Trains and Lovers

Alexander McCall Smith's latest book Trains and Lovers (#307) appealed to me on many levels.  Firstly, I love both his #1 Ladies' Detective Agency and the Corduroy Mansions series, so I'll check out anything by him even if I don't ultimately stick with a particular series.  Secondly, Trains and Lovers is set on the Edinburgh to London train when four strangers meet and share stories about their lives and loves.  Since I met my husband in Victoria Station in London just a few days after we had both taken that Edinburgh to London train, and my sister-in-law similarly met her husband on a train in Thailand, the impulse to read this book was natural and immediate.  Thirdly, once I began reading, so many synchronicities throughout the tale jumped out at me I couldn't help but relate to the characters.  Yes, we have shared a memorable evening in Dingle and sampled Adelaide and the Outback in Australia, and appreciated the simple and stark beauties of Oban in Scotland.  The literary references to many of my favorite works from  Nevil Shute's A Town Called Alice to Oscar Wilde's romp of a play The Importance of Being Ernest cinched the deal for me.

Although two of the characters reveal stories of their own loves to the others, a third character's story we learn only through his own internal reactions to the others.  The fourth character is journeying to recall the romance of a bygone time and place.  All the stories are touching in their own ways, as are the attitudes of the people experiencing the emotions.  And all of these stories are revealed in the course of a four hour train trip, about the same length of time it will take the reader to journey along with these fictional passengers.  A pleasant and poignant way to do some armchair traveling.