Boomer: Railroad Memoirs

By Linda G. Niemann

Book Overview

This classic account of self discovery and railroad life describes Linda Grant Niemann's travels as an itinerant brakeman on the Southern Pacific. Boomer combines travelogue, Wild West adventure, sexual memoir, and closely observed ethnography. A Berkeley Ph.D., Niemann turned her back on academia and set out to master the craft of railroad brakeman, beginning a journey of sexual and subcultural exploration and traveling down a path toward recovery from alcoholism. In honest, clean prose, Niemann treks off the beaten path and into the forgotten places along the rail lines, finding true American characters with colorful pasts--and her true self as well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253222834
• ISBN13: 9780253222831
• Release Date: April 2011
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and inspiring journey

Why has no one reviewed this book yet?? I suddenly feel duty-bound to put in some words for it - all of them good. This book is funny and touching, and even educational -- I learned all kinds of interesting things about how railroads run (and about the people who run railroads). It's the kind of book you may have trouble putting down, as you'll want to find out where Ms. Neimann travels next.