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Train Dreams (2002)

by Denis Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1250007658 (ISBN13: 9781250007650)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Picador

review 1: I really enjoyed this novel and was impressed with its compactness. A man's whole life (and half a century of the history of the American west) are stuffed into just 116 pages due to Johnson's spare, evocative language and ability to pick out the moments in his character's life that matter most and ignore the rest. There are no transitions, the timeline is out of order, and the scenes pass quickly without analysis or reflection - this is left to the reader to pause and do on their own. Most fascinating to me was the sense of tragedies and failures being taken in stride. In Robert Grainier's world, where there wasn't much hope to begin with, it isn't sorely missed. In fact, when hope is lost and reality is clear and known, Robert feels best: "As soon as he entered the remai... morens he felt his heart's sorrow blackened and purified, as if it were an actual lump of matter from which all the hopeful, crazy thinking was burning away."Themes: Pacific northwest, tragedy, identity, history, survival, growth of America, harsh reality
review 2: Robert Grainier is going to stick with me a long while, I can just tell. I think this quote sums him up succinctly. "He very often wept in church. Living up in the Moyea with plenty of small chores to distract him, he forgot he was a sad man. When the hymns began, he remembered. "As a matter of fact, I found myself reading passages and lines from this little novella over and over - even grabbing my wife or one of my kids as they walked by in order to recite aloud to them. less

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