#: 397369 S12/Rail Travel 13-Mar-94 00:48:36 Sb: ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Dennis Larson 75555,705 To: All A Book Review by Dennis Larson ZEPHYR: Tracking a Dream Across America Written by Henry Kisor 338 pages plus 16 pages of photographs and graphics. Price 24 dollars US, 31 dollars Canadian. Published by Times Books, NY, NY Hard cover. Henry Kisor [75745,1233] is the book editor and literary columnist of the Chicago Sun Times and author of What's That Pig Outdoors?: A Memoir of Deafness. He is the same Henry that checks into the Rail Travel Section on the Travel Forum and on TrainNet. Early in the book is it easy to see that Henry has an edge, for he is a veteran writer who is also a life long railfan. His writing style in the book is smooth, flowing and his words are easily visualized into thousands of pictures. More accurately, the book is like a feature length film for it is entertaining, not only for railfans, but more so for the rail traveler. The book could easily be converted into a movie, for those that seldom read, for the story begins in Chicago and takes you across the U.S. to the Zephyr's terminal in California. Leaving Chicago's Union Station, Henry writes- >"Emerging from the train shed into daylight, the locomotives tiptoed gingerly through scores of switches, towing their long rope of cars southward across a broad sea of tracks. Past a huddle of darkened double-deck Metra commuter trains, past the huge Amtrak coach yards, past ready tracks of drowsing locomotives glided the ZEPHYR." There are many books on trains and this book does not follow the pack with hundreds of photos, so if you like photographic essays only, you will not like "ZEPHYR". What "ZEPHYR" dwells on is the California Zephyr operation from a human perspective, not the typical technical/railfan view. Henry delves deeply into many areas of Amtrak railroading we have not heard before. He looks at the differences in the type of crews from past and present, even mentioning gay and straight car attendants of today and all their respective social problems. He also looks at the scenery. >"For seven minutes our train rolled slowly by- and through-- beetling, bristling, jagged 1,500 foot cliffs looming so close that they seemed to threaten to collapse upon the track" Here on the forums some complain of Amtrak crews, but in "ZEPHYR" you get to see a bit of passenger behavior through a crew person's eyes. >As we entered the lounge car, the chief caught Don's eye. "Yeah, Reggie?" >"We're having trouble again with Mildred," Reggie said. >"Mildred?", I asked. >"Yeah, you remember the lady from yesterday, the one who got her virginity back." >"Ah." >"When I went through her car this morning, she had her bra off, and was about to take off the rest of her gown right in the middle of the car to get dressed. When she saw me she stopped. I told the attendant to make sure that she wasn't drinking or anything like that. She doesn't have any money, remember?" >"Yup." Henry seemingly has left no stones unturned. From the book, one gets the impression it is written during one trip, but something like 17 trips were necessary to collect the many tales, some from the past, some of them as they happened during his journeys. Between both covers lie love, sex, violence, tragedy, on-board excitement and finally arrival. It may sound like fiction, it isn't, amazingly it is all true. "For all of us who feel happy every time we board a train, Henry Kisor provides a free trip, complete with grand views and life stories and lots of train talk. You open up the book, you're on the ZEPHYR--its as simple as that". -Garrison Keillor "Above all, ZEPHYR is just plain fun to read, full of quirks and unexpected moments and some memorable phrasing from a skilled and inventive writer." -T.H. Watkins, Washington Post "One would be lucky to draw Kisor as a seat partner on a long train trip, for this book review editor of the Chicago Sun Times is....a master at consequential chitchat and full of train lore, which he makes interesting whether or not you happen to share his ecstasy in rolling stock." -Publishers Weekly Henry will also be promoting his book on a trip across the U.S.A. calling at several cities in March. He will be traveling on the California Zephyr. #: 397463 S12/Rail Travel 13-Mar-94 06:06:57 Sb: #397369-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Lan Sluder/Asheville 76357,147 To: Dennis Larson 75555,705 Dennis, Thanks for the excellent review of Henry Kisor's book. I don't know if you're putting it in the DLs, too, but I'm also saving it for the new Book Review files we're trying to set up for Travel Forum. The book reviews are a bit like the Hotel Postcard Reviews, but we haven't really set up a system for them yet. We have one or two other reviews and hope over the next few weeks to establish an organized way to handle them for the permanent Libraries. --Lan Sluder #: 397485 S12/Rail Travel 13-Mar-94 07:31:04 Sb: #397463-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Dennis Larson 75555,705 To: Lan Sluder/Asheville 76357,147 Lan, I had planned to upload the review to the rail travel library in the next day or so without the COnference information tacked on the end. Because of the train's size and number of passengers on board for days, it gets to be somewhat of a rolling city. Start asking lots of questions and documenting it all, plus being a talented writer, soon you have a book that will take weeks to read. It was quite a feat, something missing so far, in railroad history. Dennis [Minnesota/Empire Builder Route] 13-Mar-94 at 7:28a CT #: 397559 S12/Rail Travel 13-Mar-94 10:47:22 Sb: #397369-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Harry Sutton (SAN) 72254,3665 To: Dennis Larson 75555,705 Dennis, That you for an outstanding review of what is obviously a dream come true for fans of traveling by rail and Amtrak. Regards, Harry [OzCIS v2.0c(3)] #: 397617 S12/Rail Travel 13-Mar-94 12:52:44 Sb: #397559-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Dennis Larson 75555,705 To: Harry Sutton (SAN) 72254,3665 (X) Harry, I should have mentioned the book is available in many bookstores now, although I have not found it in some of the smaller suburban stores near our place. Dennis [Minnesota/Empire Builder Route] 13-Mar-94 at 12:47p CT #: 398771 S12/Rail Travel 15-Mar-94 10:58:38 Sb: #397369-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Ted Kildegaard 73330,1666 To: Dennis Larson 75555,705 Dennis - I have been looking forward to Henry's book, but haven't yet obtained it. Thanks for the great review to whet my appetite! Ted Some comments from the people in TrainNet here on CompuServe- #: 110981 S4/Railfans 15-Mar-94 15:46:06 Sb: #110953-#ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Thomas Bates 71221,2712 To: Dennis Larson (TRAVSIG) 75555,705 Dennis The advertisement in the NY Times Book Review shows a train that has dome cars just like the ones used on the Capital Limited rather than then Superliner cars. I saw the add before I read or saw the review and wondered if the book was a history or if the book was about the current situation. As a person involved in the graphics business I wondered if the artist really knew anything about the train world. Tom #: 111009 S4/Railfans 15-Mar-94 19:22:04 Sb: #110981-#ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Steve Karlson 73216,53 To: Thomas Bates 71221,2712 >> NY Times Book Review shows a train that has dome cars just like the ones used on the Capital Limited rather than Superliner cars ... I wondered if the artist really knew anything about the train world. << Some of us with a little more seniority remember when the California Zephyr offered four dome coaches and a dome observation car, Thomas. The artist may have been inspired by nostalgia but such an illustration would not be inaccurate for the pre-Amtrak California Zephyr. Steve Karlson #: 111030 S4/Railfans 15-Mar-94 21:57:19 Sb: #110668-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: David Ross 71167,655 To: John Feagans (Authors) 75300,703 (X) John...For what little it's worth, I read an advance copy of this book and HATED it. Kisor's writing is skillful, but I felt he continually expressed bias (the German tourists, the transvestite, the private car owners, and most of all anyone unfortunate enough to have hearing -- his own lack of which seemed refreshed about every 4th page) and I was put off by his "quotes" of PA announcements and overheard conversations which (though he eventually explained them) seemed at odds with his hearing handicap. I thought he also painted a pretty bleak (even if accurate) picture about the shortcomings of Amtrak personnel -- the thefts, laziness, attitudes, and so on. One man's meat is another's poison, of course. Dave Ross #: 110843 S4/Railfans 14-Mar-94 16:31:32 Sb: #110647-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Thomas Bates 71221,2712 To: Dennis Larson (TRAVSIG) 75555,705 Dear Dennis Just received my NY Times Book Review in the mail and Zephyr was advertised and reviewed in it March 20, 1994. Your review is much better, and I hope to join the conference when the author is on. Tom (Note: An online conference was held on March 20, 1994 in the Travel Forum and on March 21, 1994 in TrainNet.) #: 110953 S4/Railfans 15-Mar-94 11:36:31 Sb: #110843-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Dennis Larson (TRAVSIG) 75555,705 To: Thomas Bates 71221,2712 Tom, Thanks for the compliment. I don't know if there are any books even close to it. Books with the lots of photographs are very good, this book tells us what a train ride is really like. When you get done reading the book, you will want to ride the Zephyr or any other Superliner train, and you will know everything there is to know after reading it including the problems they have on the Zephyr. As you may gather, I was highly impressed. Dennis [Minnesota/Empire Builder Route] 15-Mar-94 at 11:26a CT #: 111021 S4/Railfans 15-Mar-94 21:14:57 Sb: #111009-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: John Feagans (Authors) 75300,703 To: Steve Karlson 73216,53 Henry should get on and answer this for himself. The jacket cover illustration is from some original Burlington artwork of the California Zephyr. Henry's book isn't purely about traveling on superliners. He goes into some of the history of the pre-Amtrak California Zephyr. There are some of the classic California Zephyr pictures in the rockies and the canyons also presented. He mixes current travel stories with a historical perspective of the predecessor trains on the route. #: 111101 S4/Railfans 16-Mar-94 14:06:19 Sb: #110981-ZEPHYR, A Book Review Fm: Dennis Larson (TRAVSIG) 75555,705 To: Thomas Bates 71221,2712 Tom, As you know by now, the graphic on the paper cover is the pre-Amtrak Zephyr. The book is written in present day tense, as Henry crosses the U.S. from Chicago west. The story begins in the coach yards in Chicago when the crew goes to work that morning. What sets this book apart from the rest is that Henry is a newspaperman/railfan and he digs and digs and digs until we know even what an engineer feels. It is a story for rail travelers, the hard core railfan publications lean heavily to the technical side and miss completely the human factor. During the trip when the Zephyr passes past certain points the story reverts back to events that happened in the past, such as the big Naperville crash in 1946 that claimed 45 lives. Then it compares this accident to a nearly identical situation that was avoided on the present day Zephyr due to a quick thinking engineer. It gives what was the cause for the present day incident and why the same problem could have been the cause of the Naperville crash. So the story is of the real world Amtrak Zephyr with many comparisons to the Zephyr of the past. I rode the old Zephyr between Salt Lake/Denver and Omaha as well as today's Zephyr. Henry's recollections are not only very accurate but he has gone in depth even into the past. That is where ZEPHYR is different and that is what makes the book great. It is my guess that the CZ Zephyr crew will love the book, if not all railfans. Dennis [Minnesota/Empire Builder Route] 16-Mar-94 at 1:59p CT