Rating: 
Summary: Uys Paints Poignant Picture of Life during Great Depression
Review: Riding the Rails tells a story not often heard about life during the Great Depression. Although the story is fresh, it really puts into perspective what was going on in America at that time. By using teenage runaways to illustrate the struggles of our country, Ulys puts a very human face on the time period.
I thought the way the book was divided into sections with each section illustrating a different aspect of the runaways' lives, was extremely helpful. Each section began with an overview of the particular subject, using people as well as facts to tell the story. The section ended with the true life stories of the runaways told in their own words, which I found to be the most enjoyable part of the book. You could tell a lot of research went into finding reliable and interesting sources, because all of the personal accounts were compelling.
This book tied together so many aspects of the economic disaster that was the 1930s. By showing readers a face behind the poverty, they can understand how the country's economy has everything to do with the lives of its people. The stories told are so sad and hard to believe that it can serve as motivation to see that our country learns from its mistakes and never lets the economy become what it was at that time.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting read and well worth the time to gain insight into a compelling piece of history.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Writing
Review: The testimonies of these people (who rode the rails in their youth) are often spell-binding and heart-breaking, and funny. Mr. Uys is a pleasantly unobtrusive narrator, happy to stand back in the wings. He is right to let these people tell their own stories, and it should be noted that when he does speak up on the page, his voice is kind, his sentences graceful and shimmering with an understated elegance that one sees less and less these days.
Rating:
Summary: It Could Happen Again!
Review: While the plight of the rail-line adventurers is certainly compelling, the way the book is laid out on the whole leaves much to be desired. I would much rather there been a focus on a few of the characters and their experiences in their entirety.The practice of submitting dozens of snippets from dozens of people makes for dull reading and dilutes the overall power of the experiences shared by these people. After reading scores of two-paragraph statements on the great depression, we are left with no feeling for the characters other than, "Boy the depression must have really sucked!" I'm unsure as to whether this work falls into the "publish or perish" school of literature but it certainly seems that way. Too often the reader is left "wondering" and wanting to know more about some compelling characters. Alert publishers everywhere - A collection of short essays does not a book make!
| 
