Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey by Alexander McCall Smith
| Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey by Alexander McCall Smith | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: A lovely little book that you can easily gobble up in an evening! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: November 2012 |
| Publisher: Polygon an imprint of Birlinn Limited | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1846972454 | |
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Do you have a train journey to make? Will it take you several hours? If so, then I can't think of a better place to sit and read Alexander McCall Smith's new, standalone novel. It's all about four people travelling on a train you see, and it's all about love. I gorged on it one evening, reading it all in one go without stopping, and it's really rather lovely!
Once more I am in awe of how AMS possibly finds the time to write so many books. Not only does he have to feed my addiction for reading about the Number One Ladies Detective Agency, and philosophising Isabel, and all in Scotland Street, and those living in Corduroy Mansions, but somehow he's managed to write me a brand new standalone book too! I know you should never judge a book by its cover but I must confess that I do find covers influence me at times. This little book is rather darling, in a funny little, squat size and gorgeous red and gold colours. It's light to hold and quick to read and I can see it's easily one I'll return to enjoy again.
Four very different characters are on the train from Edinburgh to Scotland and, as sometimes happens on a train, they begin to converse. It's just a light, banal conversation initially, but before long they are revealing intimate details about their lives, their own personal love stories. There are two younger men, and an older man and woman. I wondered at first if perhaps the love stories would be between the characters on the train, and if they would fall in love with each other somehow whilst en route to London. But the real story is much better, with the characters revealing themselves in different ways and their stories intertwining as things one character says may prompt the thoughts or words of another character, with the stories sometimes being shared amongst the four passengers, and other times being kept to themselves, and us as readers.
Although set on a train the story is global, because of course everyone's love story takes place in a different place, from Paris to America to a tiny remote railway siding in Australia. I liked the way the story takes you from being on the train to suddenly being inside someone's life somewhere completely different. You get a strange jolt when you slip back from one of the love stories onto the train again. Andrew's story begins the journey, and he is one of the young men, heading down to London to start a new job. David, the older gentleman, keeps his story to himself, unable to bring himself to share such personal information with strangers. His tale jumps in an out in between the others through the book, so the full details are revealed slowly. Kay tells her story to everyone, and it is about her parents in Australia. And finally there's Hugh, who tells the mysterious story of what happened when he was travelling by train once and got off at the wrong station.
All of the stories have the same flavour as his usual writing, with interesting ideas and thoughts, intriguing characters and the simplest of situations leading to funny, unusual or interesting stories. I liked the different ideas about love, and the different kinds of love that are described. My only quibble really was with Hugh's story as I felt, at the end, that the story wasn't quite finished for me. I don't know if that's because it ended in a way I didn't like, or if it was because I wasn't entirely sure what had really happened (his story is a little mysterious!) but that was the only tale that fell a tiny bit flat for me. Everything else was wonderful, and I especially enjoyed Andrew's story of love in an auction house and also Kay's parents' Australian adventure which was really very moving.
As I said, I read this straight through in one evening, which was a blissful experience as I usually find my reading is interrupted by small children needing things or the dinner waiting to be cooked! But this is short enough to read all the way through, and long enough so that it doesn't seem disappointingly short, if you know what I mean. All in all it's a lovely book, perfect for a cosy night in reading yourself, or as a gift for a friend.
AMS has written another standalone novel which I really love called La's Orchestra Saves the World.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey by Alexander McCall Smith at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey by Alexander McCall Smith at Amazon.com.
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