Book Review: "Five" by Ilona Bannister

“Someone will die here this morning, at this suburban train station. It will happen in the next five minutes when the 7:06 to London Victoria arrives.”

So begins Ilona Bannister’s new thriller, which was utterly fascinating. We get a first-hand look at a chaotic morning at a train station, which will end in someone’s death. We don’t know who will die but we assume we know how it will happen.

The book introduces us to five people. There’s Emma, a woman whose life has totally been upended by her sociopathic young son, Gideon. He throws a temper tantrum while waiting for the train and Emma is unable to control him, which makes her an object of judgment by others in the train station.

There’s Sonny, a handsome and impeccably dressed young man, who is seriously addicted to gambling. Matilda is a cantankerous old woman whose anger masks the difficult life she has had. And then there’s Liam, a business manager who appears to know Emma and Gideon but seems to incur their wrath.

While we wait for the train to come into the station and end one of the five people’s lives, the book gives us each of their stories. We don’t have to rest on generalization; we know what each person is struggling with and what brought them to the train station today.

This was so compelling. The narrator invites you to think about who will die, but also who you think deserves to die. We see how flawed each person is, what made them tick, and what are their redeeming qualities. While some of the backstories dragged a bit, I really thought this was a fascinating read.

Book Review: "Train Dreams" by Denis Johnson

What’s this? Two backlist books in a matter of a few days? What about all the shiny new ones, lol?

Robert Grainer is an ordinary man living in the American West in the early days of the 20th century. He’s not particularly smart or ambitious; he just wants to provide a good life for his young wife and infant daughter.

He has always been fascinated by trains. While he doesn’t know exactly what happened to his birth parents, he knows he was put on a train and sent to live with his aunt and uncle. But he has little recollection beyond that. Still, from time to time, he makes a living clearing trees and doing other manual labor so that railroad tracks can be built out west.

Grainer remembers being part of an attempt to kill a Chinese man accused (rightly or wrongly) of stealing. The Chinese man curses those who try to kill him. When tragedy strikes Grainer’s life, he wonders if it is the manifestation of the curse, or perhaps it’s punishment for not helping an injured man he found in the woods when he was a teenager.

This is a bleak story punctuated by moments of levity. I’ve never read Denis Johnson before, but his prose—particularly his imagery—is luminous. I don’t know if I enjoyed this per se, but it definitely made an impression on me.

Book Review: "We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay" by Gary Janetti

Do you enjoy traveling? Not just being in new places, but do you like the actual process of travel? Gary Janetti’s new book is a funny and thought-provoking look at some of the high and low points of travel, and it seriously made me laugh out loud more than a few times.

“To me, a vacation is doing exactly what I would do at home, only with better weather and room service. I don’t want a list of activities designed to push me beyond any mental or physical limits I may have. I like my mental and physical limits where they are.”

Gary Janetti is a television writer and producer, and seriously, one of the funniest people I’ve ever read. His first collection of essays, Do You Mind If I Cancel? (Things That Still Annoy Me), had me laughing so hard I cried. He’s a bit crankier and more particular than I am, but we’re definitely on similar wavelengths!

In this book, he shares his philosophies on packing (don’t check a bag), eating alone in a restaurant if you’re traveling by yourself, and staying in a hotel rather than with family or friends. He also shares some hysterically funny anecdotes of cruises he has taken with family; trips to Mykonos, where he met his husband; an experience with a pop-up version of Noma, once the highest-rated restaurant ever, and other travel highlights.

What made this book work for me was that it never felt too outrageous to be true, and some of his thoughts definitely mirrored my own. It's a bit less zany than David Sedaris, but I laughed like I usually do when I read his books. This was a tremendously enjoyable read, with moments of poignancy which balanced the humor.