The Paris Express, Emma Donoghue, author; Justin Avoth, narrator
It is near the end of the 19th century, in 1895. The Paris Express, in Granville, France, is carrying a cast of characters that covers the human spectrum. The passengers are unaware that a stranger, Mado Pelletier, is on the train with them. She has carried a bomb onto the very car they occupy. She doesn’t care that she is taking innocent lives with her, as she satisfies her own personal vendetta in her support of anarchy. She is ready to die and that is enough, enough for her to justify her actions and to disregard the murder of the innocent victims she will take with her!
The ride is several hours long to Montparnesse Station. As the train passes through several stops, Mado learns that some important government officials will board the first class car or travel along in their own private car. She plans to wait until they board to detonate her bomb. Will anything change her mind to make her care that they are doomed because of a reckless decision that will accomplish nothing, least of all the change she wants to accomplish? If she wants to die for her cause, why must she take other victims with her?
The lives of those on the train, specifically in her car and the cars near hers, represent a very real slice of life for the ordinary and the extraordinary of every stripe of citizen, from the most to the least privileged. Each has a private life of dreams and disappointments regardless of position or class. Each has secrets!
This novel reinvents the circumstances surrounding a very real accident that took place in Montparnasse Station. Some of the characters in the novel were actually passengers on that train, some were well known names invited on by the author’s imagination, some were simply passengers created by the author out of whole cloth, but they all represented every aspect of society. Through these characters and their interactions we are challenged with examples of racism, slavery, anarchy, environmentalists, antisemitism, class distinction, women’s rights, homosexuality, human error, and ultimately, a picture of life with all its warts and foibles that covers every one of society’s cause célèbres! Have conditions improved today for anyone?
The types of travel options and the technology governing travel in 1895 were so different from today’s choices. Human judgment and skill were relied upon entirely since there were no computers and no artificial intelligence. Humans, however, are prone to be distracted, prone to making human errors, and the eyes and ears were not nearly enough to prevent disasters from occurring. Today, AI and computers help to make travel more accurate, accessible, and secure. Even with the scientific discoveries of today, however, safety is never failsafe, so imagine, if you will, what it must have been like without modern technology.
We are all at the mercy of others, so imagine also, when you turn the last page, how one person’s madness can escalate and lead to the extinguishing of the lives of others, a sudden turn of events, in a moment of insane euphoria, or by chance, imagine a moment of sanity that prevents the frivolous destruction of the innocent lives of others and think of some modern-day disasters that might have been been prevented had there been a moment of clarity and/or reason!