cover image Train Wreck Girl

Train Wreck Girl

Sean Carswell, . . Manic D Press, $14.95 (239pp) ISBN 978-1-933149-21-9

Danny McGregor, the narrator of this thin and underpowered novel, ditches Florida and washes up in Flagstaff, Ariz., where he tends bar at a tumbledown tavern and shacks up in his trailer with red-haired college student Libra. Though Libra’s wealthy parents threaten to cut her off, she stays true to her man, but, being a good guy, Danny dumps her so she doesn’t screw up her life. Then, as he’s walking along the railroad tracks to hop on a Greyhound back to Florida, he comes across her mangled body strewn across the tracks. He doesn’t report the death, and as he tries to get his life back together in Florida, he’s tailed by a P.I. hired by Libra’s parents. He’s eventually held to account for Libra, but the novel lacks the emotional depth and severity necessary to support the dark subject matter. The result is a series of shallow and mundane anecdotes that pile up, but don’t build. (Sept.)