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A review by sjklass
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Nameless, even in the title of this novel, R T Baxter is on-duty virtually 24 hours a day on a 1930’s cross Canada train journey. Nodding off standing up, so exhausted from unending menial work and lack of sleep Baxter takes to holding up his eyelids with his thumbs and eventually experiences hallucinations. Expected to be both ever-available to passengers every whim and yet simultaneously invisible to their transgressions, Baxter is constantly fearful of receiving demerits that could get him fired. It’s all so sad for a closeted gay man who just wants to earn enough for tuition to attend dentistry school.
Except that this novel is sometimes so damn funny. Baxter’s observations of the quirky, asinine, annoying passengers whom he, in his mind, gives nicknames like Blancmange. Mango. Spider. Pulp and Paper. Punch and Judy. give this otherwise somber novel some levity.
2022’s Giller Prize Winner gives voice to and highlights the working conditions of black train porters in Canada.
Except that this novel is sometimes so damn funny. Baxter’s observations of the quirky, asinine, annoying passengers whom he, in his mind, gives nicknames like Blancmange. Mango. Spider. Pulp and Paper. Punch and Judy. give this otherwise somber novel some levity.
2022’s Giller Prize Winner gives voice to and highlights the working conditions of black train porters in Canada.