Knight of the Rails
The 1930s were a period of drought throughout much of North America. In Canada the prairie provinces—the wheat-growing heart of central Canada—were particularly hard-hit, with farms being abandoned and families with no food to put on the table. Young Billy Knight realizes his is just one more mouth to feed and, leaving a note on the table, he leaves before breakfast to ride the rails, heading west on the great railway line that runs all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
He becomes a ‘bo, short for hobo, quickly learning how to jump onto a moving freight train and how to plead hunger if he sees kindness in someone’s eyes. Among other men riding the rails, he meets helpfulness and cruelty. He briefly joins a gang that steals from people already impoverished. Most train rides are short, from one small town to the next, but eventually he sees the Rocky Mountains and he hopes he will soon be in Vancouver, a big city where he thinks he will surely find a job.
The author vividly portrays the uncertainties of the hobo’s life in a time of widespread poverty. Billy’s ups and downs, his destroyed hopes and expectations, his disappointments when pay he has worked for is reduced are shown clearly and honestly. The story moves quickly, with a drama that is appealing and understandable. The characters he meets are quickly and effectively drawn and contribute to the richness of the reader’s experience. This is a readable and exciting book.
It is not a spoiler to say that towards the end of the book Billy encounters political ‘solutions’ to the problem of poverty in 1930s Canada, solutions that involve work camps, mounted police, and tear gas. The actual solution is even worse.
