Compartment No. 6
Set in a train compartment, this journey novel explores encounters, loneliness, and cultural friction across the borderlands of northern Europe and Russia.
Work Information
A train-bound story of solitude and cultural friction.
Within the sealed space of the train, glances and conversations gradually unravel the characters’ loneliness.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Graywolf Pr
- Published
- 2016-08-02
- Pages
- 181 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.17 x 1.4 x 21.13 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781555977474
- ISBN-10
- 1555977472
- Price
- 3329 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary
In the waning years of the Soviet Union, a sad young Finnish woman boards a train in Moscow. Bound for Mongolia, she's trying to put as much space as possible between her and a broken relationship. Wanting to be alone, she chooses an empty compartment--No. 6.--but her solitude is soon shattered by the arrival of a fellow passenger: Vadim Nikolayevich Ivanov, a grizzled, opinionated, foul-mouthed former soldier. Vadim fills the compartment with his long and colorful stories, recounting in lurid detail his sexual conquests and violent fights. There is a hint of menace in the air, but initially the woman is not so much scared of or shocked by him as she is repulsed. She stands up to him, throwing a boot at his head. But though Vadim may be crude, he isn't cruel, and he shares with her the sausage and black bread and tea he's brought for the journey, coaxing the girl out of her silent gloom. As their train cuts slowly across thousands of miles of a wintry Russia, where "everything is in motion, snow, water, air, trees, clouds, wind, cities, villages, people and thoughts," a grudging kind of companionship grows between the two inhabitants of compartment No. 6. When they finally arrive in Ulan Bator, a series of starlit and sinister encounters bring Rosa Liksom's incantatory Compartment No. 6 to its powerful conclusion.
Rosa Liksom was born in a village of eight houses in Lapland, Finland, where her parents were reindeer breeders and farmers. She spent her youth traveling Europe, living as a squatter and in communes. She paints, makes films, and writes in Helsinki.
Reviews
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An entertaining road novel set in the post-perestroika Russia
Well written. Funny. Refreshing to read. Not quite Chekhov (cf. "Ward No. 6") but a fair snapshot of its time.
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Top romantic story with some colourful language
Having seen the film on iPlayer, I decided to get the book as I found the story moving. As a sixty something bloke, and not at all a romantic, and having little to no time to read, it's amazing to me that I should be moved to buy a book. I'm not that far into it, but it's true to the film story and then some as a book should be. If you enjoyed the film, you'd probably know there'd be some colourful language and that is part and parcel of who the "man" is, without it the woman's reaction to him wouldn't have been severe, but it's the celebration of the true self that shows people are intrinsically good whatever wrong they've done in the past, and their past would have shaped who they were in the present (just see 26.2 to Life also on iPlayer for proof of that). A truly uplifting tale, so far anyway.
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Compelling
Brilliantly descriptive and for me oddly engaging. I found the book a powerful and thought-provoking novel that explores themes of loneliness, human connection, and the search for meaning amidst the harsh realities of life - and it doesn't get much harsher that ploughing almost 6,000 miles through a Russian winter on the Trans-Siberian railway.
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Interested in Finnish author.
Definitely could read that is was a translation, but beautiful metaphors! Probably won’t watch the movie.
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Interesting novel
Enjoyed reading this, enjoyed the film much more.
Related Literary Awards
- Finlandia Prize Edition 28 (2011) ・Winner