Mike Crowl reviews The People's
Train.
THE PEOPLE'S TRAIN
Tom Keneally
Vintage, $39.99, pbk
Over the years, Tom Keneally has not only written straight
fiction but also novels with historical realities
underpinning them.
The People's Train is one of the latter.
The book is full of detail and thoroughly researched (or at
least Keneally convinces us that it is), is divided into two
not quite equal sections, each with a distinct narrator, and
sets its characters amid tumultuous times from 1911 up to the
famous "Ten Days that Shook the World".
The problem is that the first narrator, Tom (also known by
his Russian name, Artem), makes a dull companion.
This may be intentional, as Tom's focus in life is on the
coming revolution in Russia, as well as the possibilities of
a mini-revolution in the heat and humidity of Brisbane where
we find him at the beginning of the book. Everything else is
subsidiary.
Unfortunately, it means we never get emotionally involved
with him. Furthermore, the endless talk of various socialist
factions are thrown at us without much explanation, and this
only gets worse in the second half of the book.
The second and more lively narrator, Paddy Dykes, a
journalist in his mid-30s, has been a fairly frequent
participant within the first narrative.
In 1917 he goes along with Artem (the name Tom is now left
behind) when the latter returns to Russia in the beginnings
of the time leading up to the Ten Days.
The rather naive Dykes hero-worships Artem; Artem sees him as
his voice to the outside world, and Paddy is happy to oblige.
Though Paddy's narration has more energy, Artem becomes an
even more remote figure within it.
He and Paddy are involved in events large and small without
any of these turning into a dramatic form we can get inside.
Everything is at a remove from the reader.
The historical sequence approach of the novel means there's
little real interplay between the characters; those who get
involved with each other often slide out of view without a
sense of loss to other people.
And the large cast becomes a welter of names for the reader
to contend with, even though a few are recognisable for their
later part in history.
In the Brisbane scenes, things are often grim but at least
there's mostly a sense of British behaviour behind the
brutality.
By the time we reach Russia, anarchy has taken over and
brutal and sudden killings are the order of the day -
although Artem himself remains dispassionate in the midst of
it all.
Other critics have said this book is a tremendous and
exciting read.
I found myself skimming at times just in order to keep
moving.
And The People's Train? A monorail dream of one of the
characters; perhaps a symbol for the revolution itself.
- Mike Crowl is a Dunedin writer.
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