I loved this short novel about a woman escaping a relationship, massive debt and a series of credit card thefts and the "skip tracer" (detective) who pursues her. I liked the near spoofing of classic detective stories -- with a femme fatale and a gumshoe and a chase on a train. I really loved the atmosphere the writing provoked of traveling across Canada by train (which I've done more than once). It's romantic, darkly humourous at times, great writing. ( )

Jiles "Sitting in the Club Car...." reads to me like a film proposal. Rough ideas, descriptions of a few scenes, doesn't hang together too well, dialog has a few catchy lines but misfires a lot, dull characters. The movie producers would probe the proposal presenter with a few questions just to be polite, dismiss her, then toss the whole thing in the trash, and shout out, "Next!".

What else don't I like about it? Well, it mentions some of the great train movies of the 30s and 40s (think Carole Lombard), but those were incredibly entertaining and this isn't; this a huge bore.

My edition was 108 pages - 108 pages with a lot of white space. Some chapters had a half-dozen sentences or so, then turn the page. I would call this a short story, not a novel, nor a novelette, nor mini-novel, nor....

Here's a sample of the prose - just remember, the whole thing (all 108 pages) is written like this, so if you find this beautifully lyrical, this might be the book for you. This is the entirety of a chapter called Tarot: The Lovers: "They are crossing borders in the night they did not even realize they had; moving into strange provinces, unconscious and alone beside each other in sleep, major and minor arcana, in their dreams, in their solitude- where in the territory of Earth are they now - if at all?"

Let me end on a happy note - I think Paulette Jiles is a great writer. Five days ago I read "The News of the World" and I rated it 6 stars. It is the best novel I have read in more than a year. See my Amazon review. I have subsequently purchased "Enemy Women" and "The Color of Lightning". ( )