Train

"...this was not an ordinary citizen of Beverly Hills...He probably never threatened anyone in his life. He would skip that step."That brief passage from TRAIN describes Miller Packard, a detective, who befriends a young black caddy named Lionel Walk, nicknamed "Train", and serves as an example of Pete Dexter's raw, spare writing. Set in pre-integration California, TRAIN examines the societal relationship between the races that existed then, using a noir style as the vehicle. Given that background, TRAIN in particular is a love story and the story of a friendship between Train and Packard. Golf is also featured prominently in the novel and Mr. Dexter knows his golf, using terms and insights into the game that give this almost a sports novel feel. At times violent and at times quirky, almost gothic, TRAIN also explores the human psyche with a sharp understanding of people and their motives, both base and higher.If you enjoy excellent writing, a fast-paced story, penetrating character analysis, realistic action and high-stakes golf, be sure to catch this five-star train for a good read.

It's 1953 and Lionel Walk Jr., nicknamed "Train," is a seventeen-year-old black caddy at the exclusive Brookline Country Club, one of the better golf clubs in L.A. Though only a caddy who must cater to the white patrons, he has a gift for the game, but because of his color he doesn't get much chance to play it.Train gets in trouble when two other caddies murder a Beverly Hills millionaire and rape the man's wife. The police bring him in for questioning and it looks like they want to implicate him in the crime, so when he sees a chance to slip out of the interrogation room, Train choo choos on out of there.Sgt. Miller Packard is an emotionally burnt out loner with no scruples, who survived five days in the sea when the Indianapolis went down, watching fellow sailors being killed by sharks, wondering if his number was going to come up. He is the first officer to arrive on the scene of the rape and murder, and he calmly executes the bad guys to avoid the complications of a rape trial. Then he falls for the dead man's wife, Norah, she falls for him and they move in together.Packard recognizes Train's golfing prowess and becomes his manager and together they make a lot of money on the underground gambling circuit, but Train is easily taken advantage of and his share of the loot is soon lost or stolen. Then after Train beats his abusive stepfather almost to death, Packard lets him and a friend, who is an elderly, punch-drunk ex-prizefighter, move into the guest cottage behind the house where he and Norah are living, much to the chagrin of Miller's all white neighbors.Despite the occasional detour, we know that the lives of these bloodied and wounded people are racing down the tracks to a catastrophic climax, but even as I knew it, I couldn't put the book down. Mr. Dexter had me hooked from page one and kept me on the line long after I'd finished with his excellent novel.Haley Lawford, S/V Cheerleader Too

Peter Dexter's Train is being marketed as a suspense thriller, and that might explain some of the reviews that are appearing here. Although the book is centered around a premise that would only appear in that genre, Train is a mystery thriller without any mystery. Instead, it is about the way characters are affected by situations that are way beyond their means and understanding.Train is a seventeen year old black boy who knows nothing but hardship. Growing up in a time of racial inequity, Train faces the very same prejudice every day. He works as a caddy at a golf course, getting nothing but a few bucks a week. When two of the caddies working at the same golf course brutally attack a woman, killing her husband in the process, Train is fired from his job and left on the street.As the story progresses, the novel follows Train as he finds a new job on another golf course. The novel also follows the woman who was brutally attacked and who falls in love with the cop who saved her, and the cop who only lives one way: on the edge.Great characters entertwine in this complex narrative that never ceases to impress. Dexter's writing is often funny (some of his every-day observations made me laugh out loud quite a few times, especially one concerning eggs and chicken), and often dark. Dexter uses elegant prose while telling the story of the rich woman, and slang and bad grammar when telling Train's story, which only adds to the characters's complexity.Dexter uses characters that are broken beyond repair to tell an otherwise simple story. Train is the kind of innocent, naive character who is just awaiting his awakening. He goes through life accepting what he sees without really questioning anything. He encounters these various characters (also including a blind man and slew of rich golf players) with indifference. When he finally finds a way to escape the life he leads - golf - Train realizes that there is much more for him out in the world. Only, he can't reach the greatness awaiting him because of racial issues. Train is the kind of novel Elmore Leonard would have written in the early part of his career, only with better characters and better writing. I enjoyed reading every single word printed in this novel, and can't wait to give it another shot.

At 17, Lionel Walk, known as Train, plays golf like he was born with a club in his hand. His swing is effortless; his skill uncanny. Like a young Tiger Woods, he ought to have it made in the shade. But there's a problem. It's 1953 and Train is a black kid from Watts with an abusive stepfather. "Civil rights" is not a term anyone is familiar with and Train would be barred from play on most golf courses in the country. He's a caddy at Brookline, LA's most exclusive country club.Enter Miller Packard. Train, who comes up with names for most of his "totes," dubs him "the Mile Away Man," for his distracted air. The reader has already met Packard in a prologue chapter set in Philadelphia five years earlier. A war veteran who spent five days in the Pacific Ocean after his ship went down, Packard became a firefighter, famous for the risks he took. But the rush grew stale. "And so, needing a hobby, Packard became a runner."Here was Packard's training schedule: Midnight, he would walk into a neighborhood where he did not belong, say Kensington or the Devil's Pocket. He'd sit down in a bar, order a beer, and insult one of the locals. The easiest way to insult one was to use a word he didn't understand. Avuncular, bulbous, crescendo. Say the word avuncular and the next thing you knew, fifteen of them had bats and were chasing you down the street, screaming, `Kill the queer.' "Eventually, even this becomes too tame for Packard. That's the sort of guy he is. But Train doesn't know any of that. If he did it might make him a bit more wary. There's enough everyday danger in Train's life without going looking for trouble. He doesn't know Packard is a police sergeant either. If he had, he'd have steered clear of him, despite his easy confidence and respectful manners.But he doesn't steer clear of him; Train even takes a beating trying to fulfill Packard's expectations of integrity. Then a woman is raped, and two men killed by a couple of the caddies at Brookline and all of them are fired. Packard, the cop on the scene, becomes involved with the widow, and Train, homeless and shaken by his own capacity for violence, takes up with Plural, a brain-damaged ex-fighter who makes him feel safer. His and Packard's lives diverge.Train finds another golf course, a better one, for him. It's an integrated development with housing, but money is tight and no one knows anything about managing a golf course. Train soon has a free hand with the place. He has to bring Plural along, though, feeling responsible for the man, and Plural, always unpredictable, is now blind too. So, even as things are looking up, that edgy feeling remains; disaster just around the next bend.Then along comes Packard, ready for a new challenge in his life. He moves Train and Plural into his new wife's guest house in Beverly Hills, and begins championing Train at golf matches around the country, winning thousands."He [Train] liked winning, and he liked hearing the excuses. He liked that feeling when he took t

In the grand tradition of Los Angeles noir, Pete Dexter's new novel Train, is framed in black and white by the minds eye. Yet Dexter has applied his considerable skill to softening the edges; it is delicately written noir.Train is Lionel Walk, a black caddy at a posh Brentwood country club, whose world seems populated only by malevolent forces: the crass racism of the country club members, the criminal element among his fellow caddies, and the undisguised malice of his mother's lover. In the same city, and yet, of course, in another world entirely, a woman named Norah is brutally attacked and her husband is murdered while they are on their yacht, anchored off the coast. Norah manages to escape into the arms of a mysterious cop, Miller Packard, whom Train will later dub "Mile Away Man," which sets the book careening towards its inevitable conclusion. Packard is brilliantly written as both heroic rescuer and herald of malignant chaos. The mystery inherent in this book is not of the whodunit variety - we know from the start who commits the murder on the yacht - rather it is to see which of the forces that seem to inhabit Packard will win out in the end. In fact, one of the strengths of the book is Dexter's ability to embody his characters with such ethereal qualities. Packard seems as though he has been touched by some unmentioned force that torments him. Train, meanwhile, has been similarly touched, and though this force is of pure benevolence, one cannot be sure if it will be strong enough to lift him from his circumstances. Train turns out to be, of all things, a golf prodigy, which would be a lucrative gift for almost anyone except someone in Train's circumstances. Instead, his unaccountable proficiency serves only to further enmesh his life with that of Packard and Norah and a blind former boxer named Plural. Train is bleak but captivating. The book unfolds in front of you, and you find yourself not wanting to look away.