Closely Watched Trains

The Orient Express is a legendary train that has since become a curiosity and whim indulged in by wealthy esthetes like the late William F. Buckley who famously recounted his travels ("Buckley Aboard The Orient Express, NYT, 11/22/81). If only he could have carried his harpsichord on board! Apparently during the purges Stalin removed whole populations to far off regions in Uzbekestan like Tashkent, by train. Needless to say such trains exhibited no luxuries. Notoriously Hitler’s box cars transported Jews to their deaths. E.M Frimbo was the alter ego of Roger E.M. Whitaker, The New Yorker's famed train traveler. Then there’s of course Freud who likened free-association to the perception of passing reality through a train car window.

read the review of The Wormhole Society by Francis Levy and Joseph Silver in The East Hampton Star