Nemesis Train explores the crushing human need for intimacy amidst the disconnected lives of hungry souls in a careless city. Not your "typical" novel - more of an art piece—with maximum description and minimum dialogue. The reader is confronted with a series of snapshots from the lives of the Wanderer, the Musician, the Clerk, the Driver the Old man and the Child, while the key protagonists Jed and Clair (with the help of sage-like Jack) struggle to make sense of life and find ways to make the world somehow better.
The realisation hits us about the same time as it dawns on Jed, that it's not about the big stuff we do, or even about the gestures we make. rather we impact the world in the day to day—a smile here, a kind word there, a helping hand offered when most needed—a spontaneous kind of risk-taking that impacts on the lives of real people.
Recurring motifs of light and darkness, the movement of trains, and even and the oft-repeated refrain "the atmosphere felt like one of those afternoons where one has the vague feeling everyone else is away doing something or exciting or important and, despite the certainty that there is nothing exciting or important to do, one always feels a little uncertain and left out," keep the reader plumbing the depths for answers.
Are there answers? Read it and find out!
Friday, February 27, 2009
From a Nemesis Train reader
Earlier this week, I had a great conversation over lunch with a Nemesis Train reader. It is so cool that someone who is a energetic reader appreciates and is enthusiastic about the book. These are the comments he posted on his Facebook page:
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