cover image Boomer: Railroad Memoirs

Boomer: Railroad Memoirs

Linda Niemann. University of California Press, $0 (252pp) ISBN 978-0-520-06844-5

This volume is an odd amalgam of memoir, job manual and social study, as ex-druggie, ex-alcoholic, bisexual English Ph.D. Niemann reflects on her decade as a boomer--a railroad brakeman for the Southern Pacific line--from the tedious details of her daily labors to thoughts on the spirit of the American West. In her job, the author encountered many ``characters,'' from Wrong Way, with whom she had a brief affair, to a frightening survivalist against whom she never won an argument. The author's portraits seem true to life, though Niemann terms some fictitious, and include insightful glimpses into personal history and a startling view of Utah society, as well as bland, easily forgettable passages. (Mar.)