An Evaluation of Anthony Bukoski's Time Between Trains #1

Audience: High School Students

An Evaluation of Anthony Bukoski's Time Between Trains

There's a saying that states, "One person's reality is another person's nightmare." That's what I thought of Anthony Bukoski's book, Time Between Trains. Bukoski's book is centered on different Polish residents living in Superior, Wisconsin. Each character is represented through a short story describing only a small amount of their lives. Even though the book was easy to read, had an interesting, reoccurring character, and a couple interesting stories, I would not recommend it to high school students because the story endings were unclear, and the stories were unfocused, boring, and confusing.

The entire book is based on parts of different people's lives. In the first story, a solider named Thaddeus is introduced. He is one of the few characters that is incorporated into some of the following stories. Almost all of the other characters, though, only appear once. The short stories include characters who are unsure of their lives, seeking their past heritage, looking for a friend, lusting after forbidden love, or just watching the trains go by. The stories include lies between lovers, denial of friendship, secrets withheld from family members, and hidden fantasies. The stories are short, though, so once a reader begins to understand a character, the story is over and new characters are introduced.

Anthony Bukoski is a skilled writer who has the potential to write a good book. While reading the book, I discovered a few interesting parts. The first thing I liked was that the stories were easy to read. The word choices Bukoski included were not too hard to comprehend and since the stories were so short, assignments were easy to complete on time. I was also interested in the stories "The Bird That Sings in the Bamboo" and "A Geography of Snow." Both stories captured my attention and got my interest. They had great story lines and interesting characters that kept me wanting to read more.

There are, however, reasons that I would not recommend this book to high school students. The first thing I did not like about this book was that the endings of the stories were not completed. Most of the stories left me feeling confused because I wanted Bukoski to elaborate more and describe what happened to the characters. For example, in the story "Time Between Trains," my classmates and I were wondering whatever became of Joe Rubin and Sophia? Did they get together and fall in love? Did they stay friends? Without a true ending, the story doesn't seem finished. The fact that Bukoski's stories didn't have clear endings leads me into my next point of how the stories had no focus.

I read numerous stories in Time Between Trains that lacked a main point or a main focus. Once a reader finishes a story, they are again confused because they think, "What was the point of me reading that?" Readers wonder that because most of the stories didn't have morals or any significance to them. In the story, "President of the Past," the president of a deteriorating Polish Club is introduced. The story goes on to talk about how he is upset that his club has to store all of their belongings in a single closet, because their old meeting place was bought out. What significance does that have in the story? What does it prove? Another story that lacked a main point was the story "Closing Time." That story begins talking about Buck Mrozek, a struggling accordion player who was an active member of the Polish Club. The story has no significance because after reading a few pages about a drunken, ex-member of the club, he switches gears and goes on to talk about a married woman that he almost had an affair with. Neither story really related to the other; they were just together to make the story more confusing.

With all of the credibility that I'll give to Bukoski, I have to admit that I found most of the stories he wrote about to be boring. A boring story to me is one that doesn't have any direction. I lose interest if there aren't any parts in the story that get my attention. If a story becomes "slow," where nothing interesting happens, I stop wanting to read. A perfect example of this was in the story "Leokadia and Fireflies." The entire beginning of the story had me snoring because it was a bunch of useless information I thought wasn't relevant. Stefanie Karawinska dedicated the story to a nun who was barely mentioned in the story, and that made the story pointless. Another prime example would be from the story, "The Value of Numbers." In this story, Thaddeus is in a hospital over in Japan, where he is slowly recovering from his war wounds. This story could have been interesting if Bukoski had elaborated more on what Tad saw in the hospital. Maybe it would have been better if he would have mentioned the other recovering men and their wounds, or what kind of crazy dreams Tad slipped in and out of from all of the drugs he was on. I like to read about things I've never experienced, so including the details of the reality of war would have been more interesting than reading about how Tad recalled Polish words he had learned from his past.

The stories, without complete endings, lacking a main point, or being boring create a terribly confusing book. There were a few places where I was so confused that I would think, "What just happened?" The most confusing stories I read were "Winter Weeds," "A Philosophy of Dust," and "It Had to be You." All three stories made references to different, dirty and intimate scenes where nobody was sure what the characters were doing. When asked, Bukoski himself admitted that he couldn't remember what had happened. This is where the quote I opened my essay with fits in. "One person's reality is another person's nightmare" represents to me how I would never want to be in any of the situations those characters were in, in real life. In "Winter Weeds," a priest was sinning while trying to sleep with a married woman. In "A Philosophy of Dust," a deceitful old man tried to have relations with an unaware, younger man. Finally, in "It Had to be You," an older couple had a threesome with their dummy. All three of those "realities" would be a nightmare to me.

In conclusion, even though Bukoski did include a couple interesting stories and one interesting character, that was not enough for me to like or recommend Time Between Trains. I do not recommend this book to high school students because the endings were unclear, and the stories were unfocused, boring, and confusing. Bukoski seemed like an interesting person in real life, but I just didn't like what he chose to write about. When he gave his presentation to our school, he mentioned that he had no concept in mind for his book. I believe it. I found his book overall to have no apparent structure, formation or concept. Hopefully, his other books were more planned out.

(1197 words, 4 pages, double-spaced)