Train Dreams by Denis JohnsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a sad and beautifully told story of a rugged and rough life in the American Northwest during the first quarter of the 1900s. Fundamentally ahistorical fiction, elements of magical surrealism adds to the depth of and emotions conveyed in Train Dreams. The novella is a Pulitzer Prize nominee for 2012.
The language and prose is evocative of the brutality of nature entwined with human life from days gone by. It's hard to fathom in our current times how Americans used to live about a hundred years ago- or at least a lifestyle that is considered outside of the mainstream in early 1900s.
I've read somewhere a book reviewer describing the book as "imagine Toni Morrison flirting with Paul Bunyan" with how the Denis Johnson uses magical surrealism "as a means of melding humans and
animals into a single life-force that animates the mountains and valleys." I would have to agree.
I rate this book 4.25 out of 5 stars.
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