Night Train: New and Selected Stories - Collection of Short Fiction for Book Lovers & Literary Enthusiasts | Perfect for Reading, Book Clubs & Gifts

I was very happy to receive and read this beautifully produced book of stories by the incomparable writer Thom Jones. I think that the volume’s dust jacket, with its picture of a noble Boxer dog, would have brought a smile to the author’s face, as dogs of this regal breed were his faithful companions for many years of his life.It was a pleasure to become reacquainted with so many of his finest stories and to read a few others that I had never seen before. I think that Thom Jones’ most important trait as a writer – aside from his unquestioned talent at putting together a short story – was the empathy that he showed for other people, especially those who were experiencing difficulties and hardships in their lives. He seemed able to inhabit the minds of a vast variety of such people – from the disgruntled teenager or Gen X-er, to the woman dying of cancer, the washed-up boxer, poor people from the South, young military recruits, and on and on – a remarkable and almost endless list, in fact. Linked with his incredible skills with language – with dialogue, especially his characters use of phrases reflective of their circumstances and time periods and descriptions of telling details of place and physical traits – this ability to identify with others led to an almost unparalleled body of work – a set of stories which have resulted in much praise from fellow writers – Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, Chuck Palahniuk among them – and numerous awards. His many assets as a writer put him in a club of which there are few members – perhaps among them his idol Carson McCullers and his friend Brett Easton Ellis, when Ellis is writing at his best. There is a characteristic of these writers when writing at the peak of their powers which might be described as elegiac, but tinged with fierce humor and hopefulness, a combination of traits shared with not a few philosophers, including Thom Jones’ own favorite, Arthur Schopenhauer, whom he was fond of quoting. And who can forget Thom Jones’ reminding us, in one of his stories (A White Horse), of the apocryphal tale that Nietzsche’s insanity was precipitated by his witnessing a tradesman beating his horse on the street? (empathy extended not only to humans!)Although immensely pleased with this book, I was disappointed by a few points, which should not however discourage anyone from seeking out and reading it. Firstly, although in her Introduction Amy Bloom remarks upon many of Thom Jones’ must notable traits as an author, I think that her short, three-page introduction is far from giving Thom Jones his due as either an exemplary writer or human being. Perhaps more effort could have been given to describing Thom Jones’ own style and goals, as a writer and man, and less in letting us in on which were her two favorite stories. Perhaps a writer such as an Oates or Ellis would have been a better choice. I am also saddened by this introduction because it reminded me that in his writings, Thom Jones had speculated about putting together such a volume as “Night Train” himself, with an introduction that would have described his own “take” on the tales, including descriptions of the people who inspired and served as models for some of the characters. One other aspect of the volume that I am a bit troubled by is the selection of stories. Of course I would have liked to see a “Complete Stories of Thom Jones,” but since this was not to be, at least not now, I think that the selection of stories could have been slightly improved, although this may be getting into the area of personal preference rather than objective choice. When I first began the story “A Merry Little Christmas,” which appears in epistolary form as a series of emails, I was thrilled to see that the fictional sender of the emails was tj34, as that was the screen name that Thom Jones himself used in the AOL Book Shelf and Author’s Lounge chat rooms that existed in the very early days of the internet, when writers and would-be writers got together to discuss books and whatever else they might be interested in. In these settings Thom Jones fully displayed that trait of empathy characteristic of his stories, and with modesty and great humor, shared his wealth of knowledge about literature and the art of writing and encouraged many novice writers who haunted these sites. I was therefore disappointed to see that the fictional tj34 in “A Merry Little Christmas,” was not at all like the real one and was a rather mean-spirited and spiteful character, more like one of the “American Males” in the books of Chad Kultgen. So although I didn’t “enjoy” this story, I have to admit that tales like this give us insight into just how obnoxious some men, with their almost irredeemable meanness, can be. They are interesting experiments in story telling! I would rather have seen a few of the other yet uncollected stories, most notably the incredible and mind-blowing “Thorazine Johnny Felsun Loves Me (from his permanent cage of lifelong confinement),” which Thom Jones would surely have included, since he wrote of giving it a new title in the future. (It originally appeared to accompany a collection of Anna Gaskell photographs and then in the book On the Rocks, edited by Rebecca Donner) This story is a prime exemplar of the elegiac quality, tinged with humor and hope referenced above and ends with the lonely, confused teen-aged narrator dreamily saying “Sometimes on a clear night the firmament is filled with stars that are as beautiful as sapphires, diamonds, an all the jewels of the earth multiplied to the twelfth power of infinity. At times like this I am filled with hope and know that in spite of my failures as a romantic novelist I nonetheless will have a future life that is complete all in and of itself and that I will blaze a path of glory through the heavens and all mortals on this earth will know who I am and will recount my heroic and remarkable feats in great detail. People will fall at my feet and worship me. There will even be little bronze markers at the places I’ve been to, like Nepal where I suffered with pinkeye and complained not at all.” It is fitting that Night Train ends on a similar, though perhaps less hopeful, tone in words from the wonderful late story “Bomb Shelter Noel,” the last story in this remarkable collection. R.I.P. Thom Jones, we miss you