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A review by hernamewaslily
Train Dreams: A Novella by Denis Johnson
5.0
Denis Johnson’s ‘Train Dreams,’ follows the life of Robert Grainier, an ordinary labourer in the American West at the turn of the century.
Described on the blurb as an ‘epic in miniature,’ this slim novella is packed with references to and tropes of American literature and culture that readers with be familiar with: from the transcendentalism of Whitman and Thoreau (like Thoreau’s Walden, Johnson’s protagonist lives self-sufficiently in a cabin in the woods just as in Thoreau’s ‘Walden’) to the enacting of Manifest Destiny through Grainier’s participation in the so-called ‘civilising mission’ of the New World.
Johnson interweaves the personal changes in Grainier’s life (marriage, children, work, death, etc.) with the transformation of the nation as it chugs along the tracks of progress, offering an empathetic and nuanced understanding of this character and his position in the world.
I particularly liked the role of sound in the novel, namely the motif of howling that is evident throughout - the howling of the wolves in the forest, of the trains as they ramble down the newly built tracks, and, eventually, of Elvis Presley through the radio. I thought this was an incredibly original way to depict this transformative period.
‘Train Dreams’ is a masterclass in storytelling, and offers a heartbreaking yet hopeful vignette of the human and the American condition. ‘Train Dreams’ exceeded all of my expectations and every other novel I read from here-on-out is going to have a hard time competing with it.
Described on the blurb as an ‘epic in miniature,’ this slim novella is packed with references to and tropes of American literature and culture that readers with be familiar with: from the transcendentalism of Whitman and Thoreau (like Thoreau’s Walden, Johnson’s protagonist lives self-sufficiently in a cabin in the woods just as in Thoreau’s ‘Walden’) to the enacting of Manifest Destiny through Grainier’s participation in the so-called ‘civilising mission’ of the New World.
Johnson interweaves the personal changes in Grainier’s life (marriage, children, work, death, etc.) with the transformation of the nation as it chugs along the tracks of progress, offering an empathetic and nuanced understanding of this character and his position in the world.
I particularly liked the role of sound in the novel, namely the motif of howling that is evident throughout - the howling of the wolves in the forest, of the trains as they ramble down the newly built tracks, and, eventually, of Elvis Presley through the radio. I thought this was an incredibly original way to depict this transformative period.
‘Train Dreams’ is a masterclass in storytelling, and offers a heartbreaking yet hopeful vignette of the human and the American condition. ‘Train Dreams’ exceeded all of my expectations and every other novel I read from here-on-out is going to have a hard time competing with it.