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Twice Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Langdon used to be a top-notch journalist covering war-torn countries. Now he rarely leaves the US and writes fluff pieces for magazines. Tom lives in Washington DC and his girlfriend Leila, who does voices for cartoons, lives in Los Angeles. For the Christmas holiday, Tom and Leila have decided to go skiing in California so Tom needs to travel across country. Since Tom's been banned from airports for a year because of commuter rage, he has to make his journey by train. Because Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, was one of Tom's ancestors, Tom decides that taking this railway trip will bring him closer to his famous relative. He has visions of riding the train and writing an article about his adventure and the people he meets, just like Twain did. Haunting Tom's memory is his ex-girlfriend, Eleanor Carter. He and Eleanor met in college and were both journalists covering Israel together. They were also very much in love. One day, Eleanor told Tom that she was leaving Israel and asked him to go with her. She didn't give any reason why she wanted to leave, and Tom stayed on without her. Even after all these years, he finds himself still grieving the loss of Eleanor. Tom hopes that this cross-country relationship with Leila will lead to something more. But things are never very easy. On the train Tom meets an odd and wonderful assortment of people including Max, a very famous film director who would like to make a movie about train travel. He soon offers Tom the job as an advisor to his scriptwriter. Tom thinks this would be a good opportunity for him, but when he meets the scriptwriter he discovers it is none other than his long lost love, Eleanor Carter -- who wants nothing to do with him. But whatever Max wants, Max gets, and soon Eleanor and Tom are working together and discovering they might still love each other. When the train makes one of the scheduled stops to pick up supplies, who should arrive but Tom's new girlfriend Leila. She thought she'd surprise Tom by flying out to meet the train and then travel the rest of the way to California with him. Tom finds himself in a real quandary. He's sure Eleanor would like to try again with him but suddenly Leila proposed marriage to him. What's a guy to do? If you're expecting a good hardcore thriller that's become synonymous with David Baldacci's name, THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN is not it. This book is a love story set on a train with an ending you could see coming at you from miles down the tracks. The book is filled with interesting characters: a young couple who are eloping because their parents don't want them to get married; an ex-priest; a tarot card reader; an Elvis wannabe train employee; a boys' choir; a chess master, and a petty thief who steals things like a hair brush, a pair of sunglasses, and pens There are many more people on this train, and somehow they all know each other and consider themselves a family because they ride across-country all the time. THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN was enjoyable when Baldacci spent time describing trains and life aboard long-distance train runs, but I found the romance aspect of this tale tiresome. I've read this type of storyline way too many times in way too many books. Baldacci does manage to create characters who were interesting and they all fully held my attention, and when an unexpected winter blizzard hit it helped the book come alive for a while. All in all, I wouldn't say that THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN is a bad book. If you like romance stories it's probably fine. And as a book aimed at Christmas, it's okay too. THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN is just not to my taste. Pick it up if you want a feel-good kind of romantic story or if you're interested in trains. But if you're looking for a good thriller that's usually associated with his name, read one of Baldacci's other novels.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, November 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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