The blurb on Jean-Paul Didierlaurent's The Reader on the 6.27 suggests that it is similar in look and feel to the film Amélie. There is innocence and simplicity in the story but not quite the level of subversive personal charm that she possesses. The Reader is more of a narrator than a romantic agent provocateur and the sense of humour is often similarly black but rather more visceral and, on occasion, toilet based. Only the names (like the fact that the main character's name resembles 'ugly puppet') gets a little lost in translation as it has to be pointed out. A joke explained is killed but otherwise it is an amusing and refreshingly skewed view of fragmentary life experiences.
The book is, naturally enough, in praise of reading books but, more unusually, it is also about the potential social bonding that a shared experience of literature can bring. It challenges the normal behaviour on a train where people typically use books or electronic devices to separate themselves from each other and from reality. The book is quite slim - you could just about read it on a long journey - and if you want something to read on a train you could do worse than read this (aloud ideally).
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