The Paris Express

 by Emma Donoghue

This book is one of the bestsellers right now.

It is the story of one journey on a steam train that leaves from Normandy heading to Paris.  The author creates some very detailed depictions of the various travellers on the train and the crew.  The engineer and his assistant are working hard to keep the train on time, despite various delays including a big wig politician insisting he have his private train car attached to the middle of the train.

The friendship, comraderie of the engineer and his assistant is well detailed.  Some of the passengers include a prostitute, a priest, a young pregnant woman, a Russian woman, a young black American painter, a young female scientist, a businessman and his mistress, a rich man travelling with his wife and sick daughter, and several politicians.  One passenger of note is a young woman who has brought on board a lunch box in which she has concocted a bomb.  She is against the establishment and plans to blow up the train, and herself, in protest.

As the story proceeds some of the passengers engage in some conversations among themselves.   

As the story nears its end two tense situations develop.  The engineer decides to speed to make up ten minutes they are behind schedule because he wants the Christmas bonus the company gives for good perrformance, and the young pregnant woman does into labour.  While this is all going ont the Russian lady suspects that the young girl might have evil plans but when she tries to bring this up to the officials they are too worried about the late train to listen to her.

As the train approaches the young girl is called to help with the pregnant woman and doesn't explode her device and the braking mechanism fails on the train so it ends up careening into Montparnasse station and the engine ends up going through the far wall of the station.

The author does a wonderful job or portraying the jobs and concerns of the crew, of depicting what life would be like for people and on the train at the time so it was an interesting read.

The story is based on an actual historical event in which no passengers were killed but a woman newspaper seller was crushed by debris in the station, 

 

Life at the Precipice

by R.F. Vincent

This is an absurd story about a man who hears about a fabled settlement in northern Vancouver Island, a land cut off when there was an earthquake which modified the landscape.

He makes his way to the area and is welcomed into the settlement which is centred around a lake surrounded by steep cliffs.  Some of the locals belief and ogopogo type monster lives in the lake and one man has a home in a tree at the edge of the cliff so he can watch for it.  

The settlement has several queer characters who live in strange dwellings designed by a local eccentric architect.  The architect has an assistant, he will not let the assistant into his house but invites the guest.  He explais that the assistant cannot enter until the house is finished, however he admits it is indeed finished.  It has a huge exterior and a small room inside in which he dwells. Another house is shaped like a book, you enter through the spine of the book.  The characters and the description of the houses were very creative.

The community is fed by a local couple who won a lottery years before.  They bring in supplies periodically.

The book introduces us to the various eccentric people who live there include a man who writes a local newsletter which he circulates out into the world on occasion.  

The book is interesting in its description of the characters and their housing options.  In the end the narrator of the story decides to stay there.  I guess that is no surprise but it seemed somewhat anticlimatic.