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A review by theanitaalvarez
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
4.0
This book is so sad, but not in a depressing sense of the word, or anything like that. It’s sad and beautiful, the sort of beauty it’s hard to understand. It’s the story of a lonely life, and also the story of a country that disappeared. Short and to the point, the novel manages to show a lot of layers with few words and that’s amazing.
The protagonist is man called Grainier, who has no origins (he came inside a train) and who lives in the middle of an age of changes and wonders. One of the things that is repeated about him is that he’s a “steady man”, and throughout the whole story he shows his steadiness over and over again. He keeps on working hard, and he works through all the difficulties he has to face. Living in one if the turning points of US history, his presence is somewhat interesting. He’s a steady man in a world that’s quickly changing and he appears to be an anchor of some sort.
One of the more beautiful moments in the novel is when he meets Gladys, his future wife. Keep in mind that Grainier has never had an actual family. He lost his parents at such a young age that he cannot remember them, and the family that raised him weren’t really sure if they were related or not. So Grainier’s love for Gladys appears to be doubly sweet; it’s more than romantic love for her, as it’s also the longing for a family, for a place to call home. And when he’s wooing her, he takes the first step towards having a physical home: buying some land (with which he convinces her to marry him, also).
He deserves to get such love and a home, but even that satisfaction is short-lived. While he’s working away from home (as lots of people in the time of the New Deal did), a huge forest fire destroys his lands and kills Gladys and their daughter.
That’s one of the most heartbreaking parts of the novel, when he gets to his little cottage and looks through the ruins of his own life, looking for some signal that shows that his family managed to escape. And then he decides to rebuild the house and stay there. It’s quite sad, as the narrative clearly shows how destroyed he feels, but at the same time he doesn’t appear to be able to spit it out.
Throughout the novel, the question “are there any ordinary lives?” appears to linger in its pages. True, Grainier doesn’t do anything particularly impressive or extraordinary, so one would wonder why anyone would ever care to write his story. But the novel, I think, shows precisely the opposite: everyone has a story, and all those stories can and should be heard. Grainier’s story is sad, and tragic, and he himself is not an expressive man, but his story is as extraordinary as the big heroes we’re used to hear about. And every life can be seen in the same light, I guess. You don’t have to be very impressive to have a story worth telling.
The protagonist is man called Grainier, who has no origins (he came inside a train) and who lives in the middle of an age of changes and wonders. One of the things that is repeated about him is that he’s a “steady man”, and throughout the whole story he shows his steadiness over and over again. He keeps on working hard, and he works through all the difficulties he has to face. Living in one if the turning points of US history, his presence is somewhat interesting. He’s a steady man in a world that’s quickly changing and he appears to be an anchor of some sort.
One of the more beautiful moments in the novel is when he meets Gladys, his future wife. Keep in mind that Grainier has never had an actual family. He lost his parents at such a young age that he cannot remember them, and the family that raised him weren’t really sure if they were related or not. So Grainier’s love for Gladys appears to be doubly sweet; it’s more than romantic love for her, as it’s also the longing for a family, for a place to call home. And when he’s wooing her, he takes the first step towards having a physical home: buying some land (with which he convinces her to marry him, also).
He deserves to get such love and a home, but even that satisfaction is short-lived. While he’s working away from home (as lots of people in the time of the New Deal did), a huge forest fire destroys his lands and kills Gladys and their daughter.
That’s one of the most heartbreaking parts of the novel, when he gets to his little cottage and looks through the ruins of his own life, looking for some signal that shows that his family managed to escape. And then he decides to rebuild the house and stay there. It’s quite sad, as the narrative clearly shows how destroyed he feels, but at the same time he doesn’t appear to be able to spit it out.
Throughout the novel, the question “are there any ordinary lives?” appears to linger in its pages. True, Grainier doesn’t do anything particularly impressive or extraordinary, so one would wonder why anyone would ever care to write his story. But the novel, I think, shows precisely the opposite: everyone has a story, and all those stories can and should be heard. Grainier’s story is sad, and tragic, and he himself is not an expressive man, but his story is as extraordinary as the big heroes we’re used to hear about. And every life can be seen in the same light, I guess. You don’t have to be very impressive to have a story worth telling.