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scarletohhara's review
4.0
At first glance, this is a very ordinary book about two ordinary people. But what makes this book a Four starred one is the prose that makes you keep reading in spite of a semi-interesting plot. The thoughts of the protagonists, the transformation in their stances and the delicate descriptions of where they are in their lives are beautifully written.
fuzzyhebrew's review
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
These characters are quite unlikeable. I cannot root for them and I cannot root for them to get together or reconcile at the end. But to be honest I have lived this little tale. I have had sour relationships and it did feel good to get closure. But then pursuing friendships or other things after the end of the story does not work out. I understand the characters, I don't think they are bad people. But I did not feel like they were worth my time. The writing is fine, it was a notch below Virginia Wolf, who I really felt captured the neuroses of characters in stream of consciousness writing. This had some really believable and human character moments just like she did, but the writing was not as flowing.
destrys's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
teresa194's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
batbones's review
5.0
It's hard to find words to describe the range of emotions this has dragged this newly adult reader through. A stream of consciousness novel of a train journey in which the main characters say almost nothing to each other, where thoughts thrive on observation and memory alone? It is incredible enough that this novel exists at all, but it is even more astonishing what Blondel manages to achieve with the form and subject matter to do what he seems to do best: encompassing the tedium, the extinguished hopes, the frail promises and quiet despair of modern living under a clear-eyed but tender narrative gaze.
Sympathetic, even-handed and occasionally ironic, the novel is almost too accurately attuned to modernity's little traps and let-downs, the cul-de-sacs one finds oneself in at middle age. Just like in Exposed, Blondel uses two characters and two alternating points of view, and the excellent use of the first person secures a sense of discomfiting closeness to the reader's perspective, and the everyday language (there are few real metaphors, if any) makes that intimacy and contemporaneity even more inescapable. And just like Exposed, The 6:41 to Paris scrutinises the aimlessness of mature adulthood where life has seemed to pass by and yet also come to a standstill.
"No one ever warned us that life would be long.
Those easy slogans that make your heart beat faster, like "carpe diem" or "die young" - all that stuff was just nonsense.
No one told us, either, that the hardest thing would not be breaking up, but decay. The disintegration of relationships, people, tastes, bodies, desire. Until you read a sort of morass where you no longer know what is it you love. Or hate. And it's not as unpleasant a condition as you might think. It's just lifelessness. With scattered spots of light."
It is not the clear angles of distinctive personality that are the most astute, but the almost-forgotten experiences that this novel brings into view - the occasional cruelties in the middle of the day, the jab of one terrible humiliation years ago that years after still (as the writer puts it) 'sends its kind regards', the slow but sure accumulation of regret and resentment, and apathy that puts off any drastic action. The monotony of routine and decay broken up by mentions of escape and recollected instances of momentarily losing their senses, barely stifling a scream, being overcome by destructive urges. But these are pure moments when we react and overreact; melodrama has no space here.
Sympathetic, even-handed and occasionally ironic, the novel is almost too accurately attuned to modernity's little traps and let-downs, the cul-de-sacs one finds oneself in at middle age. Just like in Exposed, Blondel uses two characters and two alternating points of view, and the excellent use of the first person secures a sense of discomfiting closeness to the reader's perspective, and the everyday language (there are few real metaphors, if any) makes that intimacy and contemporaneity even more inescapable. And just like Exposed, The 6:41 to Paris scrutinises the aimlessness of mature adulthood where life has seemed to pass by and yet also come to a standstill.
"No one ever warned us that life would be long.
Those easy slogans that make your heart beat faster, like "carpe diem" or "die young" - all that stuff was just nonsense.
No one told us, either, that the hardest thing would not be breaking up, but decay. The disintegration of relationships, people, tastes, bodies, desire. Until you read a sort of morass where you no longer know what is it you love. Or hate. And it's not as unpleasant a condition as you might think. It's just lifelessness. With scattered spots of light."
It is not the clear angles of distinctive personality that are the most astute, but the almost-forgotten experiences that this novel brings into view - the occasional cruelties in the middle of the day, the jab of one terrible humiliation years ago that years after still (as the writer puts it) 'sends its kind regards', the slow but sure accumulation of regret and resentment, and apathy that puts off any drastic action. The monotony of routine and decay broken up by mentions of escape and recollected instances of momentarily losing their senses, barely stifling a scream, being overcome by destructive urges. But these are pure moments when we react and overreact; melodrama has no space here.
blevins's review
3.0
Short, tense French novel about former lovers who sit by one another on a train to Paris after 27 years apart. They spend the trip agonizing and re-living how it went wrong. Will they speak to each other and make amends? Don't want to spoil it for you.
cynthiak's review against another edition
3.0
J'aime les romans de Jean-Philippe Blondel. Il est l'écrivain du temps qui passe, des rêves enfuis de la jeunesse, des regrets mais aussi de la réparation.
iamleahmarie's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5