train dreams

A few posts down I mentioned that the Pulitzer did not award a fiction winner this year. One of the worthy candidates, Denis Johnson, penned Train Dreams, a novella I've been meaning to praise. It is a stream of perfect sentences. This is an evocative but quiet tale of Robert Granier, a day laborer in the early 20th century American West. In 116 pages, I believed every creek, bit of floral and fauna, the plight of loggers and bridge builders, and wayward animals or wolf men and women were all part of a world I knew. I've read it twice in two weeks. The tricky thing about this novella being packed with perfect sentences is that it's impossible to pull favorite passages. I would want to type up the whole thing. Without the context of an entire chapter how could you know that, "The dog no longer trembled," as a closing sentence shook me. Instead, here is a glowing review in The New York Times that shares my sentiments.