By Clyde Edgerton (Little Brown, 2011)

One of the funniest books I have ever read was Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton. That’s a tough act to follow, and although the jacket blurb for The Night Train indicates that the book is funny, it doesn’t even come close to Egypt. That said, Night Train is a pretty good book.
Larry Lime Beacon of Reckoning Breathe on Me Nolan, Larry Lime for short, is a 16-year old

living in a small southern town in the early 60s when all hell was about to break loose on the racial front. The sit-ins have begun in the bigger cities, and people are beginning to hear of Martin Luther King, Jr., but the rift between black and white is still not paramount. In addition to Larry Lime and his friends, the older generations in the town, both black and white, are represented well. Although this book doesn’t have the punch of The Help, it gives a glimpse into the way small towns worked before the 60s.
The Bleeder (he is a hemophiliac), a jazz musician who works in a local bar, begins to give Larry Lime lessons on playing jazz, and by the end of the summer, Larry is ready to play his own rendition of “Blue Monk” to the 50 people gathered at the bar and with the Jazz Group backing him up. The last paragraph in the book sums it up.
“Larry Lime was confident. His chest, head, and heart felt high above him. He was ready to feel the music’s effect on other people. He had on a narrow-brimmed hat. He knew he was a jazz musician---and would be for the rest of his life.”

--Reviewed by Carol Boston - © 2012