Train Dreams
Ratings46
Average rating4
Reread.
Sentence for sentence, blow for blow - Train Dreams is top of class fiction writing.
Denis Johnson tells this story sparingly, as he should. Anecdotes might seem funny (he really is one of the funniest authors I've ever read) or sad or simple. But they all weave together to make a story so much greater than the sum of its parts.
It feels reductive to call this an American origin story. Yet it is. Robert Granier at first comes across as a basic everyman but he shows us where we all fall short, where our deepest fear and desire reside - of a life with meaning and community.
Is his life meaningful? Did he find community? In the face of immense loss he finds continuity and purpose. Why would you look down on him for not wanting more?
Johnson writes with absolute clarity and originality. There are small wonders throughout this novella, and sentences to be read and reread. A meditation on loss and loneliness and the wonder of our existence in the first place.
This is a beautiful, meditative sorry of Western epic fit into a short novella. I enjoyed just being taken along for the journey.
The audiobook was expertly narrated by Will Patton and definitely added to the tone and feel of the writing.
Denis Johnson has this lovely way of writing that sometimes sneaks up on you in its Americanness. Some sentences just jump out of books and clobber you with their greatness, making you rock back out of the story to appreciate said beauty. There's an art to creating something lovely that lets you keep going and not drive off the road from distraction, so to speak.
It is a quiet book, largely about the life of a man after he loses his wife and child in a tragedy. Despite working on the railroad's trek west, Granier ends up living solitarily, appreciating the little red dog or fighting back the encroaching wilderness. Mr. Johnson truly has a knack for dialogue that lives and breathes, which I consider to be a true accomplishment.
Perhaps, there is something very American not just about the language, but also about the book. After Granier's Aunt and Uncle take him in, he lives amongst his extended family, never quite belonging. He finds a true home with his wife and child, but then spins into loneliness, still following a somewhat nomadic career until his body can no longer handle the work. Americans have became lonelier as they shifted away from living in extended family clusters. “Conquering” America's West did mean giving up sitting around the hearth with your kin, but was it worth it? For Granier specifically, would he have found a woman he loved as much as Gladys? We'll never know, but Johnson's novella is definitely worth a read, coming in at 3.4 stars for me.
Book descriptions can be misleading. I mean, let's be honest, the publisher is trying to sell a book here. So let me just say that the summary for Train Dreams is flawed. “Epic in miniature:” it is certainly miniature. While its premise had potential to elicit some kind of response from the reader, it fails to be “evocative and poignant.” “Radical,” “otherworldly,” and “rugged” it is not. The description is not completely inaccurate, however. One line, “an ordinary man in extraordinary times,” most accurately describes this story.
Set against a wonderful backdrop of “extraordinary times” and places, Train Dreams has considerable promise. If the book harnessed this potential, and fulfilled its claim that the author “captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life,” it could possibly be a good story. Using Johnson's title as an analogy, the book refuses to board the train that takes us through this scenic and potentially exciting story, rather choosing to watch train's steam rise above the valley from afar.
The problem largely resides in the fact that Johnson is telling a story here. There is little else. I never identify with Robert Grainer. I don't feel for him nor sympathize with his plight. A large part of this distance is the character of Grainer, a man who lives in a time and place where he is expected to be rugged. Yes, Grainer is a little rugged; at the same time, I sensed the character wanted to be more emotional than his author would allow him to be. Grainer never steps past being an “ordinary man.”
I never had a clear sense of development in the story's arch or in its protagonist. I couldn't get into it. Many times, my mind wandered. In short, Train Dreams is a good story, but nothing more. It's the sort of story you expect to hear your grandfather tell while sitting on a stuffy couch in the evening hours of Thanksgiving Day. Therefore, if you're looking for more “stuffing” for your reading list, I'd go for Train Dreams. It's not a bad story, it just smells a little too much of grandpa.