Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
How to Read and Analyse a Novel: Analysing the role of NATURE
This post is the seventh instalment of a course I’m currently running for paid subscribers called How to Read and Analyse a Novel—we have now moved on to reading and discussing individual books! For full introductory details and the reading list, start here, there’s still time to catch up. You can adjust your notification settings here if you would like to opt out of these emails.
It surprised me to discover that the first time I read Train Dreams was in 2022. I feel like it played an integral role in the evolution of my literary taste, and so I thought I’d read it at least a couple years before this.
Since then, I’ve read his debut novel Angels, which is a remarkable work. I almost gave up on it; it’s about a selection of downtrodden characters and for some time it felt like it was going nowhere. But then I pushed on towards the end, unable to give up on the prose—which felt electric somehow—and was left astonished by the ending. It’s the book I now associate with Johnson’s style, though of course with only these two to judge from, it’s clear I need to read more of his work.
Train Dreams has a much more pared back, subtle style that gently lets the life of Robert Grainier play out before our eyes. His life spans an era of enormous change for America, from the building of railroads that transformed the face of the country—connecting it and de-wilding it, at least in the conception of the time—on into the 1960s, when a new kind of consumer culture is on the rise.
Robert is a man who feels most comfortable by himself, especially after the tragic loss of his wife and child. He retreats from society and makes his home in a quiet valley. What can the tale of his life tell us about the relationship between nature and society, between nature and man?