2mo Eric J
cover

Book

Train Dreams
Train Dreams Douban Goodreads Skybridge
Denis Johnson publishing house: Picador 2012 - 5 other title: Train Dreams A Novella
Denis Johnson's "Train Dreams" is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. Robert Grainer is a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century--an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West--its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders--the new novella by the National Book Award-winning author of "Tree of Smoke" captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.

finished reading Train Dreams ๐ŸŒ•๐ŸŒ•๐ŸŒ•๐ŸŒ—๐ŸŒ‘
You're sitting at the bar, minding your own business, when the old coot a few seats down starts telling stories - anecdotes, really - about some other man's life. No one's really paying any attention, but everyone is listening to him talk. That's kind of how the first half of the book read to me; I didn't really care, but I kept reading anyway.

When the old coot takes his leave, another guy further on down the bar picks up where the old coot left off, and weaves in some mysticism. I can't speak for anyone else, but the back-half of the book is where I start getting excited to see what happens next.

It's a letdown of minor proportions, but I suppose that's how it goes sometimes.