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Train
Already published in Chinese and Italian, The Train is the follow up to Chihoi's successful book of stories The Library. In it Hong Kong artist Chihoi adapts a short story by Taiwanese writer Hung Hung about a surreal train ride. With dream-like logic one of the characters asks, "Have you ever imagined the world outside the train?" The protagonist waits for someone, a woman perhaps, and observes with trepidation each time a new car is coupled to the train and the occupants spill out. Chihoi has done it again in this beautifully rendered pencilscape of a dream.
84 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 16, 2025
Kaikin puolin outo lukukokemus, mutta ei huonolla tavalla. Vaikea tiivistää millään tavalla sanoiksi, mutta jäi jotenkin tunne, että muistan tämän teoksen vielä pitkään.
April 22, 2020
#4 of Conundrum Press International Imprint of Conundrum Press (Canada)
Do not try to make clear sense of the sequential art narrative the first time you go through it. You'll want to flip back some pages at times to get a better idea of what's happening but don't spend too much time trying to "figure it out" because the prose text that it adapts is directly after with an afterword by the translator that will give you what you need to re-read the short graphic version again.
The 61 page graphic version is much closer to a what we think of as a story than the 11 pages of prose that it adapts. The original work, written by Hung Hung in 1996, does not follow a flow of action- it's actually a description of the "world of the train" and reads like a textbook which I found to be an IDEAL mode of presenting the most FASCINATING allegorical philosophy I've ever read. Reviewing the content would rob you of parts of the excitement of piecing things together and you may miss many things if you go in with preconceived notions.
The sequential art narrative is Chihoi's adaptation of the work into a story. He had a tremendously difficult task because all readers will paint a different picture in their head of the original so he had to commit to a conception yet work with very loose parameters that would allow optimal interpretation.
DO NOT SKIP THE AFTERWORD!
Do not try to make clear sense of the sequential art narrative the first time you go through it. You'll want to flip back some pages at times to get a better idea of what's happening but don't spend too much time trying to "figure it out" because the prose text that it adapts is directly after with an afterword by the translator that will give you what you need to re-read the short graphic version again.
The 61 page graphic version is much closer to a what we think of as a story than the 11 pages of prose that it adapts. The original work, written by Hung Hung in 1996, does not follow a flow of action- it's actually a description of the "world of the train" and reads like a textbook which I found to be an IDEAL mode of presenting the most FASCINATING allegorical philosophy I've ever read. Reviewing the content would rob you of parts of the excitement of piecing things together and you may miss many things if you go in with preconceived notions.
The sequential art narrative is Chihoi's adaptation of the work into a story. He had a tremendously difficult task because all readers will paint a different picture in their head of the original so he had to commit to a conception yet work with very loose parameters that would allow optimal interpretation.
DO NOT SKIP THE AFTERWORD!
September 23, 2015
The Train is one strange journey, rendered in beautiful pencil work and somewhat hard to grasp until you read the prose section near the end of the book, which is essential for understanding the work.
September 21, 2015
I've never really liked pencil art; it looks messy and drab. The story itself was good, though, quite absurd and surprising.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews