Saturday, November 18, 2017

Tracks

Recently I leafed through The Hobo Handbook by Josh Mack. Really, it was just something I picked up on a whim at the library. The book offers advice to those thinking of setting out on the rails as a hobo, although that's not the only method of transit discussed. Bits of history are interspersed as well.

The word "hobo" conjures images of the Great Depression or earlier. But the culture is still around, in a form. Even thriving in a sense.

How to feel about this? It's good that there's an escape hatch for people who want to live outside the grind. But in a way the piecemeal and makeshift aspect of hobo life is spreading throughout society, especially in the profusion of gig economy jobs. That might not be so good.

Also read Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May Off the Rails recently. Including it in the same blog post because it also deals with rail transit. The London Underground, to be specific. There are murders being committed in and near Victoria Station. A faceless escapee named "Mr. Fox" seems to be responsible.

This is the first entry in Fowler's "Peculiar Crimes" series that I've read. I liked it. What I especially like is that Fowler writes a contemporary murder mystery in a fanciful way. It's there in the flash mob distractions and the arguments with Bryant and May's boss over just how ridiculously ancient they are. Most contemporary crime fiction tries for realism, with diminishing results. Nice to see an author not bothering.

2 comments:

susan said...

I can't help but think that anyone who would write a book that encourages people to be hoboes is being deliberately oblivious to the miseries that drove people away from their homes in the Depression and now. Maybe for a few young people who have some fallback options it might be okay for a bit, but not for anyone older or those with children - for them it's homelessness and not a carefree lifestyle with a smartphone and a grimy sleeping bag. Although you're too young to remember the 60s it was a period when lots of young people took up vagabonding when the US was a much safer place than it is now.

Now as far as the books about the two elderly detectives is concerned I think you've convinced me to give the series another try. While I only read one of the Bryant and May novels some years ago it seems to me R.D. Wingfield's Inspector Frost books may have been somewhat similar in tone.

Ben said...

To be fair to the author he does make clear that it's really not a life for everyone. The impression that I got was that a lot of the hobo-vagabond life isn't that enjoyable. On the other hand, the kids (and older) who travel around the country sharing rides through Craigslist and keeping their smartphones handy don't seem to be hoboes in any meaningful sense of the word. In the 60s there was still more a social safety net, a remnant of the need to keep veterans working and prosperous after the war. At some point that was dropped.

There is a similarity between Bryant and May and Inspector Frost. They're older characters, seemingly unsuited to the modern world. Frost's hidden strength is exactly that. Bryant and May's world doesn't seem to be as grimy, though.