The London Train

May 14, 2013 Bill rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

A Thick Slog Through Marital Muck

Hadley, Tessa (2011). The London Train. New York: Harper Collins.

This is a concatenation of two novellas so there are two main characters. In the first half, the main character is Paul, a man from Cardiff in a strained second marriage. His daughter by his first wife disappears and he tracks her down in London, taking the eponymous train. She is living on the edge, squatting in an apartment with an older man and his sister, and she is pregnant. In multiple visits,...more A Thick Slog Through Marital Muck

Hadley, Tessa (2011). The London Train. New York: Harper Collins.

This is a concatenation of two novellas so there are two main characters. In the first half, the main character is Paul, a man from Cardiff in a strained second marriage. His daughter by his first wife disappears and he tracks her down in London, taking the eponymous train. She is living on the edge, squatting in an apartment with an older man and his sister, and she is pregnant. In multiple visits, Paul hangs out with them, sleeping on the floor, trying to convince his daughter to return home, but gradually he comes to appreciate her freedom (and the attractiveness of her boyfriend’s sister).

The second novella features Cora, an unrelated character, a London woman living in Cardiff, working part time in a library there while she renovates a country house inherited from her parents. She is separated from her husband. You’ll never guess who she meets on the London train and develops a passionate affair with.

The premise is trite and the characters did not redeem the story for me because of poor narration. The omniscient-close third-person narrator is intrusive and domineering, telling us how things are rather than letting the characters show themselves.

“Paul felt he must tell Pia about her grandmother, but couldn’t bring himself to do it in front of a stranger” … “[The television] distracted Paul, but the others didn’t take any notice. He felt the absurdity of his playing the part of the offended protective father, given his own history with Pia; and it almost seemed as if Marek understood this, reassuring him to help him out, amused at him.”

Those are some interesting relationship dynamics, but they are not shown by the characters. When characters do interact, and there is very little dialog in the book, the conversations are brief and trivial, not revealing.

It’s the same for Cora’s novella: the narrator tells us, “She was in fact quite wrong about what Robert thought, but she seemed to hear these opinions uttered in his reasonable, reluctant, rather growling voice, which never ran on unnecessarily, but chopped and cut to minimize wasted words, always holding something back.”

That’s a nice description of a dialog the author didn’t write.

Despite some well-observed moments then, the actual writing fails to bring the characters alive, and the storyline lacks page-turning motivation, so the result is merely a thick slog.(less)

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Feb 13, 2013 E.G. Fabricant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tessa Hadley’s fourth novel, 2011’s The London Train, is sneaky, and beyond satisfying. (Congratulations, CapRadio Reads, on a swell second selection.)

First, a confession. As is my wont with new fiction, I dove directly into the Kindle edition with no preliminaries—no research, no reviews. A single recommendation from someone else works best for me. I enjoy being surprised, and there’s no chance a splendid entrée will be spoiled by ill-matched hors d’oeuvres. I scanned the “Contents” page: Eleve...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Ivona Poyntz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Tessa Hadley’s ‘The London Train’ is a hodgepodge of disparate characters whose connections are ill drawn and unsubstantiated. Paul, a father of three living in Wales, steps into a full blown midlife crisis for no discernible reason whatsoever: one day he’s whistling Dixie, happy go lucky, the next he’s ‘emigrated’ to his daughter’s London squat where he spends days on end just...wallowing, basically, and lusting after his daughter’s friend Anna. Meanwhile, he’s left his wife and rather young da...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Pieshine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm...I don't usually write these b/c I can't muster the energy to be so articulate. (I think I expended all that energy years ago in college.) Anyway, have to echo much of what the other 3-starrers are saying. I do like Ms. Hadley's writing. The storyline, though meandering, kept me interested. But the characters! Paul and Cora...I just plain didn't care for either of them. I know I risk sounding like a huge prude...but, geessh, are there any value-systems out there anymore? Paul pretends to c...more Hmmm...I don't usually write these b/c I can't muster the energy to be so articulate. (I think I expended all that energy years ago in college.) Anyway, have to echo much of what the other 3-starrers are saying. I do like Ms. Hadley's writing. The storyline, though meandering, kept me interested. But the characters! Paul and Cora...I just plain didn't care for either of them. I know I risk sounding like a huge prude...but, geessh, are there any value-systems out there anymore? Paul pretends to care about important things, but is a lousy a both marriage and fatherhood. Elise should dump him like a hot-potato. And he just leaves his daughter's for weeks on end to hang out with his older daughter who, not unsurprisingly, was looking for a father figure in Malek b/c, surprise, Paul was an absentee father. Paul's interest in Pia's arrangement seems suspiciously connected to the thrills he experiences connected to Malek's sister.
As for Cora...she nonchalantly has a fling with married Paul after meeting him ONE TIME on a train. Obviously I am dull, dull, dull, as are all my friends, b/c who does this? She supposedly is disappointed that she can't have children, but really isn't cut out for motherhood based on her lack of interest in Frankie's children,and other general lack of enthusiasm. And I wasn't really clear on why she left her poor hapless husband, why she went back, and why would he be foolish enough to get back with her. He deserves better. It is just a matter of time before she has another random affair in her fifties based on some kind of vague ennui. As another reviewer stated, I was actually more interested in some of the other characters...Elise, Frankie, even Gerald, Malek and his sister, etc. (Have no interest in the juvenile man/boy Pia carefully selected as the father of her child. I can see a sequel here...Pia will be ripe for an affair/leaving the kid with James in about 7 years.)
Still, for all this grousing, the book got me thinking and I actually think it would be decent book club selection b/c discussing the characters and their confusing choices would be fun. (less)

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May 14, 2012 natalie chin rated it 3 of 5 stars

i started this book feeling unmotivated to finish it, but i think it was a rewarding read. the expectations of a book depend on the blurb or what i know of the plot, here, the tales of two different people, hurtling towards a symmetrical moment in time when they meet on a london train, and the effects of that encounter. this suggested to me, that what i was reading beforehand—a narrative first focusing on paul’s life, then cora’s—would be the prologue to the encounter, and thus settled into this...more i started this book feeling unmotivated to finish it, but i think it was a rewarding read. the expectations of a book depend on the blurb or what i know of the plot, here, the tales of two different people, hurtling towards a symmetrical moment in time when they meet on a london train, and the effects of that encounter. this suggested to me, that what i was reading beforehand—a narrative first focusing on paul’s life, then cora’s—would be the prologue to the encounter, and thus settled into this expectation. these narratives chugged along without disturbance or interference, almost mundane, and i felt inclined to give up.

i feel like, if someone states, he cheated on his wife, or places emphasis on this action/label, it immediately characterizes and imposes certain ideas about a person. instead of throwing this into the open from the beginning, hadley charts the daily movements of paul, and when he finally leaves his wife, i am surprised by it, this turn of events, because i hadn’t thought of him that way, or hadn’t realized this part of his mind. but then, that seems to me, an accurate portrayal of a person—how we do not think we are capable of such things, perhaps uncharacteristic actions, until the act itself is done. i didn’t feel like i liked paul very much. and yet, his character takes shape in a holistic manner, which is the power of her writing, to describe private thoughts, intruding into the mind of the character, while remaining firmly planted in reality. paul goes to look for his daughter from his first marriage after she runs away from her mother: swollen with pregnancy, married at twenty and shacked away in an apartment on the dirtier side of london. he begins to—fall in love is the wrong term—think of his daughter’s husband’s sister as an object of affection, lusts for her. when i read this i felt like, it was wrong to think of paul as only his role as a father, which he is presented as in the beginning, but must acknowledge his thoughts as one belonging to an individual. and so the london train re-works our initial impressions of a person, constantly, re-writing them over and over again till you feel like, and i guess this is the point, that you can never know what a person is like, what we know of a person is what they have filtered into acceptable presentation. there are so many secret things shut away in the realm of the private mind that we can never hope to know. and these things which we do not have access to make up the whole of a person. i feel like i am not explaining this adequately. the development of character is slow but it mirrors life, shows that the way a person changes isn’t overnight. certain thought processes ferment over time, then lead up to an action. but our impressions of a person can change over night.

cora’s story was interesting, i’m not sure why. i think because she has such a hold on her idea of herself, she sees herself in a certain light and her actions correspond with this person. her perception is sharp, and yet she seems lost, in both her job as a librarian—the meaningless routine of organization that empties the mind of academic/real thought, unchallenging— like how, she seems sure of her decision to leave her husband. her story begins with robert, her husband, waiting for her outside of her parents’ place (they are dead), wanting to speak to her about divorce papers and to split the money out of their shared flat. she declines. this story weaves in and out of the present, telling us how they met etc. then this our impressions of these two people are blown open by the encounter, which happened PRIOR and not AFTER, as i had first believed. i have to re-adjust my understanding of these two people, the significance of their affair on their respective marriages…

in the end cora returned to her husband, he doesn’t know anything about paul/how she felt about him (imagining paul and her as one future). after we learn of her affair and understand why she left him, for a while. there’s this phrase that hit home—

what words were there for what had happened while they were apart(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Venuskitten rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Paul and Cora, married to Elise and Robert respectively, meet on a London train, and begin a passionate but short-lived affair that never seems entirely convincing. This is a book in two halves; firstly Paul's story and his search for his daughter from his first marriage, who has dropped out of college, and is found, pregnant, in a squalid flat in London with her boyfriend. The second half of the book deals with Cora's story, her affair with Paul (and pregnancy/miscarriage) and her separation fr...more

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Jun 29, 2011 christa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Paul's mother has just died. She will continue to appear in his dreams. His of-age daughter Pia, from his first marriage, has dropped out of school and has hidden her pregnant self in an apartment in London with her older Polish boyfriend and his sister. And his asshole neighbor is chopping down the trees in a gray area of property line limbo. When he and his wife get into a snit about how to handle the neighbor, Paul uses the argument as an emergency exit. He ditches out on domesticity -- his s...more Paul's mother has just died. She will continue to appear in his dreams. His of-age daughter Pia, from his first marriage, has dropped out of school and has hidden her pregnant self in an apartment in London with her older Polish boyfriend and his sister. And his asshole neighbor is chopping down the trees in a gray area of property line limbo. When he and his wife get into a snit about how to handle the neighbor, Paul uses the argument as an emergency exit. He ditches out on domesticity -- his sturdy upper crust wife who works in furniture restoration and their two young daughters -- and takes the train into the city with plans to take care of Pia.

He falls face-first into Pia's boyfriend's sister's couch and then meanders. He walks, he hangs in coffee shops and eventually he is working with Pia's boyfriend who is trying to build an import business.

Tessa Hadley takes a gamble, introducing readers first to Paul in her novel The London Train, which starts with Paul's story, then segues into the story of a much more satisfying character, Cora whose life intersected Paul's briefly.

Paul isn't necessarily nice. He meanders. He is the type of person whom his friends reluctantly cover for, whose wife's friends tolerate. He is a writer, not adverse to a fling, or an unsolicited cupping of a woman's breast just because he cannot help himself. He's going through a rough stretch to be sure. But it seems he wouldn't not do these things if he wasn't. He's certainly not interesting. You imagine him walking with his hands in his pockets responding to the pokes and prods of chance.

After Paul's slice ends, Hadley moves on to Cora's story. The death of her mother, an inability to get pregnant, and a situation involving a fire for which her government employee husband is taking the heat has her crippled with depression. She leaves her job as an English teacher and returns to her childhood home, first to get it ready to be sold, eventually just moving in and taking a job at the library. It takes Hadley a bit to pinpoint Cora's funk. Then the backstory of Paul, a pompous man she had met on a train, emerges and it is clear that she took respite in a short-lived affair with him. Through her eyes, Paul is still self-centered. Dabbling in something that obviously means more to her. Stealing away for a weekend with her, but making sure she knows that if he has to choose, he chooses his wife and daughters.

For about 60 pages this is a gripping story, not a bodice ripper or fate or anything close to romantic. It's a situation romance, seemingly medicinal for both of them. Curing Paul of the day-to-day prospect of living life, probably, and giving Cora something to look forward to. The rub: Cora is mentioned briefly in Paul's part of the book. He refers to her generically as one of two women with whom he has had extra maritial daliances. Meanwhile, Cora waxes and wanes and has tear-lettings and rips up letters and stops cold in her tracks when she hears his voice on the radio.

It's the meaning-of-Paul-to-Cora versus Cora's-meaning-to-Paul that is the best part of a book that hangs out too long with the minutia, and then deviates into unlikely decisions and finales.(less)

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May 17, 2011 Felice rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tessa Hadley keeps proving herself as the kind of writer whose books get better and better. London Train is her fifth novel and I have to say it was wonderful.It was on the long list for the 2011 Orange Prize. Most of the novel is divided into the story of two separate characters but don't think short stories. Think more like Carol Shields Republic of Love.

Story one is about Paul. He lives a thoughtful life in Cardiff with wife #2 and children #'s 2 and 3. He's a poet and a father and an about...more Tessa Hadley keeps proving herself as the kind of writer whose books get better and better. London Train is her fifth novel and I have to say it was wonderful.It was on the long list for the 2011 Orange Prize. Most of the novel is divided into the story of two separate characters but don't think short stories. Think more like Carol Shields Republic of Love.

Story one is about Paul. He lives a thoughtful life in Cardiff with wife #2 and children #'s 2 and 3. He's a poet and a father and an about to be midlife crisis man. His eldest daughter, Pia, #1, is the one whose life he's a part timer in. She lives with her Mother. Paul's life of comfort and untested intellectual liberality is put to the point when Pia disappears and is found pregnant, living in squalor in London with her illegal boyfriend.

Story two is about Clara. She is seeking peace. Clara has spent 25 years working hard teaching other people's children. Her parents have recently passed away and her marriage is in trouble. Clara's much older husband is facing disciplinary actions at work. Like Paul, Clara is a relatively untried liberal intellectual whose life is suddenly in a crisis. Clara moves from the anxiety of her London life to take a job as a librarian in Cardiff.

When Hadley takes these strangers on a train and adds a touch of Brief Encounter you have London Train. In fact this novel really is a contemporary retelling of Brief Encounter. It has the same domestic responsibilities and virtues verses romance and freedom theme. Oh and trains too. In Hadley's version we learn much more about the lives of the characters than we do in Brief Encounter. Like Coward's Laura and Alec, Paul and Clara have reached middle age relatively unscathed and with dreams of hearth and home if not completely intact then at least still glimmering. Unlike Laura and Alec, Hadley's characters are not quietly noble, restrained, 'proper' people. Paul and Clara have left their self absorbed little fingerprints all over their messy lives.

After five very enjoyable novels Tessa Hadley is an old hand at making troubled relationships fresh and entertaining. She stirs up London Train a bit more by playing fast and loose with chronological order. Hadley has made London Train an observationally acute examination of choices and a terrific read. Time to wait for novel #6.(less)

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Nov 30, 2011 Mrsgaskell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 8-star, british, library

This was a very absorbing novel, well, two connected novellas really. The first section focused on Paul, a middle-aged writer/reviewer living in rural Wales with his second wife and two young daughters. When the story opens, Paul's mother has just died and he also receives news from his first wife that his twenty-year-old daughter has gone missing. He locates Pia, pregnant and living in a shabby London apartment with her Polish lover. Spurred perhaps by loss and disconnection Paul moves in with...more

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May 07, 2012 Michael Palkowski rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Hemingway's conceptualization of the Iceberg Theory, he pointed out that a story writer should omit features or details from a story which seek to make the meaning obvious or give away startlingly obvious details. Meaning he insisted was under the surface and thus probably contingent on the reader and the way that reader happened to approach the text. In The London Train, we have a really simple narrative with the odd indulgent description or two featuring multifarious amounts of plants and g...more In Hemingway's conceptualization of the Iceberg Theory, he pointed out that a story writer should omit features or details from a story which seek to make the meaning obvious or give away startlingly obvious details. Meaning he insisted was under the surface and thus probably contingent on the reader and the way that reader happened to approach the text. In The London Train, we have a really simple narrative with the odd indulgent description or two featuring multifarious amounts of plants and gardening terminology, instantiating the nature aspect and indeed the unpredictable (Tussocy, Toadflax, Cranesbill, Linchen, Turmeric et al) The stories are on the contrary quite predictable, the first novella with Paul dealing with his pregnant daughter is full of odd loose ends here and there referring back to other pieces. It seems you were meant to indulge in the assumption that he lured after the girly neophyte and that his stay had ulterior motives, only to be thrown into unbelievable banality at times. Characters are too easily edited out and made relevant without the required depth and consideration that is needed to flesh them out. Paul's ex wife for example has little scope beyond her one dimensional role as a hysterical mother who ultimately has little role to play at all, why she has such conflict with her daughter is never really explained which is fine but the plot hardly engenders me to care at all. Paul's character ultimately has the same problems in that he seems flat and monolithic at times despite the author's intention to signify his complexity in scenes where he "incongruously" seeks to leave the entire country leaving behind his current situation. It just rendered him impulsive and boring. This is really a shame because her writing is rich and at times very impressive visually but is let down by character development and an empty mundane plot. It could be argued that Hadley was utilizing the Iceberg Theory in attempting to create characters independent of the page and characters with a life of their own in the mind of those reading, ultimately however, it was just too thin and dainty for my liking.

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Jan 31, 2013 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was drawn to this author after enjoying several of their stories in the New Yorker, and I was attracted to a copy of this book after glimpsing its rather beautiful cover in my local library. And I enjoyed reading it, but it’s one of those books which makes me feel somewhat frustrated with the goodreads rating system. Three stars doesn’t quite seem enough, but four is perhaps too many – did I ‘really’ like it or just ‘like’ it? I don’t know. I thought it very well written, very carefully crafte...more I was drawn to this author after enjoying several of their stories in the New Yorker, and I was attracted to a copy of this book after glimpsing its rather beautiful cover in my local library. And I enjoyed reading it, but it’s one of those books which makes me feel somewhat frustrated with the goodreads rating system. Three stars doesn’t quite seem enough, but four is perhaps too many – did I ‘really’ like it or just ‘like’ it? I don’t know. I thought it very well written, very carefully crafted, yet there is something unmemorable about the whole thing.

It’s a novel which could be thought of as two interlinked novellas: the first follows Paul, a writer living in Wales with his wife and kids, and what happens to him when he finds out his ex-wife’s daughter is pregnant and living in (apparently) unseemly squalor. The second half of the novel concerns Cora, a librarian whose relationship with her husband Robert is slowly falling apart. Both characters are readers with a tendency towards solitude and introspection. And late in the book, they meet on a train.

It’s good on class, this book. Its people are drawn most skillfully, with a keen eye for a certain kind of person who might be popularly satirised as ‘latte-sipping, Guardian-reading, muesli-crunching', etc. (I write this as a proud Guardian reader.) There is a great deal of attention paid to interior decor and home renovation. Characters occasionally lapse into inexplicably philosophical conversations about the nature of existence. Paul really seems to think his neighbour Willis (a farmer) a madman because he has cut down a few trees bordering their property and installed some hideously uncouth UPVC window frames. It’s difficult to know how much is intended as satire and how much we are meant to take seriously. But it need not be a binary choice between the two: these people can be petty and ridiculous, and the author rather reminded me of John Updike in the sense that the absurdity of these people only serves to make them all the more human.

But what is it about, actually? I suppose the book wants to be a contemporaneous portrait of modern life in an atomised society which has broken free from the constraints of the nuclear family and traditional gender roles. After all, one could argue that what defines Paul and Cora above all else is the sheer amount of free time and disposable income that they have on their hands. Paul can do what he does because he isn't the main breadwinner and Cora what she does because she has no particular responsibilities as a wife or a mother; even if taken entirely for granted, those two things are ultimately what makes the narrative possible. And yet while it may be good at noting the cultural signifiers that define these people, the book doesn’t really have anything to say about the world in which they live.

Not much really happens in terms of plot. People come together and drift apart in various combinations. People feel feelings and those feelings are often very eloquently described. And when the book ends I felt like the story had come to no particular kind of conclusion; it could have gone on being well-written for several hundred pages yet. In that sense it reminded me of Henry James (who is in fact mentioned in the novel). It shares that narrative style of psychological discussion, of holding people up to the light for a moment so that their innermost thoughts are cast in the best possible glow – until they cease to be of interest and are set down again. Nothing ventured, nothing resolved. (less)

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Jun 01, 2011 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dramatic literary fiction lovers

Recommended to Molly by: TLC

Shelves: book-review

So. Where do I begin? Guess I'll start with my honesty. I didn't LOVE this book. It was okay but, I didn't LOVE it. It didn't have that *oomph* that I like to see in books. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good literary fiction novel-if you like that hard to follow, often times slow paced book. It's VERY dramatic at times and at others it's a bit off. It's told in two sections: Paul's story of living on the edge with his pregnant daughter and, the second half is Cora's story, wanting to live a...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Kirsty Darbyshire rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

I picked this up as it jumped out of the Orange Prize longlist at me. Not quite sure why it did that as I've never heard of the author before and I don't remember what I read about it or where. All I can remember is something about it being a book of two halves and that they are linked.

I thought it was a great story and one I don't want to say much about as I think all the reviews I've just flicked through (newspaper ones mainly) give away far too much about the characters and the story. I enjoy...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book started off slowly for me. The story begins with Paul and his life. He lives in the country and takes the London train as his story progresses we learn he is twice married with a grown daughter from the first marriage and two younger daughters by his second wife. Paul is not a very happy man as his life seems directionless.We are told that he has had two affairs while married to his second wife. When his daughter, Pia, runs away from her mother's home this seems to give him some purpos...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Kasey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I am a huge Tessa Hadley fan--have loved all her books--and was so excited for this one to come out. And I wasn't disappointed. It is all the things I've adored about her previous work: subtly, beautifully written; smart about what it means to be human. I was fascinated by the comments that remark on how unpleasant both of the main characters are, I suppose because I could see that but wasn't put off by it; in fact, it's one of the things I find most moving about Hadley's work: her ability to cr...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Kiki rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this novel. It has an odd structure, divided into two parts, two different people's stories, coming together in the second part. The first part is told from Paul's point of view. Paul is a married man with what appears to be a fairly idyllic life--a hard working wife who restores furnishings for resale in their own home and two lovely little daughters. he is clearly somewhat dissatisfied with his career: he is a writer and often feels frustrated. he disco...more I wasn't really sure what to expect from this novel. It has an odd structure, divided into two parts, two different people's stories, coming together in the second part. The first part is told from Paul's point of view. Paul is a married man with what appears to be a fairly idyllic life--a hard working wife who restores furnishings for resale in their own home and two lovely little daughters. he is clearly somewhat dissatisfied with his career: he is a writer and often feels frustrated. he discovers from his ex-wife that his older daughter, Pia, has quit school and is hiding from her mother in London, and he takes the train from Wales to find out what is going on.

The second part introduces Cora, who is living quietly in Cardiff, Wales, in the home her parents left to her after their deaths. She is separated from her husband. She maintains a relationship with her sister in law, and finds herself happily working part time in the small library in town. We learn that she has had an affair with a man she met while traveling back and forth on the London train when she first decided to sell her parent's home, and was fixing it up to sell. She has a torrid affair with this man, named--you guessed it--Paul. He too lives in Cardiff...

The set up is interesting, but I felt like it never really came together for me. The Paul in the Cora section was so wildly different from the Paul in the first part, I could hardly recognize or reconcile him as one in the same. Perhaps that was the author's intent--the setting in which we know someone really effects how we know them. An intricate plot, I look forward to reading other things by this author. I felt it a struggle to unite the two separate stories, and I'm not sure that that wasn't what the author intended, actually, but it didn't quite leave me satisfied at the end of the book. There were many interesting plot secrets and twists revealed, and the author writes about the lives of the characters in a sensitive way. Moving.

I read this on my Kindle as a library book (!).

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Jul 16, 2011 Allyson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't like this cover and initially I thought I would also dislike the book. I was curious how she would entwine the 2 stories, at least enough to read into Part II. Her presentation of Cora was much stronger and more believable than Paul. I found it interesting how she joined the 2 also and having already developed a feel for Paul, it was curious to see him through Cora's eyes. I had hoped it would end on a high note, a believable note, but the last 4 pages left me deflated. Maybe had she pre...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Victor Carson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-foreign

The author's intimate understanding of the women in her novel is very engaging. On the surface, the male characters are simpler: dull, older, silent, and accommodating, or enabling; or forceful, young, overwhelming, and sexual overpowering. Both of the men are very intelligent, however, and understand the women quite thoroughly. By contrast, each of the women is complex. Pia, Paul's oldest daughter, is willful, fiercely independent on the outside but unable to tell either her father or her mothe...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Joanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

The novel is made up of two separate but parallel and ultimately intertwined stories of life in the wake of the loss of a mother and the midst of a marriage in turmoil. The novel is light on story, the bulk being dedicated to the exploration of the inner emotional lives of the main characters, as revealed through painstaking detail of their observations, impulses, memories, and behaviors in the mundane moments and exchanges of day to day life. The writing is lovely and insightful, but at times w...more The novel is made up of two separate but parallel and ultimately intertwined stories of life in the wake of the loss of a mother and the midst of a marriage in turmoil. The novel is light on story, the bulk being dedicated to the exploration of the inner emotional lives of the main characters, as revealed through painstaking detail of their observations, impulses, memories, and behaviors in the mundane moments and exchanges of day to day life. The writing is lovely and insightful, but at times was self-indulgent and difficult to force myself through. The characters and story were just compelling enough that I was able to do so, although I never felt connected to either main character, as if I could really understand their motivations. It seemed they were each lost in their own malaise, and perhaps we were not supposed to be able to understand their actions given the states they were in. I also second what others have said in their reviews about the second part of the book - Cora's story - being more believable and moving than Paul's (I didn't like any of the characters in Paul's half of the book, not even the pregnant daughter). I am interested to read more of Hadley's work, particularly after reading her 'afterwords' in the "P.S." section of the version I read, which I found charming and relatable (and which also helped me see the novel from her perspective and understand a bit better what she was trying to do). In the P.S., the author revealed that she was trying in this novel to "write like a man." It's funny, because in reading Paul's story (the first part of the book) I was impressed that a female author could tell a story from the perspective of a philandering, rather creepy middle aged male character, and be so sympathetic to him in the process. I think in trying to "write like a man," and not let Paul reflect her feminine sensibilities, she made him a little too cold and flat. Overall, a good read for those into literary fiction an not looking for anything rich, complex or fantastic in plot.(less)

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Jul 11, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Once, Cora had believed that living built a cumulative bank of memories, thickening and deepening as time went on, shoring you up against emptiness. She had used to treasure up relics from every phase of her life as it passed, as if they were holy. Now that seemed to her a falsely consoling model of experience. The present was always paramount, in a way that thrust you forward: empty, but also free. Whatever stories you told over to yourself and others, you were in truth exposed and naked in th...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Abby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Tessa Hadley tells the story in two parts: the main character of the novel's first half is Paul, a working-class boy from Birmingham who (through cleverness and good looks) grows up to become a writer (and public radio commentator) who lives in the Welsh countryside with his second wife and their two daughters.

The protagonist of the novel's second half is Cora, a London teacher of adult learners who is married to a mid-level British civil servant.

When we first meet Paul and Cora, they are in th...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Tara rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was generally absorbing and well written. The problem for me came with the joining of the two stories. Midway through the book the story switches from Paul, a confused middle aged writer with a pregnant daughter and marriage troubles, to Cora, a women he has had an affair with after they meet on the train. Cora has a similarly troubled marriage and is also at a point in her life where her purpose and direction are unclear. There are parallels in their lives that connect these two stori...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

As with all of Tessa Hadley’s books that I’ve read I liked this very much. Her writing style is sturdy but spare. She provides plenty of plot interest but doesn’t tell you everything straight out; she tells you just enough and let’s you fill in the rest. This book gets better as you go along. I liked the second Cora section better than the first Paul section. The ending is great, the pictures of Cora and Robert in each other’s houses are quite moving and the final section somehow ties the whole...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Misha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-appeal, british, doorway-character, doorway-language, multiple-perspectives, read-2011

I didn't love this book but I did enjoy reading it for the most part. The book is divided into two halves--the first is about Paul, a rather selfish poet whose older daughter from a previous marriage becomes pregnant; he leaves his 2nd wife and 2 daughters for a while to be with his older daughter. The second half is about Cora who met Paul on a train years before and had an affair with him. It's a quiet character study of both. It was the writing that kept me going.

Here are two passages I liked...more

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May 29, 2011 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, 2011, adult-fiction, did-not-finish

I won this book through the FirstReads program, and I tried to finish it but ultimately failed. Technically, there is nothing wrong with this book - it has perfectly decent writing, and it has a plot - but the book itself did not come together as something that was fun to read.

Apparently there are two parts to the book, covering two separate lives that ultimately come together, but I did not read far enough to reach the second half. In the first part, Paul, a middle-aged married man with two yo...more I won this book through the FirstReads program, and I tried to finish it but ultimately failed. Technically, there is nothing wrong with this book - it has perfectly decent writing, and it has a plot - but the book itself did not come together as something that was fun to read.

Apparently there are two parts to the book, covering two separate lives that ultimately come together, but I did not read far enough to reach the second half. In the first part, Paul, a middle-aged married man with two young daughters in his current marriage and a twenty-year-old daughter from his first marriage, finds out from his ex-wife that his oldest daughter has apparently disappeared. He tracks her down to a flat in London, where she's pregnant and living with her boyfriend; she makes him promise not to tell anyone for reasons that aren't explained, and Paul follows her instructions, as least at first. Pretty soon, he can't stop thinking about the seemingly free-wheeling life his daughter is leading, so he decides to head to London too.

The plot was bordering on ridiculous; the secrets being kept did not seem believable, and the characters seemed way too immature and unlikable. Paul is the main character, yet he's completely unappealing to read about. He's willing to keep his daughter's secrets, but the reasons why she wants to keep her pregnancy and living arrangement a secret is not easily understood - Paul doesn't seem to care, and her mom, when Paul finally tells her, isn't exactly thrilled about it but is not furious. It's just... an awkward plot device. There is also a lot of telling instead of showing in the story, and the pace feels soooo slow, it's as if nothing is happening.

I put this book down twice and can't bring myself to pick it back up again because it has not captured my imagination or interest. Perhaps there are people who would enjoy such a slow, lethargic story, but it was definitely not for me. This book is definitely not horrible and I didn't hate it, but it simply wasn't a good enough book for me to enjoy - or even finish. (less)

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Sep 21, 2011 Lucinda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

This novel was full of little segments that crept under my skin, little insights about people's motivations and opinions and self-deceptions that are perhaps more familiar than I would like to acknowledge. Take this quote for instance:

"Saving herself from having to think, she took her book into the cemetery to read while she ate her sandwiches. She wasn't reading anything strenuous these days: women's novels, commercial novels, some of which, she and Annette agreed, were remarkably well written,...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Helen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book in two halves; the first tells the story of Paul, married with two children and with a teenage daughter from a previous marriage. This marriage shows signs of cracking when Paul leaves to spend time with his adult daughter in London. The second half tells the story of recently separated Cora who, after leaving her husband in London, moves back to Cardiff.

During the second half of the novel, we realise that Cora and Paul are connected and their relationship casts light on the troub...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Marjorie Kubacki rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a hard book to review. It is basically 2 intertwined stories of characters who briefly meet.
The first story deals with Paul, a self-centered quasi-author who ends up tracking down his pregnant daughter and living with her briefly. The second (most satisfying story) deals with Cora,who has a brief affair with Paul.
There is a lot I like about Hadley's writing, she slowly shows you the characters and gets you to understand their flaws and their actions.
My dissapointment with the story lies...more

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Dec 25, 2011 Catherine Woodman rated it 4 of 5 stars

The London Train is another Tessa Hadley novel about family relationships--the main characters are sandwiched between their adult children and their infirmed and then dead parents. Middle-age dilemmas sprinkled with matter-of-fact sexual infidelities are the name of the game in this novel.

In the novel's first part, we follow Paul, a writer who lives in Wales and is well into his second marriage, though still picking up the pieces from his first. He is searching for, and finds, his 'missing' daug...more The London Train is another Tessa Hadley novel about family relationships--the main characters are sandwiched between their adult children and their infirmed and then dead parents. Middle-age dilemmas sprinkled with matter-of-fact sexual infidelities are the name of the game in this novel.

In the novel's first part, we follow Paul, a writer who lives in Wales and is well into his second marriage, though still picking up the pieces from his first. He is searching for, and finds, his 'missing' daughter--she is not so much misplaced as she is avoiding her parents, and it is her father, not her mother, that she chooses to share what is going on in her life that she has left school and left them.

In the second, shorter part, we follow Cora, wife of a senior civil servant who has fled back to her hometown of Cardiff following the failure of her marriage, in which the same Paul played a starring role. This folding structure suggests a symmetry that the novel eschews: it is not clear, for example, how the relationship between Paul and Cora affects, if at all, Paul's story of searching for his adult daughter who has gone missing. But I would count this asymmetry among the novel's more mature virtues, which include absolute lack of predictability and scrupulous sincerity.

Cora and Paul are decidedly upper middle class--in their life-styles, in their prejudices, and in their world view. The problem is that someone forgot to tell Paul's daughter to follow those rules, and she does not. The book is strongest (for my taste) in the telling of Paul's story, but the interweaving of two tales is well written and well done.

The London Train is a novel of convalescence, in which its middle-aged characters are recovering from their parents' deaths, and this convalescence reveals to Cora that "to treasure up relics from every phase of her life as it passed, as if it were holy" was "a falsely consoling model of experience". Now she feels that the "present was always paramount, in a way that thrust you forward: empty, but also free". She may be onto something.(less)

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Mar 28, 2011 Elaine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was rather disappointed by this. Split into 2 section, the first narrative concerning Paul was sluggish and turgid-what an unappealing character! The second section was much more interesting-although heaven knows what attraction Cora saw in Paul. There were some nice descriptive scenes in this section-but that alone was not enough to redeem it. Her story was interesting, and I would have much preferred had it been longer, and examined/resolved her issues. The final disappointment was the conc...more

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