A masterpiece... One of the best prose writers in our time'Michael Ondaatje An epic miniature of one man's life journey through the American West at the turn of the twentieth century. Robert Grainier is a day labourer in the American West,felling the trees that feed the railways. It is the start of the twentieth century,and the world is changing at a rapid pace. Life is fragile in the wilds of the frontier; disease and forest fires are rife. Buffeted by the loss of his family,Grainier journeys,struggling to make sense of the bewildering changes transforming the nation. Rich and muscular,sweeping and incantatory,Train Dreams is an epic in miniature: an elegy to the ravaged beauty of a lost landscape,and a haunting indictment of the cost of our modern way of life.'A work of extraordinary power and consummate skill... A masterpiece'Observer'I don't think there is a sentence in the book that isn't perfectly made'Ann Patchett,New York Times
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Granta BooksISBN: 9781783787623Number of pages: 128Weight: 150 gDimensions: 200 x 132 x 10 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
To have written something this concise,this muscular,this moving and - yes,why not say it - this eternal,seems little short of miraculous. But we have come to expect miracles from Johnson. In this age of plodding bandwagons and slavish imitation,Johnson is a one-hundred-per-cent authentic American original and an undisputed master of his craftA masterpiece... one of the best prose writers in our timeI don't think there is a sentence in the book that isn't perfectly madeA work of extraordinary power and consummate skill...It is a miniature novel,that delineates an epic yet ordinary life in passages of often startling descriptive power.A masterpieceJohnson might be one of America's greatest fiction writers... The denouement is written with such credibility that it fulfils the book's theme. Softly and beautifully,this novel asks a profound question of human life: is the cost of human society and so-called civilisation perhaps just too highOne of America's greatest living fiction writers... Gently undulating and compelling... You can sit down and read it in one sitting - and you shouldA miraculously deft job... Beautifully doneTrain Dreams has the same riveting duality as its extraordinary,ordinary hero... artfully constructed and rich in parabolic (and) paranormal possibilities... BewitchingWe hold Denis Johnson to be one of the greatest Americans currently writing... a work of absolute towering geniusIt will haunt me ever after... it resonates long and loud. The fact that this was on the shortlist for the Pulitzer Prize makes the jury's decision to withhold it all the more baffling. It should have wonA spare stoic miniature of a particular sort of American life... a portrait of containment,of compression and restraint,from the most essential writer of his generationHis writing is extraordinary - complex,beautiful,harrowing,astonishing in its power,and underpinned with a hard-worn humanity in the DNA of every sentence... exceptional on every level: ravaged,redemptive and utterly immersive. It is further evidence,if it were needed,of Johnson's unique and alchemical brillianceThe great success of this work lies in its ability to move between vivid,muscular prose and hallucinatory poeticism - in many ways encapsulating all that is great about American literature. Train Dreams retains an authenticity and clarity... Beautifully proportionedThe most powerful thing Johnson has ever writtenPicked by the New York Times as a Notable Book for 2011 and described as "a small masterpiece",this novella tells the tragic story of Robert West,a day labourer in the American West at the beginning of the 20th Century.The novella is 116 pages,but it is as rich,moving,and ambitious as any novel I read this year - and,because it is so compact,more powerful for it.It's a love story,a hermit's story... It's also a small masterpiece. You look up from the thing dazed,slightly changedExtraordinary... simple yet lyrical... There is a haunting,elegiac quality to Johnson's writing that perfectly fits with the subject matter,giving Train Dreams the feel of a modern fableThe natural world of the American West is examined,logged and frequently transfiguredAn immaculate distillation of a certain style of American fiction... Johnson delivers in hauntingly economical proseThis is a short,excellent book,with a poetic quality that makes it oddly grippingAstonishingly gripping... Awe-inspiring and heartbreaking,exciting and humbling,this is a recommended readWhat sets Train Dreams apart is a lucid wisdom,a sense of perspective,a warm sustaining familiarity in the same ballpark as Richard Ford's Canada... sharp and clean,brilliant and surprisingStark and terse... all told with Johnson's maverick approach to grammar and structureJohnson's writing is a joyThe best (novel) I read this year... It's compulsive and,finally,unspeakably eerieThis Pulitzer prize-winning author taps into a strain of Americana we find both familiar and appealing on this side of the pondIt has the feel of a modern fable,and is unbelievably moving... ExtraordinaryYou will have to keep stopping to recover from the assault of beauty,from the spare,clean prose that punches so far above its apparent weight,and from the tender perceptive description of a sad little life,which is not little at all. I do not understand why it is not everyone's favourite book of 2012... ExtraordinaryA concise yet epic slice of Americana of the unsweetened,affecting variety... Short it may be,forgettable it is notIts economy of language and force of emotion give Johnson's work a quick shot of intensity... SuperbSuperbEpic... Full of tenderness and wonderIt's beautifully written - a miniature masterpieceThe best book I read this yearA beautifully balanced and lyrical novella in which an ordinary labourer (...) lives through some extraordinary times... An outstanding workAmazingSet in the American West at the start of the 20th century,this is the tale of a construction worker who,after losing his wife and daughter to a wildfire,lives as a recluse in the woods... It's a feat
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