HOPE'S HIGHWAY

Author: Dorothy Garlock ISBN:0446690171 1/2004 HISTORICAL (reprint) Publisher: WARNER BOOKS
Time Period: 1930's Americana

In Depression-era America, U.S. Route 66 beckoned to those who yearned for a better life. Now beloved author Dorothy Garlock celebrates the dreamers who rode westward on... HOPE'S HIGHWAY Margie Kinnard is thrilled when the father she barely knows agrees to take her to California. For years, she's yearned to try her luck in Hollywood. But her troubles start the moment she steps into his truck. Ornery and embittered, Elmer Kinnard couldn't care less about his daughter or the families driving with them: the parents whose blind son longs for a radio career; the husband whose wife will flirt with anything in pants; the brother and sister united by fierce loyalty and hope. But Margie is intensely interested in everyone-especially the rough-hewn rancher who later joins their little caravan with his niece. Brady Hoyt, who knows all about heartbreak, has no intention of getting within ten feet of Margie, just as Margie has no intention of sacrificing her movie star dreams for a man with a ready-made family. Until tragedy strikes, someone turns traitor, and a dangerous piece of Brady's past threatens them all on the highway they call Route 66.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Sitting here in 2004, it's easy to look back on the early 1930's and dismiss it as a quaint and simpler time - unless you really stop to think about it. The country is still struggling out of the Great Depression. The Midwest, especially Oklahoma, is a dustbowl and farms are going under. War is stirring in Europe.

But, once again, California has become the Promised Land. In the 1800's it was the land of gold; the 1930's, the land of golden opportunities. Especially in Hollywood where a pretty young girl can find fame and fortune. It's what Margie Krinnard is hoping for when she heads down Route 66 in a truck-turned-camper with her father.

Since her relationship with her father isn't what a daughter could hope for, it's fortunate that two other families have come along to form a caravan. A little farther down the line, they add another to the group: Brady Hoyt and his young niece, Anna Marie. They are both still coming to grips with and grieving over the tragic deaths of Anna's parents. Against either one's intentions and plans, Margie and Brady fall in love.

I liked this book. It's easy to say, 'People went West in the '30's to start over.' This book brought to life what that really meant. It meant pulling up stakes and leaving everything behind. Traveling in cars, trucks, and campers; sleeping in the same, or maybe a canvas tent. Bouncing along (remember they didn't have air shocks back then) for hours and hours over the miles of Highway Route 66, large portions of which had yet to be paved. The dangers of being robbed and possibly murdered for what little you had. The fear of breaking down or running out of money and stuck where you are indefinitely or possibly definitely.

I enjoyed all the characters. If there was anything I didn't like about this book, I think it would be that I wanted to know more about them.

Since reading the book, I've found out that this is the second book of three. The first book, MOTHER ROAD, is the story about characters that show up and are mentioned in the second. The third book, SONG OF THE ROAD, I'm sure will be Rusty's story - one of the main secondary characters from HOPE'S HIGHWAY I found very intriguing.

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