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The Train of Small Mercies
by
David Rowell
In haunting and crystalline prose, The Train of Small Mercies follows six characters' intrepid search for hope among the debris of an American tragedy.
In New York, a young black porter struggles through his first day on the job-a staggering assignment aboard Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train. In Pennsylvania, a woman creates a tangle of lies to sneak away from her disappr...more
In New York, a young black porter struggles through his first day on the job-a staggering assignment aboard Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train. In Pennsylvania, a woman creates a tangle of lies to sneak away from her disappr...more
Hardcover, 260 pages
Published
October 13th 2011
by Putnam Adult
(first published 2011)
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June of 1968 was a time of great change and turmoil in America. Citizens were divided over the war in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been killed just a couple of months before, and the civil rights movement had to find new footing. Then Bobby Kennedy won the California presidential primary, after which he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan.
David Rowell provides a slice out of the lives of six characters and their families on June 8, 1968. Each resides in a different state where Robert Kennedy's fu...more
David Rowell provides a slice out of the lives of six characters and their families on June 8, 1968. Each resides in a different state where Robert Kennedy's fu...more
Remember the car trips as a child when you watched the houses you passed wondering who lived there, what were they like...sometimes you were lucky enough to have your voyeuristic desires filled by an actual scene of life. Perhaps two children squabbling over a swing and whose turn it is, tugging the chains to and fro, hissing, squealing, maybe calling names. Then your car glides on by; the story of the swing is left behind. You never know who wins the war, or perhaps it all ended when one lost h...more
I reviewed this book for www.luxuryreading.com.
The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell tells the story of what happened on June 8th, 1968 as Senator Robert Kennedy’s funeral train made its procession from New York to Washington, D.C., not from the perspective of the Kennedy family but from that of six ordinary people along the train’s route. Each person, while in no way connected, has a shared purpose of not only moving the train along its path but of highlighting the good and bad of America...more
The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell tells the story of what happened on June 8th, 1968 as Senator Robert Kennedy’s funeral train made its procession from New York to Washington, D.C., not from the perspective of the Kennedy family but from that of six ordinary people along the train’s route. Each person, while in no way connected, has a shared purpose of not only moving the train along its path but of highlighting the good and bad of America...more
The Train of Small Mercies, by David Rowell, Narrated by Jeremy Davidson, Produced by Penguin Audio, Downloaded from audible.com.
This is a debut novel with an unexpected catalyst. The train that crossed the country from New York to Washington D.C. with Bobby Kennedy’s casket, a train where crowds were at every conceivable place along the tracks to view the casket going to its final resting place. We follow several characters, trying to pay homage to this senator who for them embodied so much hop...more
This is a debut novel with an unexpected catalyst. The train that crossed the country from New York to Washington D.C. with Bobby Kennedy’s casket, a train where crowds were at every conceivable place along the tracks to view the casket going to its final resting place. We follow several characters, trying to pay homage to this senator who for them embodied so much hop...more
In June 1968 Robert Kennedy's funeral was held in New York. Afterward, his casket, his family and friends, the press and others were carried by train to Washington, D.C. where he was buried near his brother, President John F. Kennedy. This novel's core is that train and what Bobby's death meant to Americans, using the stories of six characters who view the event from different perspectives.
Anyone who remembers 1968 knows what a devastating impact Bobby's murder had on us as a nation. It seemed l...more
Anyone who remembers 1968 knows what a devastating impact Bobby's murder had on us as a nation. It seemed l...more
David Rowell’s debut, The Train of Small Mercies, in an exceptional novel that is set on the day that Robert F. Kennedy’s body was transported by train from New York for burial in Washington DC. Inspired by photos taken of mourners that lined the tracks, and actual events of the day, Rowell has managed to recapture the complex emotions that were so much a part of the unsettled 1960s. Creating a character for each of the states that the train travelled through Rowell presents the reader with many...more
"The Train of Small Mercies," doesn't take one any place in particular, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Author David Rowell has applied a subtle hand in portraits of people living places through which the train carrying the slain Senator Robert Kennedy passed.
His chosen cross section for illumination include a white housewife, a black Pullman porter, some middle-class suburbanites with a pool, and a young man who lost a leg in Vietnam.
This is time (1968), place (eastern seaboard) and c...more
Author David Rowell has applied a subtle hand in portraits of people living places through which the train carrying the slain Senator Robert Kennedy passed.
His chosen cross section for illumination include a white housewife, a black Pullman porter, some middle-class suburbanites with a pool, and a young man who lost a leg in Vietnam.
This is time (1968), place (eastern seaboard) and c...more
I won this book on a Good Reads, First Reads Giveaway. The author did a good job describing the day through the eyes of the different characters in his book. You will feel compasion for some, a little disgust for others, and may even feel indiferent to a few.
I really enjoyed reading through the eyes of Maeve and Michael. Their stories touched me the most.
I really was bugged by Delores and Edwin. Although, I think Delores had the most surprising ending.
This book doesn't give a whole lot of closu...more
I really enjoyed reading through the eyes of Maeve and Michael. Their stories touched me the most.
I really was bugged by Delores and Edwin. Although, I think Delores had the most surprising ending.
This book doesn't give a whole lot of closu...more
The author does a good job of capturing a point in time in the late 1960's and reflecting on the times from many different perspectives. The focal event is the procession of the funeral train from New York to Washington DC carrying the body of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in June, 1968. The novel is written in very short chapters about lives of several different people along the train route who plan to watch the procession on that day. Through these characters the author reveals a range of political s...more
I wasn't sure what to make of this book when I started -- a story about several people who experienced the funereal journey of RFK's body from New York to Washington -- but was very pleasantly surprised. The story takes on the rhythm of the train, moving slowly from one story to the next -- a recently returned Viet Nam vet, a woman conspiring to watch the train, reunited boys, a childless couple whose great joy is their new above-ground pool, and a college boy interning aboard the train. You sho...more
I listened to this one (read by Jeremy Davidson) -- and about the time I found myself tapping my foot wondering "is all this detail GOING anywhere?" it abruptly ended. I wanted to sputter "Whaaaat?!" The author introduces us to a host of diverse characters with nothing at all in common but the passage of Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train through wherever it is that they are. There's the young black man on his first day on the job as a porter on the train, an Irish nanny who had hoped to work for...more
This story takes place in June 1968, three days after presidential candidate Robert Kennedy has been assasinate after winning the California Primary. The train carrying his body is going from New York's Penn Station to Washington, DC where Kennedy will be buried next to his brother in Arlinton National Cemetery. This story follows the lives of several groups of people who are waiting to be pay tribute to the train as it passes by on its way to a final resting place. The stories follow a young bl...more
I liked this book. Six vignettes were presented of people who admired Robert Kennedy and were in similar circumstances of sorrow from his death. These people were in different states through which the train carrying Kennedy’s casket to Washington was traveling. The characters included a young disabled Viet Nam vet recently returned from the war and a young Irish woman coming for an interview to be the Kennedy family's next nanny. Also included were a young black college student with a pregnant g...more
“The Train of Small Mercies” by David Rowell is a story about grief. It fictionalizes the passing of the funeral train that held Robert F. Kennedy’s body as it moved across the country. The issue that I had with this book was that it contained an extremely small amount of grief that the author seemingly tried to make look like anything else. It follows the lives of six different people on that fateful day, and there is simply not enough of anything to tie it to the passing of the train. Don’t ge...more
This novel read like a slow strobe light, shining in one day on the lives of ordinary people who set out to watch Robert Kennedy's funeral train as it slowly made its way from New York to Washington, D.C. The author said his inspiration was RFK Funeral Train by Paul Fusco, so I got a copy from the library, and there were the faces of the people David Rowell introduced us to in his novel, as real as can be. Which was what drew me into the characters--they were like neighbors, people you know a l...more
Enjoyed this book overall. A lot of different characters and story lines with the assassination of RFK and his funeral as the elements that connect them all. Didn't give 4 stars as I was a bit disappointed in the ending. There was no real resolution to any of the story lines. A girl in a trauma induced coma was left in the ICU, the young black man trying to find his place in the '68 changing American society was left with the recent news that his girlfriend was pregnant, the young Irish emigrant...more
This novel offers a glimpse into the lives of six people who want to watch the train take the body of Robert Kennedy from New York to Arlington cemetary after he is shot in 1968. Each seems to have had some disappointment or tragedy in their lives, and it's like they hope that seeing the train will give them a new perspective on their own lives.
I call this a novel, but it reads more like interlaced short stories, and because the book moves from character to character every few pages, the author...more
I call this a novel, but it reads more like interlaced short stories, and because the book moves from character to character every few pages, the author...more
1968 just about broke America's heart with assassinations, riots and war protests. After Robert Kennedy was killed in Los Angeles, apparently on the brink of winning the Democratic nomination for the presidency, tens of thousands mourned the loss of promise and felt sorrow for his pregnant widow and other family members.
The funeral train that carried RFK's body from New York to Washington, D.C., for interment at Arlington National Cemetary became one of those great national events when people co...more
The funeral train that carried RFK's body from New York to Washington, D.C., for interment at Arlington National Cemetary became one of those great national events when people co...more
I hate to be so critical as would not have been able to write this book, but it contained so many irritations I almost discarded it halfway through. I completed it and it did pick up the interest level slightly when Rebecca fell to the ground, but the dramatic action thereafter was rather predictable and everything just ended haphazardly. All of his threads he so painstakingly developed just hung there and that was almost worse than the boring buildup. I should have known as disliked the cover b...more
A piece of America's hope was buried with JFK. Another piece went with Martin Luther King. Bobby Kennedy took another huge piece of hope with him. This novel chronicles the lives of ordinary people united by the solemness of the journey of the Kennedy funeral train as it makes its way from NY to Washington. People from all walks of life make plans to line the train route and pay their last respects. Basically the novel is made up of short stories about average people whose lives were impacted by...more
When Robert Kennedy was assassinated his casket traveled by train from New York City to Washington, DC for internment at Arlington. On this trip the train passed through a number of states where "regular" Americans gathered along the tracks to pay their respects to the slain senator and presidential-hopeful.
This book looks at the stories of a number of those "regular" Americans...what drew them to witness the train's passing, the various ways they came to be where they were for the event and how...more
This book looks at the stories of a number of those "regular" Americans...what drew them to witness the train's passing, the various ways they came to be where they were for the event and how...more
Quite enjoyed this book, I received it as a give-away on this site. The novel encompasses a single day, that in which the funeral train of RFK travels from New York to Washington. The stories in this book, chaptered from the locations on the East Coast that they represent, represent a cross section of the society as it was at that time. Viet Nam War vets, students who were deferred, tha familes of Vets, Republicans, Democrats, hippies, Irish Americans, Black Americans, and this one little kid th...more
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This stunning book takes place on one tragic day in 1968, following the lives of six characters during the hours when the train bearing RFK's body travels from New York to Washington. The stories are never tied together, and thus the book is fragmented -- perhaps too fragmented for some. But through each story, the author delves into the topics of the time (Vietnam, civil rights) and the topics of any time (marriage, parenting). I found myself strongly drawn to each of the storylines and would h...more
For someone, like me, who was too young to really appreciate the feeling of the nation on the day the train rolled through with Bobby Kennedy's body on board, this is a wonderful book. David Rowell really captures the culture of the nation, as well as the feelings that people had about Kennedy's murder.
He does this by weaving the stories of six different character sets and the stories of their lives on the day they are waiting for this funeral train to come through. If I had one tiny complaint,...more
He does this by weaving the stories of six different character sets and the stories of their lives on the day they are waiting for this funeral train to come through. If I had one tiny complaint,...more
Jun 16, 2012
Tasha
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
first-reads,
historical-fiction
I received this book free from Goodreads' first reads.
"The Train of Small Mercies" tells about half a dozen unrelated stories loosely tied around Robert Kennedy's funeral train. Some were ordinary slices of life stories while others illustrated the turmoil of the time. I was particularly moved by Lionel's story. His first day on the job working on the train.
Rowell has a good writing style and I enjoyed the book. I have one minor criticism. The chapters are very short. I know most people would pr...more
"The Train of Small Mercies" tells about half a dozen unrelated stories loosely tied around Robert Kennedy's funeral train. Some were ordinary slices of life stories while others illustrated the turmoil of the time. I was particularly moved by Lionel's story. His first day on the job working on the train.
Rowell has a good writing style and I enjoyed the book. I have one minor criticism. The chapters are very short. I know most people would pr...more
A portrait gallery with dialogue. This is six (or so) short stories braided together around the journey of Robert Kennedy's funeral train from New York to DC.
Each story is a quiet drama. I kept thinking something wildly dramatic would happen, such as "Pool guests poisoned by chlorine," or "nanny has affair with hotel concierge three times her age," or "reporter comes out to returning war veteran." By those headline standards, nothing happens.
But what did happen in each story felt real. The cha...more
Each story is a quiet drama. I kept thinking something wildly dramatic would happen, such as "Pool guests poisoned by chlorine," or "nanny has affair with hotel concierge three times her age," or "reporter comes out to returning war veteran." By those headline standards, nothing happens.
But what did happen in each story felt real. The cha...more
As Robert F. Kennedy's somber funeral train journeys from New York to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1968, assorted crowds gather at various points along the way to show their respect.
A fictional cast of characters with numerous hopes and dreams bring sundry tales to the mix.
For Lionel Chase, a young black man on his first day as a porter on that train, and for Jamie West, a disabled Vietnam vet, home from that war and facing the obstacles of his damaged life, the journey of the train seems e...more
A fictional cast of characters with numerous hopes and dreams bring sundry tales to the mix.
For Lionel Chase, a young black man on his first day as a porter on that train, and for Jamie West, a disabled Vietnam vet, home from that war and facing the obstacles of his damaged life, the journey of the train seems e...more
Train of Small Mercies tells the stories of a number of unrelated individuals as they wait for the opportunity to see train bearing Robert F. Kennedy's body as it passes by their homes and towns. Many of the individual stories are interesting and enjoyable. But, the problem is that there are too many of them. Too many names, too many characters to keep track of. This is one of those books that I almost put down about a third of the way through. Reason -- just too many balls in the air. I stuck w...more
With the passage of Robert Kennedy's funeral train from New York to Washington as a framework, David Rowell fills this book with small details that make the stories come alive. Rowell creates six stories from the hundreds of thousands of people who watched RFK's funeral train pass by (or, in one case, were on the train), and gives us a glimpse into a day in the lives of ordinary (fictional) Americans who were touched in ways large and small by his life and death. This book is definitely not abou...more
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David Rowell is an editor at The Washington Post Magazine and has taught literary journalism at American University. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife and their two sons. The Train of Small Mercies is his first novel.
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Jan 19, 2013 07:58pm
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