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Train
Train is an 18-year-old black caddy at an exclusive L.A. country club. He is a golf prodigy, but the year is 1953 and there is no such thing as a black golf prodigy. Nevertheless, Train draws the interest of Miller Packard, a gambler whose smiling, distracted air earned him the nickname “the Mile Away Man.” Packard’s easy manner hides a proclivity for violence, and he remains an enigma to Train even months later when they are winning high stakes matches against hustlers throughout the country. Packard is also drawn to Norah Still, a beautiful woman scarred in a hideous crime, a woman who finds Packard’s tendency toward violence both alluring and frightening. In the ensuing triangular relationship kindness is never far from cruelty.
In Train , National Book Award-winning Pete Dexter creates a startling, irresistibly readable book that crackles with suspense and the live-wire voices of its characters.
In Train , National Book Award-winning Pete Dexter creates a startling, irresistibly readable book that crackles with suspense and the live-wire voices of its characters.
280 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 2003
35 people are currently reading
690 people want to read
About the author
Pete Dexter
23 books283 followersPete Dexter is the author of the National Book Award-winning novel Paris Trout and five other novels: God's Pocket, Deadwood, Brotherly Love, The Paperboy, and Train. He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Sacramento Bee, and has contributed to many magazines, including Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy. His screenplays include Rush and Mulholland Falls. Dexter was born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Illinois, and eastern South Dakota. He lives on an island off the coast of Washington.
See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Dexter
See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Dexter
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
May 28, 2010
Dexter is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. His spare and menacing style, quirky characters, bizarre humor, and capturing of place are all on display here. This book involves racism, golf, a caddie named “Train”, a police Sergeant obsessed with control, failed land deals, a rich widow(and survivor of a terrifying boat hijacking), an ex-boxer “Plural”(a great Dexter creation), some creepy criminals and psychopaths, and lots of random violence in 1950’s L.A. This has been described as Dexter’s take on a Walter Mosley book and this is correct, but Dexter’s style is very dissimilar to Mosley’s warmer take.
January 15, 2021
Manchen Büchern würde man eher gerecht, wenn man auf Klassifizierungen verzichtete. Dann hätte man es bspw. einfach mit einem „Roman“ zu tun, nicht mit einem „Krimi“. Das Label nämlich führt in die Irre. Pete Dexter erzählt in seinem Neo-Noir-Thriller TRAIN (2003/Dt. 2006) von zwei Schwarzen, die sich als Caddies in einem Country Club verdingen, von einem geheimnisvollen Mann, der offenbar bei der Polizei arbeitet, und einer reichen Dame aus Beverly Hills, deren Mann auf ihrem Boot getötet wird, sie selbst wird Opfer einer ausgesprochen brutalen Vergewaltigung. Die Täter sind Kollegen der beiden Caddies. Der Mann, Miller Packard, wird mit der Lösung des Bootsfalles betraut, tötet jedoch willkürlich die Täter. Dann kümmert er sich derart liebevoll und zugewandt um die Witwe, bis diese sich in ihn verliebt. Er wiederum ist an einem der Caddies – genannt Train – interessiert, da dieser offenbar ein hervorragender Golfer ist. Und mit so einem kann man Geld verdienen, wenn man zu wetten versteht. Und Geld hat Packard – genug, um den Reiz des Verlierens auskosten zu können.
Was hier wirkt wie eine kohärente Handlung, ist in Wirklichkeit ein relativ freier Fluß einzelner Episoden, die von einem recht weit gesteckten Rahmen zusammengehalten werden. Es ist auch nicht die Story, die hier überzeugt (oder überhaupt wichtig ist). Wichtig sind zum einen die Figuren, zum anderen die Konflikte, die zwischen ihnen entstehen und die zeigen, daß man selbst bei bestem Wissen und Gewissen doch nicht über seinen Schatten springen kann. Dexter spannt ein dichtes erzählerisches Netz aus Beziehungen und Querverbindungen, in dem sich alle Figuren nach und nach verheddern, wobei einige mehr, andere weniger schuldig werden. Dazu nutzt er die Regeln des Noir – die Täter, die mehr Getriebene als gedungene Kriminelle sind; die Unschuldigen, die nur als Opfer zu existieren scheinen, die in Händel verwickelt werden, die sie nicht verstehen; die Skrupellosen, die jede Situation als Aussicht auf Gewinn begreifen; sogar das scheinbar so verführerische Weib – sie alle könnten dem Personaltableau des klassischen Noir entstammen. Hinzu kommen die scheinbar genretypischen Verhaltensweisen: korrupte Cops, falsche Freunde/Kollegen, eine Welt, die voller Verrat und Illoyalität ist. Aber Dexter bürstet das alles gewaltig gegen den Strich. Und dabei gelingt es ihm, die Welt fast noch düsterer zu zeichnen, als es der Noir je tat, denn hier gibt sich nahezu jeder Mühe, ein besserer Mensch zu sein, als er es ist und nahezu jeder scheitert entweder an seiner Rassen- oder der Klassenzugehörigkeit.
Die Witwe ist steinreich, sie ist eine frühe Bürgerrechtsaktivistin, aber auch Opfer zweier schwarzer Vergewaltiger; sie beherbergt zwei Schwarze in ihrem Gästehaus, die ihr ebenfalls steinreicher Gatte (Packard, so erfahren wir auf den ersten Seiten, entstammt einer uralten Gelddynastie) dort einquartiert hat; der gleiche Gatte, der keine Skrupel hatte, die Vergewaltiger auf dem Boot mühelos umzubringen; der hier vielleicht Buße tun will. Train, der sich seines erblindenden Buddies Plural(!) angenommen hat und mit seinen 18 Jahren spürt, daß er vielleicht ein Recht auf ein eigenes Leben hat, hätte. Ein Leben, in dem er frei von der Verantwortung für einen blinden Verrückten die Chance hätte, mit seinen Talenten zu wuchern. Und der ob dieser Gedanken in Schuldgefühlen versinkt.
Der Roman ist in den 50er Jahren angesiedelt. Dexter läßt den Leser also ein wenig von der aufkommenden Liberalisierung spüren, die die Bürgerrechtsbewegung mit sich bringen wird. Nicht jeder in diesem Buch ist ein Rassist, Dexter malt durchaus auch Menschen und Situationen, die wirklich frei von allem rassistischen Wahn sind. Doch gerade vor diesem Hintergrund wird die hier beschriebene Welt besonders düster. Was James Ellroy zu verächtlichem Zynismus gegenüber den Idealisten treibt, dient Dexter als bitter-ironischer Twist. Da draußen gibt es eben doch anständige Menschen, alle – der Cop, die Witwe, der Caddie – geben sich Mühe, die Welt etwas besser zu machen – und scheitern. Der Kontrast, den Dexter dadurch schafft, ist literarisch großartig. Und furchtbar bitter im Resultat.
Das Scheitern hier ist ja gerade auch ein Ergebnis des guten Willens: Wer sich für die Rechte Schwarzer einsetzt, kann nicht erwarten, daß jeder Schwarze sein Freund wird; wer Geld hat, kann erwarten, daß alle anderen enorme Schwierigkeiten haben könnten, seinen Umgang mit selbigem zu verstehen. Und wer arm und schwarz ist, weiß sowieso, daß er nichts zu erwarten hat. Train und die anderen Caddies können eins besonders gut: Schweigen. In diesem Gestrüpp bleiben alle hängen. Mißtrauen, das aber zumindest die Weißen grundsätzlich verleugnen, ist das eigentlich herrschende Gefühl. Historisch gesehen hat Dexter ja Recht, wenn er sein Geschichtenbündel mit einem Lichtblick kommender Liberalisierung ausstattet. Doch er ist auch ausgesprochen hart in seiner Analyse: Kein Ausweg für den Einzelnen aus dem Gewirr der verschiedenen Konfliktebenen.
So hat man es hier mit einer als historischem Kriminalroman getarnten Gesellschaftsanalyse im Hinblick auf den allgegenwärtigen Rassismus zu tun. Bedrückend.
Was hier wirkt wie eine kohärente Handlung, ist in Wirklichkeit ein relativ freier Fluß einzelner Episoden, die von einem recht weit gesteckten Rahmen zusammengehalten werden. Es ist auch nicht die Story, die hier überzeugt (oder überhaupt wichtig ist). Wichtig sind zum einen die Figuren, zum anderen die Konflikte, die zwischen ihnen entstehen und die zeigen, daß man selbst bei bestem Wissen und Gewissen doch nicht über seinen Schatten springen kann. Dexter spannt ein dichtes erzählerisches Netz aus Beziehungen und Querverbindungen, in dem sich alle Figuren nach und nach verheddern, wobei einige mehr, andere weniger schuldig werden. Dazu nutzt er die Regeln des Noir – die Täter, die mehr Getriebene als gedungene Kriminelle sind; die Unschuldigen, die nur als Opfer zu existieren scheinen, die in Händel verwickelt werden, die sie nicht verstehen; die Skrupellosen, die jede Situation als Aussicht auf Gewinn begreifen; sogar das scheinbar so verführerische Weib – sie alle könnten dem Personaltableau des klassischen Noir entstammen. Hinzu kommen die scheinbar genretypischen Verhaltensweisen: korrupte Cops, falsche Freunde/Kollegen, eine Welt, die voller Verrat und Illoyalität ist. Aber Dexter bürstet das alles gewaltig gegen den Strich. Und dabei gelingt es ihm, die Welt fast noch düsterer zu zeichnen, als es der Noir je tat, denn hier gibt sich nahezu jeder Mühe, ein besserer Mensch zu sein, als er es ist und nahezu jeder scheitert entweder an seiner Rassen- oder der Klassenzugehörigkeit.
Die Witwe ist steinreich, sie ist eine frühe Bürgerrechtsaktivistin, aber auch Opfer zweier schwarzer Vergewaltiger; sie beherbergt zwei Schwarze in ihrem Gästehaus, die ihr ebenfalls steinreicher Gatte (Packard, so erfahren wir auf den ersten Seiten, entstammt einer uralten Gelddynastie) dort einquartiert hat; der gleiche Gatte, der keine Skrupel hatte, die Vergewaltiger auf dem Boot mühelos umzubringen; der hier vielleicht Buße tun will. Train, der sich seines erblindenden Buddies Plural(!) angenommen hat und mit seinen 18 Jahren spürt, daß er vielleicht ein Recht auf ein eigenes Leben hat, hätte. Ein Leben, in dem er frei von der Verantwortung für einen blinden Verrückten die Chance hätte, mit seinen Talenten zu wuchern. Und der ob dieser Gedanken in Schuldgefühlen versinkt.
Der Roman ist in den 50er Jahren angesiedelt. Dexter läßt den Leser also ein wenig von der aufkommenden Liberalisierung spüren, die die Bürgerrechtsbewegung mit sich bringen wird. Nicht jeder in diesem Buch ist ein Rassist, Dexter malt durchaus auch Menschen und Situationen, die wirklich frei von allem rassistischen Wahn sind. Doch gerade vor diesem Hintergrund wird die hier beschriebene Welt besonders düster. Was James Ellroy zu verächtlichem Zynismus gegenüber den Idealisten treibt, dient Dexter als bitter-ironischer Twist. Da draußen gibt es eben doch anständige Menschen, alle – der Cop, die Witwe, der Caddie – geben sich Mühe, die Welt etwas besser zu machen – und scheitern. Der Kontrast, den Dexter dadurch schafft, ist literarisch großartig. Und furchtbar bitter im Resultat.
Das Scheitern hier ist ja gerade auch ein Ergebnis des guten Willens: Wer sich für die Rechte Schwarzer einsetzt, kann nicht erwarten, daß jeder Schwarze sein Freund wird; wer Geld hat, kann erwarten, daß alle anderen enorme Schwierigkeiten haben könnten, seinen Umgang mit selbigem zu verstehen. Und wer arm und schwarz ist, weiß sowieso, daß er nichts zu erwarten hat. Train und die anderen Caddies können eins besonders gut: Schweigen. In diesem Gestrüpp bleiben alle hängen. Mißtrauen, das aber zumindest die Weißen grundsätzlich verleugnen, ist das eigentlich herrschende Gefühl. Historisch gesehen hat Dexter ja Recht, wenn er sein Geschichtenbündel mit einem Lichtblick kommender Liberalisierung ausstattet. Doch er ist auch ausgesprochen hart in seiner Analyse: Kein Ausweg für den Einzelnen aus dem Gewirr der verschiedenen Konfliktebenen.
So hat man es hier mit einer als historischem Kriminalroman getarnten Gesellschaftsanalyse im Hinblick auf den allgegenwärtigen Rassismus zu tun. Bedrückend.
March 14, 2013
Better and more layered than I expected. When I read the jacket, I pictured what the book would be about, and that would've made a decent story, too. But Dexter took it places I never expected. Made me want to read more Dexter.
Read
March 3, 2013This book has the single best description I've ever read in my life in
it. A man's thighs likened to children hiding in a pair of curtains.
The writing is just out of this world.
it. A man's thighs likened to children hiding in a pair of curtains.
The writing is just out of this world.
June 7, 2018
OK, I'm officially a Pete Dexter fan. This is the first book of his that I read, and I enjoyed it very much. Man, he's a great writer! And what a sense of humor! I laughed out loud several times, for instance at this:
"People he’d known before the war, on the other hand, said he’d changed, but he couldn’t see it himself. As his grandmother had pointed out a long time ago, he wasn’t a real sweetheart to begin with."
I will be buying more of his books.
"People he’d known before the war, on the other hand, said he’d changed, but he couldn’t see it himself. As his grandmother had pointed out a long time ago, he wasn’t a real sweetheart to begin with."
I will be buying more of his books.
July 25, 2018
Whenever you think you've got a handle on the plot, Dexter spins it in an unexpected direction. Violent, sometimes brutal, sometimes darkly comic, "Train" is an absorbing story with fascinating, dangerous characters. (I don't think I'll ever forget what happened on the boat. I read those passages with my breath held.)
February 5, 2018
"Perhaps," he said, "you need someone to share this with."
Packard had just described for the psychologist not his loveless life but his heavy cruiser, the Indianapolis, burning to the waterline in the night, and the days and nights of floating around the Pacific Ocean with the sharks and burned and dying shipmates. The sharks came morning and evening, at mealtime, and stayed about as long as it would take you to eat dinner. Packard to this day did not eat at regular hours, but aside from that, on the occasions when he asked himself how he felt, he felt approximately like the same person.
People he'd known before the war, on the other hand, said he's changed, but he couldn't see it himself. As his grandmother pointed out a long time ago, he wasn't a real sweetheart to begin with.
Another brilliant story, highlighting prejudice and it's brutal consequences in the American South in the 1950's, as seen through the eyes of a young, intelligent black golf caddie.
Pete Dexter once again shows his virtuosity as a writer of historical fiction.
Packard had just described for the psychologist not his loveless life but his heavy cruiser, the Indianapolis, burning to the waterline in the night, and the days and nights of floating around the Pacific Ocean with the sharks and burned and dying shipmates. The sharks came morning and evening, at mealtime, and stayed about as long as it would take you to eat dinner. Packard to this day did not eat at regular hours, but aside from that, on the occasions when he asked himself how he felt, he felt approximately like the same person.
People he'd known before the war, on the other hand, said he's changed, but he couldn't see it himself. As his grandmother pointed out a long time ago, he wasn't a real sweetheart to begin with.
Another brilliant story, highlighting prejudice and it's brutal consequences in the American South in the 1950's, as seen through the eyes of a young, intelligent black golf caddie.
Pete Dexter once again shows his virtuosity as a writer of historical fiction.
August 27, 2012
I liked this book because it has great characters and allows them to build little worlds for themselves. In addition to the main character, Train, there is a hard-boiled L.A. police Sergeant that reminds me of Don Draper. It is a very dark book. Pete Dexter must live in some kind of hell-world if he can imagine people thinking and acting this way well enough to make it come alive like this in a novel. Thank God he can work it out by sharing it with the world. Like Paris Trout, this book is about race and class in America. There is more slapstick violence in this book than in Paris Trout. Some segments made me laugh until I was undone. Dexter really knows how to capture American males, their pecking order in any given group, and their berserk anger.
lookedinto-decidedagainst
July 25, 2016.
February 17, 2023
My first Pete Dexter. It won't be the last. With voices so real you hear them in your head and you know they will stick in there for a long time. It's beautiful - and hard.
January 20, 2023
- Si una editorial como Sajalín o como Dirty Works estuviese reeditando a Pete Dexter, nos cansaríamos de leer elogios a su obra en todas partes.
- A mí, nada aficionado a la novela negra en su vertiente hardboiled o criminal (no pude con Edward Bunker), Dexter me parece un escritor como la copa de un pino.
- Ordeno de mayor a menor disfrute las novelas de Dexter que he leído hasta ahora:
El chico del periódico
Amor fraterno
Train
La primera es una joya. Las otras dos, entre muy buenas y bastante buenas.
- Train flojea hacia la mitad, después de las escenas más impactantes, y no acaba de ensamblar satisfactoriamente los dos líneas argumentales, unas partes se hacen muy largas y otras muy cortas. Pero cuando funciona, es arrolladora.
- Cuando en un libro traducido del inglés hay dos personajes en escena, uno masculino y otro femenino, y tengo dificultades para entender de manera inmediata cuál de los dos personajes es el sujeto en alguna de las oraciones, no me cabe duda de que la traducción es mala. En la edición de Anagrama me ha pasado demasiadas veces.
- A mí, nada aficionado a la novela negra en su vertiente hardboiled o criminal (no pude con Edward Bunker), Dexter me parece un escritor como la copa de un pino.
- Ordeno de mayor a menor disfrute las novelas de Dexter que he leído hasta ahora:
El chico del periódico
Amor fraterno
Train
La primera es una joya. Las otras dos, entre muy buenas y bastante buenas.
- Train flojea hacia la mitad, después de las escenas más impactantes, y no acaba de ensamblar satisfactoriamente los dos líneas argumentales, unas partes se hacen muy largas y otras muy cortas. Pero cuando funciona, es arrolladora.
- Cuando en un libro traducido del inglés hay dos personajes en escena, uno masculino y otro femenino, y tengo dificultades para entender de manera inmediata cuál de los dos personajes es el sujeto en alguna de las oraciones, no me cabe duda de que la traducción es mala. En la edición de Anagrama me ha pasado demasiadas veces.
May 18, 2023
There are not many storytellers who match-up with Pete Dexter. His cinematic compression of time and space and pacing of scenes that are episodic nightmares unto themselves, unspooling in random acts of violence, are so vividly layered that even his complicated cross-narrative as seen through various characters' points-of-view holds tightly together while never feeling he's gone over the line. Characterization--unforgettable as always--is his strong suit and in this he holds all the high cards. Stemming perhaps from rambunctiousness in his DNA that harkens back to his fiestier newspaper columnist days in Philadelphia where he took no prisoners and got beaten half to death in a bar for a story he submitted about an Irish Catholic kid who was killed in a dope deal. The story is legendary and is written-up smartly in "The Village Voice" by Ellise E. Conklin titled "Let It Bleed" (October 26, 2011). He appears at the neighborhood bar tended by the murdered boy's relatives to apologize for the insult visited upon the family at the mention of drugs, but not to retract the story, and is immediately sucker-punched breaking out the blindside of his jaw's row of teeth. He comes back, later, to settle the matter bringing as backup some muscle; his friend ex-heavyweight fighter Randall "Tex" Cobb, a.k.a. the bounty hunter Leonard Smalls in "Raising Arizona." The City of "Brotherly Love" (another of his book titles) is anything but. More pain having to be endured failing intubation and anesthesia as he's sewn back together at the hospital. Lucky to not be in its morgue. Dexter's prose is edgy, tight, laden with blood-encrusted (read that: dried and blackened) gallows humor. His most compassionate autobiographical work "Spooner" (my favorite) is his best. Having also read "Paris Trout" his National Book Award winner, and "Deadwood" that HBO pirated and pillaged with McShane's profanity in the extreme. Dexter is noted for famous last lines in his stories. From my next read, or so, "The Paperboy," "There are no intact men." In "Train," got to love this:
"The room was quiet and ringing at the same time, and in the silence, the familiar, ringing silence, he heard something else. Packard was weeping. Weeping and bleeding in his own hallway. Knowing he couldn't stop one any more than the other.
He watched from the window and understood that it was all out of his hands."
Read "Let It Bleed." Great piece from a column that's worthy of one of Dexter's stories; about a guy named Lucky Al whose winnings from a seven-figure lawsuit against a drug company moves him up in the world to status digs on Whidby Island where Dexter resides. His sweetened remote island lifestyle ends shortly--cut short after he dies in his bathtub--after but a few months, his remaining riches yet to be spent. $50 cigars, new car, custom set of Callaway golf clubs, a prestigious membership in the local council for the arts. And a dog he rescues from the pound as his new companion. And which eats him. In his intro to "Paper Trails," Dexter appropriately rises to the occasion. Trademark Dexter: "In the dog's defense, she'd only been with him a month, and it's easy to criticize from the sidelines when you're not hungry yourself."
"The room was quiet and ringing at the same time, and in the silence, the familiar, ringing silence, he heard something else. Packard was weeping. Weeping and bleeding in his own hallway. Knowing he couldn't stop one any more than the other.
He watched from the window and understood that it was all out of his hands."
Read "Let It Bleed." Great piece from a column that's worthy of one of Dexter's stories; about a guy named Lucky Al whose winnings from a seven-figure lawsuit against a drug company moves him up in the world to status digs on Whidby Island where Dexter resides. His sweetened remote island lifestyle ends shortly--cut short after he dies in his bathtub--after but a few months, his remaining riches yet to be spent. $50 cigars, new car, custom set of Callaway golf clubs, a prestigious membership in the local council for the arts. And a dog he rescues from the pound as his new companion. And which eats him. In his intro to "Paper Trails," Dexter appropriately rises to the occasion. Trademark Dexter: "In the dog's defense, she'd only been with him a month, and it's easy to criticize from the sidelines when you're not hungry yourself."
September 30, 2016
Non so esattamente cosa pensare di questo libro. Da un lato, Pete Dexter scrive sempre benissimo, e scrive storie che ti prendono fino all'ultima pagina. Dall'altro però l'ho trovato eccessivamente lento e triste in alcuni punti. Avevo trovato il ritmo di Paris Trout perfetto, un atto di violenza che sconvolge le vite dei personaggi, vite che si dipanano fino al gran finale. In Train la storia inizia nello stesso modo, un evento violento, finisce nello stesso modo, un crescendo di violenza, ma nel mezzo c'è qualcosa che non funziona. Riservo una nota positiva per Packard, un personaggione, ma ho trovato il resto dei protagonisti piuttosto piatti, e fino all'ultimo è mancata la tensione che evidentemente l'autore voleva generare. A parte i difetti, comunque, il libro conferma l'abilità di Dexter nell'esplorare le questioni razziali.
August 8, 2019
Simultaneously very dark and semi-sweet. This is a view of the deeply ingrained and bewildering racism of 1953, and a picture of how love and pain always go hand-in-hand. The violence is cold, brutal and astonishingly described. The language shifts with each change of perspective making the characters accessible and intimate, and characters as smart and talented and simple and memorable as Train don't come along often. I'm not much of a fan when it comes to golf, but I was quite smitten with the sport when Train was swinging his 9-iron. Loved how the caddies talked about their totes.
July 16, 2022
Imperfect, but a fun, sometimes disturbing read. Dexter was very talented, and I am shocked that the same wise ass writing style he employed as a columnist translated so well to novel length narratives.
April 26, 2024
J’ai eu du mal à m’accrocher à ce livre, un peu confus au début.
Beaucoup de violences, trop sûrement…
On suit un jeune homme noir, surnommé Train, dans les années 50 aux Etats-Unis, un surdoué de golf.
Se côtoient racisme, amitié, lutte des classes et amour dans ce roman qui se termine sur un final qui personnellement m’a laissé sur ma fin.
Beaucoup de violences, trop sûrement…
On suit un jeune homme noir, surnommé Train, dans les années 50 aux Etats-Unis, un surdoué de golf.
Se côtoient racisme, amitié, lutte des classes et amour dans ce roman qui se termine sur un final qui personnellement m’a laissé sur ma fin.
May 28, 2021
This is the third novel I have read by Dexter. He is not for everyone but if you lock into his dark narratives, like I do, they can be quite rewarding.
August 23, 2020
I read my first book by Pete Dexter a few weeks ago (The Paperboy) and I was hooked. I'm not sure why I never heard of Dexter before but I'll read anything he writes. It is an engaging character study of two people, one a young black man who is an amazing golfer and the other is a man who survived the sinking of the Indianapolis and a few days in the water with sharks.
Dexter's writing is flawless.
Dexter's writing is flawless.
January 30, 2014
his was a freebie from the YMCA's take one/leave one table. I picked it up because I liked the cover image and the back page blurb that talks about a black golf prodigy in the early 50's, who drew the attention of a gambler who takes him to high-stakes matches around the country. I thought of Tin Cup, and the Hustler and other sports gambling/down on his luck kid makes good stories, and this intriqued me.
But it really wasn't that at all and on balance, that's a good thing. Its really an LA Noir story that brings together a cast of characters that are all flawed. It shows how those flaws affect them and each other and how they interact. Yes, there is golf and the main character is a prodigy, but there's also crime and violence and issues of race in post-WWII Los Angeles. A really interesting story that I'm glad I picked up. I had never heard of Pete Dexter, until after bringing this book home. He won the National Book Award for Paris Trout, which I've heard of, but never read. Have to put that on my WL.
S: 1/11/14 F: 1/27/14 (17 Days)
But it really wasn't that at all and on balance, that's a good thing. Its really an LA Noir story that brings together a cast of characters that are all flawed. It shows how those flaws affect them and each other and how they interact. Yes, there is golf and the main character is a prodigy, but there's also crime and violence and issues of race in post-WWII Los Angeles. A really interesting story that I'm glad I picked up. I had never heard of Pete Dexter, until after bringing this book home. He won the National Book Award for Paris Trout, which I've heard of, but never read. Have to put that on my WL.
S: 1/11/14 F: 1/27/14 (17 Days)
July 24, 2020
Without intending it I've now read all but one of Pete Dexter's novels--albeit over about a 20+ year period and sometimes without even connecting that the author of, let's say Paris Trout was also that of Deadwood or Spooner. But I should have known because who else can write in slow motion. I can't explain what that means--you just have to experience it and there is no better place to start than with Train.
I won't go into plot--which you can find elsewhere--but character development is truly Dexter's forte. And while some authors will create three story lines that intersect down the road, Train's three story lines are like shoots on a young plant and sprout quickly near one another.
The only disappointment I have (probably shared by the author and publisher) is that no one has yet to make Train into a great film noir that could easily rival the best of Mitchum's or Bogart's performances.
I won't go into plot--which you can find elsewhere--but character development is truly Dexter's forte. And while some authors will create three story lines that intersect down the road, Train's three story lines are like shoots on a young plant and sprout quickly near one another.
The only disappointment I have (probably shared by the author and publisher) is that no one has yet to make Train into a great film noir that could easily rival the best of Mitchum's or Bogart's performances.
November 3, 2010
I've read a lot of this author's work and enjoy it all. Pete Dexter has a dark sense of humor and an insight into the small minded ways of modern America. This novel, like other Dexter work, explores many issues including racism, sexuality, and greed. Pete is a master of dialogue, particularly idiomatic English as it is spoken by small town Southerners, African-Americans, and criminal types. His characters are well drawn archetypes whose best intentions are generally foiled by tragic circumstances or trumped by poor decision making.
Told from multiple points of view, the tone and voice of this novel is driven home through Dexter's colorful use of local syntax throughout the narrative.
Told from multiple points of view, the tone and voice of this novel is driven home through Dexter's colorful use of local syntax throughout the narrative.
January 25, 2017
finished this story this afternoon. i really liked it. story is told from a number of pov-s, train, the cop, the woman, set during the eisenhower administration so you have all that baggage carried along. train is black. and some of the telling through his p.o.v. has the verb usage not conjugated like some. and like...maybe all of dexter's stories...there is a kind of aloofness to some of the characters that is telling. strange, too, how in this telling we don't really get much in the way of cop business even though one of the main characters is a cop. they play golf. or train does and the cop sets it up. good read.
October 24, 2013
There are only three books, well, maybe five, that I've read in the last 20 years that I can truly say "I wish I'd written that" [or "could write like that"?] They are TRAIN by Pete Dexter; RAGTIME, by Doctorow; PERFUME, by Patrick Suskind; AS I LAY DYING, by Faulkner; and _______________ by ______________. Absolutely terrific book, the main character, Lionel Walk, known as "Train" is a young black boy who caddies at an exclusive golf course. I have NO interest in golf, but no matter. It's all about the people. Six stars if possible.
October 10, 2009
It's like James Ellroy wrote a book about golf course maintenance. Very good and very dark.
November 20, 2023
A disturbing book where nobody's mentally healthy and nothing good happens to anyone, really. And yet.. here we are. The words will cut you open and demand you stay until the end if you want "Doc" to patch you up. Too bad ol' Doc only works with a soldering iron.
Random thought: when I tried to think about who's narrating the story, I identified Train, but it took me a minute to also realize that Norah's narrating.. it just seems like so much of the book 'happens to' her rather than occurs as a result of her choices.
I wanted to write a review that would make Pete Dexter happy, so here's my best try: Somebody probably told you at some point during your childhood that bugs live under rocks, and you'd always thought that maybe one day you'd turn one over and see what's happening in the dirt. For whatever reason--maybe it's laziness and lack of curiosity, or maybe you were more of an 'indoor kid'--it took you finding yourself in unfamiliar woods in your mid-40s to relinquish enough of your tightly held self-preservation instinct to allow yourself to dig in for the big reveal. You flip the rock, thinking you're going to learn something, but it turns out whatever life's down there is just as bored and inconsequential as you are; it's just that its existence is on scale you can observe.
There are definitely a lot of bugs under there--you were not misled in that respect. They're all different colors and kinds that try to stay to themselves, but their universe is too small so some of them are eating each other. Well.. honestly, you're assuming that's what you're seeing. Mandibles and genitalia are fairly interchangable at this scale. If you are the only one available to narrate this tale, leaving a little room for curiosity and interpretation is all at your pleasure.
After a few moments of detached (feigned?) horror staring at the mess, trying to work through the senselessness of it all, you realize that the bugs never asked some passerby to leave the house without shutting the door. Scattered insect carcasses are all that's left on view; the rest of the party has moved deeper underground where big hands can't interfere with the daily prescribed turf war. You slide the rock back into place, thank god you mostly despise men, and vow to only think about what you saw when you watch the news a few times a month.
Oh yeah, and it's probably a hot night and everything's shiny and sweaty.
Random thought: when I tried to think about who's narrating the story, I identified Train, but it took me a minute to also realize that Norah's narrating.. it just seems like so much of the book 'happens to' her rather than occurs as a result of her choices.
I wanted to write a review that would make Pete Dexter happy, so here's my best try: Somebody probably told you at some point during your childhood that bugs live under rocks, and you'd always thought that maybe one day you'd turn one over and see what's happening in the dirt. For whatever reason--maybe it's laziness and lack of curiosity, or maybe you were more of an 'indoor kid'--it took you finding yourself in unfamiliar woods in your mid-40s to relinquish enough of your tightly held self-preservation instinct to allow yourself to dig in for the big reveal. You flip the rock, thinking you're going to learn something, but it turns out whatever life's down there is just as bored and inconsequential as you are; it's just that its existence is on scale you can observe.
There are definitely a lot of bugs under there--you were not misled in that respect. They're all different colors and kinds that try to stay to themselves, but their universe is too small so some of them are eating each other. Well.. honestly, you're assuming that's what you're seeing. Mandibles and genitalia are fairly interchangable at this scale. If you are the only one available to narrate this tale, leaving a little room for curiosity and interpretation is all at your pleasure.
After a few moments of detached (feigned?) horror staring at the mess, trying to work through the senselessness of it all, you realize that the bugs never asked some passerby to leave the house without shutting the door. Scattered insect carcasses are all that's left on view; the rest of the party has moved deeper underground where big hands can't interfere with the daily prescribed turf war. You slide the rock back into place, thank god you mostly despise men, and vow to only think about what you saw when you watch the news a few times a month.
Oh yeah, and it's probably a hot night and everything's shiny and sweaty.
October 20, 2019
It's somewhat difficult to completely like Pete Dexter. The characters are flawed - almost to a point where they’re detrimental to the story. One chapter you’re on their side, the next not so much. There is almost always in his books one absolutely vile and despicable act - usually abhorrently sexual (see ‘Paris Trout’, ‘Deadwood’; they come to mind first - and will never be erased from memory). But he is still an interesting author whose style of writing is certainly distinctive.
Train is set in 50's racist Los Angeles, whose cops were apparently as racist and corrupt as any in the country at that time. Train attracts the attention of a police sergeant named Miller Packard, and their interactions form the majority of the plot.
It was a quick read, but all of his books are. The book could have been called ‘Packard’ though - his character opens and closes the book, and I found him to be the more developed and interesting figure in the story anyway. But for a good third of the book, the story was intriguing for both Train and Packard. The book's path and characters seems to change halfway thru though, and scenes and characters which are started/introduced seem to just stop/disappear, and they’re not re visited again (the seedy and devious journalist, the cop hit by the character ‘Plural’, the neighbors’ efforts to buy them off; for that matter itself even the fates of the two or three main characters are dropped). Along with that, the story just meanders to an inexplicable end.
But Dexter is a master of dialogue - and throughout the book are examples of just absolutely clever and exquisite writing. Most of the stars given are due to his excellence in this area. But this book was (I think) one of his lesser efforts plot wise.
Train is set in 50's racist Los Angeles, whose cops were apparently as racist and corrupt as any in the country at that time. Train attracts the attention of a police sergeant named Miller Packard, and their interactions form the majority of the plot.
It was a quick read, but all of his books are. The book could have been called ‘Packard’ though - his character opens and closes the book, and I found him to be the more developed and interesting figure in the story anyway. But for a good third of the book, the story was intriguing for both Train and Packard. The book's path and characters seems to change halfway thru though, and scenes and characters which are started/introduced seem to just stop/disappear, and they’re not re visited again (the seedy and devious journalist, the cop hit by the character ‘Plural’, the neighbors’ efforts to buy them off; for that matter itself even the fates of the two or three main characters are dropped). Along with that, the story just meanders to an inexplicable end.
But Dexter is a master of dialogue - and throughout the book are examples of just absolutely clever and exquisite writing. Most of the stars given are due to his excellence in this area. But this book was (I think) one of his lesser efforts plot wise.
June 24, 2018
"Train" is a marvelous story. if i've read it correctly, the author, Pete Dexter, has with a skilled surgeon's brave touch, laid the abscess of racism wide open to the bone. there are many ways to fail in life and being born black and undereducated are two of them. most diseases can be cured with some sort of medicine, but most medicines have side-effects, many of which are as harmful as the disease itself. if you read "Train" you'll know what i mean. a word of caution for sensitive readers: the story mimics real life in that there is violence, sexual situations, and naughty language. if you love golf, as i do, if you caddied, as i did, if you detest racism, as i do, then this story is way up your alley. if not, read it anyway. j
April 19, 2019
Pete Dexter does not disappoint. From his highs of Paperboy and Paris Trout, he is still a reliably good read. Train is a fast romp through 50's racist Los Angeles. This wannabe noir thriller centers on Train, a black caddy who has a penchant for finding the shit end of the stick. He adopts a former fighter named Plural, who's blindness lends a clean moral through line, in this muddy dense book. Train becomes a project for a slick detective, named Miller, who is carrying emotional damage from the war.
Miller keeps us captive in the backseat as he ricochets across LA saving both Train and sad, sexy Norah, who becomes both wings and anchor for this anti hero. In the end, Train is a violent and brutal tale of loss, fear and destiny.
I thought this was a fine story. I would recommend.
Miller keeps us captive in the backseat as he ricochets across LA saving both Train and sad, sexy Norah, who becomes both wings and anchor for this anti hero. In the end, Train is a violent and brutal tale of loss, fear and destiny.
I thought this was a fine story. I would recommend.
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June 6, 2020Had never read anything by Pete Dexter so this was like jumping off a cliff for me. As it turned out, the 1950s racism in L.A. when I was just a kid, paralleled what I am watching on television right now with the police brutality and killings of innocent black men like George Floyd (May 25, 2020). Some of the gruesome brutality was hard to read, even though I know this is "life." The book was dark and depressing at times, but the personal struggles of the characters kept turning my pages. It was raw and real. Pete Dexter is one heck of a writer. I felt as though I were actually seeing everything happen before me, like a live video, not just reading words on a page. Definitely a must-read, especially now.
October 5, 2017
Quando si cucina la bontà degli ingredienti non è tutto; alle volte, per distrazione, incapacità o incuria, i gusti non legano e la pietanza risulta -nella migliore delle ipotesi- mediocre.
"Train" non è un brutto libro e va riconosciuto a Dexter il merito di saper tenere in mano una penna, tuttavia gli ingredienti letterari (per quanto di buona qualità) sono male amalgamati e non fanno emergere né i personaggi, né l'intreccio, né una qualsiasi emozione. Per chiudere questa povera metafora culinaria "Train" è un piatto... piatto.
"Train" non è un brutto libro e va riconosciuto a Dexter il merito di saper tenere in mano una penna, tuttavia gli ingredienti letterari (per quanto di buona qualità) sono male amalgamati e non fanno emergere né i personaggi, né l'intreccio, né una qualsiasi emozione. Per chiudere questa povera metafora culinaria "Train" è un piatto... piatto.
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