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Dream Train: A Novel of the Orient-Express
In accepting an assignment to ride the Orient Express and spend five days in Venice, photojournalist Joanna James begins a dramatic journey in which lasting friendships are made, hearts are broken, and love is found
- GenresFictionContemporary
326 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1988
4 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Charlotte Vale Allen
60 books40 followersCharlotte Vale-Allen was born in Toronto and lived in England from 1961 to 1964 where she worked as a television actress and singer. She returned to Toronto briefly, performing as a singer and in cabaret revues until she emigrated to the United States in 1966.
Shortly after her marriage to Walter Allen in 1970 she began writing and sold her first novel Love Life in 1974. Prior to this book's publication she contracted to do a series of paperback originals for Warner Books, with the result that in 1976 three of her books appeared in print.
Her autobiography, the acclaimed Daddy's Girl, was actually the first book she wrote but in 1971 it was deemed too controversial by the editors who read it. It wasn't until 1980, after she'd gained success as a novelist, that the groundbreaking book was finally published.
One of Canada's most successful novelists, with over seven million copies sold of her 30+ novels, Ms. Allen's books have been published in all English-speaking countries, in Braille, and have been translated into more than 20 languages.
In her writing she tries to deal with issues confronting women, being informative while at the same time offering a measure of optimism. "My strongest ability as a writer is to make women real, to take you inside their heads and let you know how they feel, and to make you care about them."
A film buff and an amateur photographer, Allen enjoys foreign travel. She finds cooking and needlework therapeutic, and is a compulsive player of computer Solitaire. The mother of an adult daughter, since 1970 she has made her home in Connecticut.
Shortly after her marriage to Walter Allen in 1970 she began writing and sold her first novel Love Life in 1974. Prior to this book's publication she contracted to do a series of paperback originals for Warner Books, with the result that in 1976 three of her books appeared in print.
Her autobiography, the acclaimed Daddy's Girl, was actually the first book she wrote but in 1971 it was deemed too controversial by the editors who read it. It wasn't until 1980, after she'd gained success as a novelist, that the groundbreaking book was finally published.
One of Canada's most successful novelists, with over seven million copies sold of her 30+ novels, Ms. Allen's books have been published in all English-speaking countries, in Braille, and have been translated into more than 20 languages.
In her writing she tries to deal with issues confronting women, being informative while at the same time offering a measure of optimism. "My strongest ability as a writer is to make women real, to take you inside their heads and let you know how they feel, and to make you care about them."
A film buff and an amateur photographer, Allen enjoys foreign travel. She finds cooking and needlework therapeutic, and is a compulsive player of computer Solitaire. The mother of an adult daughter, since 1970 she has made her home in Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 11, 2018
Want to know what it is like to travel on the Orient Express? Try it out!
March 24, 2020
A story of a photojournalist on assignment on the Orient Express, the people she meets and self discovery.
May 23, 2012
A to Z Project, book 10
This one needs some explanation. I've begun a project to read my way across the fiction section of my library, picking one book from each shelf. This was the first shelf where nothing really caught my interest, and that, combined with not really understanding how much of a women's melodrama Dream Train is, led me to pick it. I almost violated the rules of my project and quit after the first 50 pages, which were rather drab romance angst from the point of view of photographer heroine Joanna. Will she end up with Tyler the actor/director or Henry the editor? I didn't really care.
But I stuck with it, and once she gets on the Orient Express, this book is well done. There's a good mix of travel detail (particularly in Venice, which brought back happy memories for me) and personal relationship drama that isn't as predictable as I would expect. A friendship with an elderly couple, bailing out a bright teenage companion, and a new friend suffering from endometriosis: these aren't stereotypical topics for this kind of book.
So yes, it's getting dated (particularly all the descriptions of pre-digital photography and communications, which gave me a strange kind of nostalgia); yes, the male characters are cardboard and the women are all just a little too perfect; and yes, the bedroom scenes are made laughable by silly euphemisms, but this novel still caught me up. I can at least see why Allen's books have retained popularity over a career of almost 40 years. She certainly gives me one more author to recommend at the library to fans of a certain kind of writing.
This one needs some explanation. I've begun a project to read my way across the fiction section of my library, picking one book from each shelf. This was the first shelf where nothing really caught my interest, and that, combined with not really understanding how much of a women's melodrama Dream Train is, led me to pick it. I almost violated the rules of my project and quit after the first 50 pages, which were rather drab romance angst from the point of view of photographer heroine Joanna. Will she end up with Tyler the actor/director or Henry the editor? I didn't really care.
But I stuck with it, and once she gets on the Orient Express, this book is well done. There's a good mix of travel detail (particularly in Venice, which brought back happy memories for me) and personal relationship drama that isn't as predictable as I would expect. A friendship with an elderly couple, bailing out a bright teenage companion, and a new friend suffering from endometriosis: these aren't stereotypical topics for this kind of book.
So yes, it's getting dated (particularly all the descriptions of pre-digital photography and communications, which gave me a strange kind of nostalgia); yes, the male characters are cardboard and the women are all just a little too perfect; and yes, the bedroom scenes are made laughable by silly euphemisms, but this novel still caught me up. I can at least see why Allen's books have retained popularity over a career of almost 40 years. She certainly gives me one more author to recommend at the library to fans of a certain kind of writing.
January 19, 2008
Read this a long time ago, but I liked it a lot. The main character is a travel photographer and gets an assignment on the Orient Express, there just aren't enough photography related novels out there.
May 24, 2010
My rating kept changing as I read this book. Some parts were really good and kept my interest going, then there were a few pages here and there with definitely non-Gospel attitudes towards premarital sex and marital fidelity. In the end my true rating is probably a 3.5, but that isn't an option.
June 25, 2012
Even though this book was first published 25 years ago, I thought it was a great book!
December 6, 2017
Onvan : Dream Train - Nevisande : Charlotte Vale Allen - ISBN : 689119879 - ISBN13 : 9780689119873 - Dar 326 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 1988
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November 27, 2010Vote zero stars. Really did not like this one.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews