An Evaluation of Anthony Bukoski's Time Between Trains #2

Audience: College students who are looking for a book to read.

An Evaluation of Anthony Bukoski's Time Between Trains

As college students, we are starting a whole new chapter in our lives and we are searching for our true identity. Everyday we are learning something new about ourselves and accepting the person that we are becoming. If you agree with me, then Anthony Bukoski's Time Between Trains would be a great selection for you to read. This book is a collection of short stories that reflects upon Bukoski's personal experiences throughout his young adult years. It also expresses his heritage, because Bukoski is a Polish American author who was raised in the East End of Superior, Wisconsin. I enjoyed reading his short stories and I would encourage college students to read this book based on my experiences, especially learning about each character's challenges and outcomes on how to accept the person that they are to fulfill their future.

Time Between Trains has thirteen different storylines, great settings, interesting characters, and meaningful moral lessons. This book deals with real life situations, such as social relationships, personal relationships, the Vietnam War, ethnicity, religion, self-confidence, and family. For instance, Thaddeus "Tad" Milszewski is one of the major characters who has a lot of experiences in life. He injured his leg during the Vietnam War and had to go back home for recovery. His family helped him through the recovery process and to gain strength and courage to return to his job. He also improved his personal relationship with his sister, Anna, and his social relationship with Khuyen Vo, a beautiful girl he met in Vietnam. Other characters in the book are Pani Pilsudski and Stanley Karawinski who lacked self-confidence, but majored in helping their community and other people. They did not have the confidence to stand up for themselves or give others a piece of their mind. I believe their self-control attitude shows how strong they really are, and I think this helps them to gain more control of their lives and to feel stronger being in their own shoes. Each character has at least one good quality that we all have or want to experience in our lives. Bukoski's writing expresses how people learned to accept themselves and each other, which I think college students could relate to this author and his experiences.

The characters Bukoski presented in the stories are believable and realistic. His detailed description about each character gave a clear visual of how they are feeling and what they are thinking about. A story called "Holy Walker" described how her neighbors teased Pani Pilsudski about her clumsiness. The lack of respect from her neighbors caused her self-esteem to lessen. Then one day while she was walking home, her attitude changed when she thought about all of the horrible situations that have happened in her life. She finally accepted the person that she was and realized that what others thought of her should not matter, but how God loved and respected her was more important. Another story, "Leokadia and Fireflies," involved Stanley Karawinski, who is a caring, quiet, crafty, and hard working person. He had a hard time standing up for himself and lacked a lot of self-confidence. His boss makes fun of him, calls him "Car Wash," and orders him around on the job, but he always does his work with a smile. I think Stanley's smile shows that he is strong and he does not have to react to everyone's comments. These characters searched deep within themselves to find their inner peace and discovered that they can be stronger people.

Family plays an important role for these characters. I think from the help of their families, these characters are able to survive to make the right choices. The story called "The Value of Numbers" shows the relationship between Tad and his sister, Anna. In the beginning of their relationship, they did not have strong communication skills, but learned to understand each others' feelings during the difficult times in their lives. During Tad's recovery in the hospital, he realized that receiving a simple letter does make a difference and it made him feel better knowing that someone was thinking about him. "A Geography of Snow" is another story that also deals with Tad and his family. After his leg injury during the Vietnam War, he refused to go back and continue his job. His family encourages him to be brave and finish what he had started. He trusted them to return to Vietnam and it turns out he had a wonderful time there. Your family knows you best and they are the closest people that help you maintain the positive role at all times.

Although most of the stories are meaningful, some of them can be dreadful by their slow pace. "Time Between Trains" had a lot of great descriptions about the characters and the settings, but it seems as though Bukoski forgot to add drama and action into the story. He spent most of the time describing about Joe Rubin's life, as a track inspector, and Sofia Stepan's life, as a school teacher, but did not give enough details of how they met along the railroad tracks. Bukoski himself felt that most of the endings ended too soon without a clear explanation and he also said, "The stories lacked dramatic import." Each story has its own pace and mood that reveals the author's style of writing, so it may interest each reader differently.

The events and facts stated in the book are about the Polish Catholic community, which may confuse the readers who have no knowledge about the Polish culture and prevent them from reading this book. From the story, “A Geography of Snow,” Bukoski did not elaborate the meaning of “All Saints’ Day” and “All Souls’ Day.” Also from the story, “A Philosophy of Dust,” he did not describe who “Mephisto” was and how he was important to the story. The information Bukoski wrote is written in the book, but without knowledge about these details, the reader may miss another prospective meaning of the story.

Besides the slow pace and lack of details, I think Bukoski wanted to present a moral lesson for each story of what he has learned from his personal experiences. The boy who narrates the story, "Leaves That Shimmer in the Slightest Breeze," grew up with his mother and aunt on a field. His father died when he was very young, so he had no father figure or even a male figure to look upon. Evidently, Stanley Dzjduniak came to work for the boy's family and he stayed there for several weeks. During his stay at the field, Stanley and the boy became great partners and he taught the boy everything he knew. Most importantly, the boy learned where he stands as a persona and became a strong and better person from his experience with Stanley. Another example from the book, "The Moon of the Grass Fires," exemplified how Joe Lesczyk felt about his mother's sickness and how he treated her when he was younger. As a grown adult, he still remembers the time he spent with her before she passed away. He wanted to revisit his past to help make her life easier, so that she would have a chance to live longer. Strangely, he bought a confessional box from his church and began to confess all of his feelings, thoughts, and sins. When he was done confessing, he felt more at peace and he knew that his mother was forgiving him. He finally accepted the past without feeling guilty and learned to move on with his future life. These stories shows that sometimes we take life for granted and we may regret those moments, but we have to think of them as learning experiences and not as mistakes.

Overall, I think college students will have great experiences with this book, because it presents a lot of great qualities and situations that they could relate to. In general, I believe Bukoski's theme of the book was about people facing the future without letting go of their true selves and forgetting where they came from. Bukoski's interesting characters and detailed settings kept me very focused when I read this book. I would also suggest students to either attend his presentation or do some research on information that was unclear to them. Most of these stories that he wrote about ten or fifteen years old, but he spent many years revising how he wanted them to sound like. He also wrote three other collectsion, Twelve Below Zero, Children of Strangers, and Polonaise, if the students want to further their reading with this author. Bukoski is an intelligent author and this was a very thoughtful book that he has put together.

(1467 words, 4.5 pages, double-spaced)