lokroma reviewed Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Review of 'Train Dreams' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This is not a book I would choose to read if it weren't recommended in one of those articles about authors' favorite books. I can't remember which author liked it, but it is a very good book. At only 116 pages, it left me with a feeling of something much more epic, perhaps a Dennis Lehane novel.
The story takes place in the early part of the 20th century in the Idaho panhandle, and stars a man who spends his summers working on the huge trestle railroad bridges that were being built at the time. He winters in his cabin with his wife and daughter until he tragically loses them. Most of the rest of his life is spent trying to resolve his loss.
Robert makes his way while running into some pretty gnarly characters. The book is packed with their stories and with evocative descriptions of a wilderness that …
This is not a book I would choose to read if it weren't recommended in one of those articles about authors' favorite books. I can't remember which author liked it, but it is a very good book. At only 116 pages, it left me with a feeling of something much more epic, perhaps a Dennis Lehane novel.
The story takes place in the early part of the 20th century in the Idaho panhandle, and stars a man who spends his summers working on the huge trestle railroad bridges that were being built at the time. He winters in his cabin with his wife and daughter until he tragically loses them. Most of the rest of his life is spent trying to resolve his loss.
Robert makes his way while running into some pretty gnarly characters. The book is packed with their stories and with evocative descriptions of a wilderness that is gone. It seems to me an accurate depiction of life on the edges of the American West of the time. There are sparks of antagonism towards Native Americans, women, and the Chinese; and it's difficult to watch the wilderness being obliviously hacked away for the railroads, but it happened. For the brief time it took to read the book, I was absolutely immersed in the journey of this man, mostly alone, who is trying to make sense of a wild and irrational world.
