Two Trains Running [Hardcover]

Andrew Vachss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

A Masterful Novel that is also an epic story of postwar America. A searing portrit of corruption in a smal town

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Pantheon; First Large Print edition edition (2005)
• ISBN-10: 0375435220
• ISBN-13: 978-0375435225
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,813,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for "aggressive-violent" youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youth exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a "children's book for adults." His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, The New York Times, and many other forums. His books have been awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiére, the Falcon Award, Deutschen Krimi Preis, Die Jury des Bochumer Krimi Archivs and the Raymond Chandler Award (per Giurìa a Noir in Festival, Courmayeur, Italy). Andrew Vachss' latest books include Heart Transplant (Dark Horse Books, October 2010), a collaboration with Frank Caruso that attempts to reset the cultural software as it pertains to bullying, and The Weight (Pantheon, November 2010), a crime novel. The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is vachss.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new & successful direction for Vachss, June 14, 2005

By 

C. Williamson (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Trains Running: A Novel (Hardcover)

Andrew Vachss has always been an important novelist, and with TWO TRAINS RUNNING he becomes a major one. His subject is nothing less than how America came to be what it is today as a result of what happened in the pivotal year of 1959, when his story takes place. As rival gangland factions gather and clash over the future of Locke City, so do other larger, more entrenched and no less corrupt forces clash over the future of the country itself. In the center stands the protagonist, Walker Dett. Dett functions as a passenger on both "trains," the express running on the Locke City plotline, and the slower but more powerful engine bearing the country itself to a future formed as we watch. While Vachss's portrait is of far more than the city in which the tale is set, so too is his subject far more than crime. He delves deeply into the still unresolved problem of race relations, revealing the roots of black anger and burgeoning black pride. He examines the genesis of gang violence and the motivations that draw the young and rootless into that particular hell. And he takes a hard look at government intrusion into all aspects of society, and how the investigation of corruption can lead to the corruption of the investigator. What makes Vachss's story even more journalistic is its style. The book is constructed of a series of scenes presented chronologically with the date and time at the start of each. Never does he reveal the thoughts of any character, even his protagonist. He "merely" reports. With such a seemingly cold and clinical way of relating events, it's surprising how much warmth and compassion come through in the human story. The book is filled with well-drawn characters rich in moral ambiguity. Vachss weaves all their stories together seamlessly, and even engages in some fascinating speculation in the process. TWO TRAINS RUNNING works brilliantly on all of its many levels, and is one of those books that repays rereading. It's a new American classic - an intriguing story well-told, and a deeper rumination on how we got to where we are today

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous testosterone filled historical thriller, June 14, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Trains Running: A Novel (Hardcover)

In 1959 Locke City is completely owned by Royal Beaumont, wheelchair-bound since childhood. Royal, living up to his first name, uses excess force to rule over his vice-laden kingdom that has made the town a Mecca for tourists looking for illegal prostitution, gambling, and a few more violent activities for the right price. No one dare say no or criticize this dictator although a local militant black movement is growing.

In the fall, two rival New York mobs discover Locke City; each demands a piece of the action threatening Beaumont. First the Italian mafia tries to push Beaumont around; soon afterward an Irish mob offers Beaumont a deal in which they receive a cut in exchange for tossing out the Italians and crushing the blacks. Beaumont has his own plan taking advantage of the ethnic hatred and distrust by bringing in his own killing machine Walker Dett. However, in the midst of compiling one hit after another by outflanking the Italians, the Irish and the blacks, Walker falls in love. Will a woman soften this hit machine?

Though Burke-less, TWO TRAINS RUNNING is a fabulous testosterone filled historical thriller that grips the audience once the mobs arrive at Locke City, but especially takes off when Walker starts his destruction. Royal will remind the audience of Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men while Dett steals the show as a perfect killer until the intriguing twist of when he meets Tussy; that actually slows down the flow of blood (what can one expect with sex, naps, and showers) yet humanizes him. Andrew Vachss is at his action packed best with this convergence of dark forces in a small town in 1959.

Harriet Klausner

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Genre-shattering classic!!, July 27, 2005

By 

Don In Fremont (Redmond OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Trains Running: A Novel (Hardcover)

You aren't ready for this. No, really. No one is ready for the amazing turn Andrew Vachss has taken his writing life. And that, of course, is the best part. Two Trains Running is a book that astonishes the reader on many levels.

Known, of course, for the durable Burke series, Vachss here takes his loyal readers down a completely different track. For those just getting on board, the welcome is there for the reading, as this is a totally new creation from Vachss. A historical noir--told in a voice steeped in the knowledge of years, and hardened by them.

Two Trains Running is two weeks in the life of Locke City, somewhere in the non-coastal American Heartland, fall of 1959. A once-prosperous place, brought low by depression, revived in well-protected vice. That vice is ruled by Royal Beaumont, native crime boss. With Italians and Irish trying to muscle their way in to his world, he brings in the enigmatic Walker Dett to sharpen his edge. Mix in various law enforcement agencies with various motives, and a brewing race war. As struggles over, variously, ways of life, love, salvation, and the future of the country erupt, Vachss blends and boils the threads of his story without sentiment, and with clear intent. The result is a work both breath-taking in its action and startling in its heart and soul. The stories you are told, in many cases, are the ones you had no idea you were reading until they were over. There are a couple of those here, too.

Vachss tells the story with no chapters, per se, but in a percussive time-stamping style, that does a couple of things; helps give the various plot-lines a propulsion that is cinematic; It also re-enforces the observational nature of the narration. It's written as a sort of omniscient surveillance of events sans comment. That part is our job. Vachss wants us to look at these events filtered only by our own experience and knowledge, and to see how the pieces fit into the country we think we live in. And by doing so, decide their truth.

According to some early press, part of Vachss' intent was to create a tribute to investigative journalism as a last line in a democracy's defense (no currency there, eh?). He does that not so much in the way he presents Jimmy Procter, Locke City's hotshot reporter, but in the way he tells the story itself. It's a style refined in reportage, betraying no point of view. Just the facts. Third person, and then some.

Walker Dett is a ronin of his times, a soldier without an army, on a path that transcends anything in it. One of Two Trains Running's victories is how his journey provides moments of such extreme dark and light. For every demonstration of his violent gift, there is, upon his introduction to one Tussy Chambers, a stage of a soul opening, that provides the essential counter-balance to the entire story. There are numerous love stories amidst the darkness here, and they all serve to feed the passions at work.

So let's talk about Tussy for a minute, ok? Burke readers, let's just say she's right in there with Blue Belle and Ann O.Dyne as classic Vachss Gals. She is love, faith and temptation. She is irresistible. And of course, the force of her personality becomes a major part of the story Vachss is telling. While we're talking about the "fun stuff", let's mention that Vachss' love affair with the American Automobile is in full fettle here, and adds a precise authenticity to the action.

Vachss has fueled Two Trains Running with some first-rate characters; from the afore-mentioned Royal Beaumont Mountain Man Crime Boss (think Burl Ives in Nick Ray's swamp-noir, "Wind Across The Everglades), to Sherman Layne, the only honest cop in the entire story, who is in love with the town madam.

Vachss nods to other themes familiar in his canon....that families are made not born, forged by action and trust, not blood. That crime is often in the intent, not the deed. Part of the joy to regular readers of his work is seeing how those themes get worked in to his story. It's one of the things that make Andrew Vachss a singular writer in this genre. And it's just a small part of what makes Two Trains Running a singular reading experience.