it is a living legend and that such a Trucker exists. Songs have been sung about this Trucker by Tom Faile and many other singers. Some young Russian student at Moscow State University sang a song about this legend at a storytelling workshop we organized about ten years ago. Sometimes this ghost is called Phantom 309. It could be that the story of Big Joe turns out to be a combination of different stories put together. There was a real catastrophe where a trucker was forced to swerve his truck to avoid a deadly collision with a bus of school children. The trucker was not called Big Joe, but John William Peter Trudelle. He died swerving his truck as a bus came out.

           Unlike in the Big Joe story, some of the passengers in the bus die along with Peter.

 

           Well, was the story of big Joe simply an invention? Was it based on  real events embellished by a versatile storyteller? Many truckers turn out to be brilliant storytellers! Did David Cohen himself make it up? Cohen, as if anticipating such questions, answers, 'Are the stories in this book true? Did they actually happen? I didn't make them up, though somebody might have. I have heard them and enjoyed them, and that is what you should do, just enjoy them.' In other words, don't look at me if you looking for a culprit who invented the story of Big Joe! It is a standard

retort given by Scottish storytellers. They even have a saying 'If it be a lie as told by me, it was as a lie told to me '{In Gaelic, it goes , Ma 's breug bhuam e, is breug chugam e}

 

           Such a story of Big Joe often doesn't raise eyebrows or scoffing in Russia. This may come as no surprise as there are countless stories of how Saint Nicholas appears and rescues people who are either sinking in a swamp or are surrounded by German soldiers. Saint Nicholas appears and gets them out! Only recently I heard how my friend Vitalily Negoda Macdhughaill wrote to me how Saint Nicholas

appeared in person to tell his great grandparents that his son had not died in the war as officials had claimed, but had been taken prisoner and he was alive. Maria Koroleva also told me how two members of her family were saved by Saint Nicholas!  

           So the story of Big Joe might well have some truth to it. He might be a kind of ghost or even a real living person who vanished like a ghost. Perhaps there is more than one Big Joe roaming around . Cohen claims that his readers should just enjoy his stories. But Cohen might have done something more than amuse readers.  

           Perhaps Cohen has inspired some readers to help the homeless!  You never can tell!