Train Dreams

“A movie I saw recently. 4.5/5 on my Letterboxd. Beautiful and sad.”

“This got some deserved attention because of the 2025 movie, which I couldn't quite bring myself to watch because the Denis Johnson novella it's based on has been one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing for over 20 years—a spare, beautiful, haunting work. (Apparently either it's not for everyone or a bunch of people read it who were expecting something other than literary fiction, because the 3.87 it has on GoodReads is an absolute travesty.)”

“I read this before I watched the movie. I enjoyed both but this book was haunting, in the best way. It had similar vibes to Gilead for me, which is high praise.”

“Based on Denis Johnson's novella of the same name, this film offers a staggeringly beautiful, yet complicated, portrait of the early 20th-century Pacific Northwest, as seen through the eyes of logger Robert Grainer.”