Reviews
Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking Around America with Interruptions by Jenny Diski
foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
3.0
Aside from the obvious health downsides, I've always thought it would be pleasant to smoke. You always have an excuse to leave a gathering and get outside; and it gives you something to do with your hands. But, though Diski's memoir is, in part, a paean to smoking, it makes smoking seem very inconvenient. Diski is traveling by train in the US in the early 00s and constantly struggles to find a place she can smoke: the one thought in her mind is where she will be legally allowed to smoke and how long until her next cigarette. Though smoking laws in the UK are as stringent now as in the US, at the time of writing it was still legal for Diski to smoke in pubs and she desperately misses that freedom. But being one of a band of outlaws, of people brought together regardless of class, race or interests, by the single desire to find a legal place to smoke, Diski meets many people she would not have otherwise, and hears many different stories.
As a travel book, this is terrible: Diski has a very limited interest in the world outside of her head, and even though she spends every day on the American trains, she only sketchily describes the experience of train travel or the landscape she sees. Her interest is all internal: in her own past experiences, and how being alone on a train makes her feel. Fortunately, the inside of Diski's head is mostly a fascinating place to be, and her prose is direct, witty, and compelling. Though very little happens, this book flows along, and is only let down by feeling rather shapeless, and, at times, overlong.
As a travel book, this is terrible: Diski has a very limited interest in the world outside of her head, and even though she spends every day on the American trains, she only sketchily describes the experience of train travel or the landscape she sees. Her interest is all internal: in her own past experiences, and how being alone on a train makes her feel. Fortunately, the inside of Diski's head is mostly a fascinating place to be, and her prose is direct, witty, and compelling. Though very little happens, this book flows along, and is only let down by feeling rather shapeless, and, at times, overlong.
rumaho76's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Jenny Diski clearly enjoys smoking and as a smoker myself I loved her for it. I've often thought you meet a stranger group of people if you hang out with smokers. And so it seems.
katrinepoetry's review against another edition
4.0
Somehow the book managed first to intrigue me, and then during the last third completely inthrall me with its perceptions.
pking90's review against another edition
4.0
The comforting (and discomfiting) same-ness of America, the real-life stock characters of America, the beauty and grandeur and just plain weirdness of America. Though she name checks DeToqueville, this is something entirely different: an examination of the effect of America and Americans on the self. She brings a lot of her self into the narrative and it’s really what ties it all together. The text is full of digressions and it gives a strong authorial voice. I think that ultimately the book falters in the last few chapters as even she begins to weary of the journey she’s taking.
thepoptimist's review against another edition
4.0
Jenny Diski endeavours to circumnavigate the United States …by train. She’s not really intent on doing anything more than watch the scenery whip past and smoke. She finds a special place in the smoking car with it’s cracked linoleum floor, institutional gray walls and hard plastic chairs. There, along with the outcast, nicotine hungry pariahs she can unrepentantly smoke in peace.
People seem to have other ideas and their lives and attendant stories reach out to her. Diski does a fair bit of literary people watching, enjoying that strange bit of alchemy that renders strangers immediately familiar when you’re travelling. Otherwise unremarkable fellow travellers are rendered with warmth and each come with their own unique stories to tell.
While it did win the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award there’s precious little consideration given to the passing American landscape. This is more a snapshot of the distinctly American lives that join Diski on her journey.
People seem to have other ideas and their lives and attendant stories reach out to her. Diski does a fair bit of literary people watching, enjoying that strange bit of alchemy that renders strangers immediately familiar when you’re travelling. Otherwise unremarkable fellow travellers are rendered with warmth and each come with their own unique stories to tell.
While it did win the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award there’s precious little consideration given to the passing American landscape. This is more a snapshot of the distinctly American lives that join Diski on her journey.
chocolatelady1957's review against another edition
5.0
How wonderful is this book? Diski's travel across the USA and her experiences with being a smoker were just perfect - and made even more fun to read since I read it on a train myself. Highly recommended!
_zora_'s review against another edition
4.0
There is nothing quite as illuminating as travel literature about your own country. Diski is British, and she makes strange gaffes like calling the city "St. Paul's-Minneapolis," but has an overall sympathetic ear for Americans. I found it a little bit slow to start, but once I relaxed into it, it was perfect. The meat of it is really a catalog of every strange person and their strange stories, as encountered on Amtrak, especially in the smoking sections (when such a thing still existed--this was the late '90s). Which, really, is dream reading for me.
PS: Introverts will love this. Extroverts and people who plan things will probably get antsy and just think Diski is weird.
PPS: It made me want to smoke. So it may be dangerous reading for smokers who have quit--or nostalgic reading.
PS: Introverts will love this. Extroverts and people who plan things will probably get antsy and just think Diski is weird.
PPS: It made me want to smoke. So it may be dangerous reading for smokers who have quit--or nostalgic reading.
marinams's review against another edition
5.0
Not sure I wd always get along with her, but her experiences, the stories she (involuntarily) collects and her reflections are so brilliant. Also the realisation normal, story-less, people don't exist. I'll definitely check her other stuff. (will post quotations in a remote future)