The Paris Express: A Novel
“Readers of literary suspense will find the novel an excellent choice.”
A Scottish saying: “Hours are time’s arrows, and one of them is fletched with death.” This evocative line ends the first chapter but might have been better placed to open the novel, setting an ominous tone and hooking the reader on the first page. Instead, we begin the journey of Express 721 as the train departs from the Normandy coast on October 22, 1895, and proceeds stop by stop until it reaches Montparnasse, Paris, and meets its fate. Although some of the story is fiction, the inspiration is from an actual occurrence.
Unlike Donoghue’s 2011 harrowing book, Room, which is an intimate study of a mother and son and the man who holds them captive, The Paris Express contains a very large cast of passengers and the four crew members, each receiving his or her backstory, description, and current location on the train (First, Second, and Third Class carriages), activities, interactions, and conversations. While the author has created interesting and unique characters, the reader might find the individuals difficult to recall until midway into the book when the repetition of their names and situations begins to stick in memory. Until then, the plot is somewhat slowed by the constant appearance of numerous people inhabiting the various carriages.
The book shares some similarities with one of Donoghue’s early works, Slammerkin, because of its historical nature but also its emphasis on the oppression of the lower classes and workers versus the wealthy, elite business owners, politicians, and aristocrats. Mado, one of the passengers, seethes with anger over the mistreatment of the downtrodden. She is also “l’androgene” (presumably lesbian) and a feminist, who believes that if “the choice is virginity or slavery, she’d take virginity.” We soon learn that a bomb is hidden in Mado’s lunchbox. Once we realize her intentions and the imminent danger to the passengers, the pace picks up.
Donoghue is a fine writer and has done an extensive amount of research about the period, including about the mechanical elements of the train and how the four-person staff interacts with each other and what their job responsibilities are. Details about the various stations and the landscape are also impressive, lending authority and believability to the novel, as well as the tangential connections to famous people (Eakins, Gauguin, and Madame Curie).
However, one stylistic tic haunts the text: the author’s habit of dropping the verb “is” in sentences like “Emma’s already immersed in her book” or “Henry’s sunk in self-reproach.” Although the book is written in present tense, which feels oddly modern in itself, the truncation of the noun and “is” seems out of place and colloquial in an historical work and appears amid many other sentences where the verb is present.
One of the most creative, though small parts of the book, is the self-narration by Express 721. “She is made of wood and metal, and her temperament is stoic. . . . she recognizes something kindred in Mado Pelletier’s iron conviction and unstoppable momentum [the locomotive is aware of the bomb] . . . nor can the train deny that there is a certain beauty in the idea of burning, since she runs on flame herself.” In a section related by the seven-year-old Maurice, “the guard assures him [that the train] was a splendid beast and fighting fit, showing no signs of motion yet, only hissing through her veils of white and grey.” Some lovely writing.
The Paris Express will delight history buffs, though perhaps the cast (Cuban, Black, Korean, Russian, Irish, French, and Cambodian) may not accurately represent the original passengers on board in 1895, instead reflecting the contemporary trend toward diversity. Even so, the differences in the characters help make each memorable. Readers of literary suspense will find the novel an excellent choice.
As the train nears the city of Paris, the story gains speed like the locomotive. Readers will become ensnared by the quickening plot, wondering what will happen to the train and its passengers. A surprise awaits.