Robert Grainier is a the kind of man we all know... He's the kid in school who is a little slow picking up on things. He has no ambitions, except what occurs to him at the moment. He is soft-spoken and seldom in trouble. He is a dependable worker but seldom remains at any job for more than a few months. Does Robert sound boring to you? Well, that is okay, because Robert is only the vehicle that takes the story from place to place, so we can see the things that go on around him.
Denis Johnson wrote "Train Dreams" as a follow up to his National Book Award winner "Tree of Smoke". These are 2 of his 6 novels and 3 poetry collections; and poetry greatly influences his use of language in the descriptions of the people and places we meet as we follow Robert Grainier through his life. His style of writing leans much more to story-telling than to the typical dialog driven novels one typically reads.
The setting of this story is placed in time from the late 1800's through to the 1960's in rural America.
And listening to Will Patton doing the story telling evokes the memory of conversations I had in my younger years with elderly people who had been born in the century before me. In those conversations you could see them looking back to a time before automobiles, and space shuttles, and even grocery stores.
This reading is 2½ hours, and moves easily through the years telling of hard times and good times, and a few surprising twists that keep the story fresh while the main character remains stagnant. This will be a great story to listen to driving somewhere in your car.
Denis Johnson wrote "Train Dreams" as a follow up to his National Book Award winner "Tree of Smoke". These are 2 of his 6 novels and 3 poetry collections; and poetry greatly influences his use of language in the descriptions of the people and places we meet as we follow Robert Grainier through his life. His style of writing leans much more to story-telling than to the typical dialog driven novels one typically reads.
The setting of this story is placed in time from the late 1800's through to the 1960's in rural America.
And listening to Will Patton doing the story telling evokes the memory of conversations I had in my younger years with elderly people who had been born in the century before me. In those conversations you could see them looking back to a time before automobiles, and space shuttles, and even grocery stores.
This reading is 2½ hours, and moves easily through the years telling of hard times and good times, and a few surprising twists that keep the story fresh while the main character remains stagnant. This will be a great story to listen to driving somewhere in your car.
