A review by _zora_
Stranger on a Train by Jenny Diski

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.