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Category Archives: Trainjotting Reader
The Trainjotting Reader: THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
Jim Carroll, best known for his junkie memoir The Basketball Diaries, died Friday at 60. (Funny, he looks so healthy in the picture.) A poet, musician and author, Carroll shot to worldwide fame after Leo DiCaprio played him in the Basketball … Continue reading
Posted in Grand Central, Metro North, Rye, Trainjotting Reader
Tagged Jim Carroll, Leo DiCaprio, The Basketball Diaries
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David’s Car
NY Times columnist David Carr is probably the best media critic on the planet, as evidenced by his claiming the Mirror Award for Commentary, given out by media types to those who do the best job of covering the media, … Continue reading
Posted in Bus, Montclair, Trainjotting Reader
Tagged David Carr, The Night of the Gun
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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: The Deportees and Other Stories
The always-a-pleasure Roddy Doyle revisits his Commitments creation by assembling a band of eccentric immigrants to Ireland to change the musical landscape in Dublin. The Deportees is a collection of short stories focused on the immigrant experience in Ireland; this … Continue reading
Posted in Bus, Trainjotting Reader
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The Trainjotting Reader: THE WISHBONES
As with the Phillip Roth excerpt last week, the latest Trainjotting Reader looks at the peculiar dynamic of a city person and a suburban person navigate their cultural differences in a budding relationship. Tom Perrotta’s The Wishbones is a story … Continue reading
The Trainjotting Reader: GOODBYE, COLUMBUS
The latest installment of The Trainjotting Reader comes from Philip Roth, who’s written numerous books describing Newark in the old days–middle class, white, Jewish. You probably know him from that dirty scene in Portnoy’s Complaint. This comes from his first … Continue reading
Posted in New Jersey Transit, Trainjotting Reader
Tagged Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
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The Trainjotting Reader: NORTH RIVER Vol. II
Last week we offered a bit of the newish Pete Hamill novel North River, a Depression era tale of a troubled doctor dealing with his demons and with the abandoned three-year-old boy Carlito left on his doorstep. It’s a good book, … Continue reading
The Trainjotting Reader: NORTH RIVER
Today’s excerpt comes from career newsman Pete Hamill, he of the whiskey-soaked memoir A Drinking Life. Hamill’s good, not great, novel North River (I’m halfway done) is set in Depression-era New York, a down-and-out Gotham that’s not unlike the city … Continue reading
Posted in Little G, Pete Hamill, Trainjotting Reader
Tagged North River, Pete Hamill
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THE TRAINJOTTING READER: ‘Trains, Planes and Bar Cars’
Here’s a well-written and compelling essay on train travel from the literary journal Utne Reader. Author J.B. MacKinnon is a little preachy on the environmental matters, but he offers a pretty lyrical take on his train schlep from Vancouver to New … Continue reading
THE TRAINJOTTING READER: Netherland
Today’s installment of The Trainjotting Reader looks at Netherland, a novel by the New York-based Irishman Joseph O’Neill. It’s about a Dutch guy named Hans who finds that revisiting his former pastime of cricket helps him deal with anxieties stemming from … Continue reading
Russian to Catch Metro-North
Some 150 pages in, I really like The Russian Debutante’s Handbook for a number of reasons, such as the immigrant Russian Vladimir’s gimlet-eyed take on America, his descriptions of Challah, his zaftig dominatrix girlfriend, and Gary Shteyngart’s author photo, a … Continue reading
Posted in Gary Shteyngart, Scarsdale, Trainjotting Reader
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