The Christmas Train

The Christmas Train

  - David Baldacci

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up one of the RD condensed books at the a used-book sale last year. I didn't own any, they are beautiful books, and I think their editors manage to do a decent job. That was how I had first read 'Guernsey Literary Society', well before I joined an online reading group, and before it became such a rage there - I loved it well enough to buy the original book, and loved it too.

One of the novels in this edition was 'The Christmas Train' by David Baldacci. I have never read any of his works, though I wanted to, since he has been recommended to me as a new age thriller writer.

I understand that a condensed version cannot capture fully the essence of the original; even so, I didn't like this book too much. (That is the reason I mentioned earlier that I have thoroughly enjoyed some works in these editions). First of all, I expected it to be a thriller, perhaps something like 'The Oriental Express', but it turned out to be more of the cheesy romcoms HBO and other channels air around the year-end holidays. And of course, nearly all of the characters were terribly stereotyped. Bypassing that, one major flaw in the story line was that the character of Eleanor, the female protagonist, did not make any sense. The book ended with an entertaining twist, but that also left quite a few bewildered questions.

* SPOILERS *

The biggest issue I had with this book was with Eleanor. She was a war zone journalist, with the ability and passion for the work. While I can understand that the stress can reach a breaking point, it didn't sit well with the character that she just wanted to get married, live in a mansion complete with a picket fence, and have a husband with a 9-to-5 job! And she, who claimed to have taught Langdon all about skiing, cannot make it to the resort on her own - because I suppose the author had to have this damsel-in-distress-rescued-by-the-knight angle to make it a cheesy holiday fare. That is something I have come to detest - authors would start writing a spirited, inspiring female character, and then will develop cold feet and reduce her to a delicate creature that needs to be saved by the hero.

The other stereotypes (and the whole cast is full of them actually) notably include Tom Langdon (the broken hero, who is too dense to understand or respect the women in his life), Max (the rich producer with a heart of gold), Agnes (elderly black lady who is like a 24-carat diamond), and so on. Once you accept the book as the quintessential holiday romance, the cliches don't seem so bad, but I still had trouble believing that Lelia would give up on whatever love she had for Tom, only because Max asked her for a favor.

* END SPOILERS *