TRAIN

New York City, NY: Doubleday, 2003. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Doubleday, 2003. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 280 pages. The author's "race" novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Pete Dexter's "Train". Dazzling and riveting. "Miller Packard is a sergeant in the San Diego police department who has little time for hypocrisy or racism. He lives life as a dare, fearless and bemused. He is also a golfer, though not a great one. Over a game with a fat cheater named Pinky, Packard's world collides with the troubled life of Lionel 'Train' Walk, a young African-American caddy at Brookline Country Club. Train is a virtuoso golfer but is doomed to tote old men's clubs in a sport that cannot find a place for a young black athlete. Train also holds a secret, a murder that has never been reported but haunts his every step. In the volatile world of 1950's racial politics, bonds of friendship that cross the color line are doomed, and Packard and Train cruise towards inevitable conflagration. Dexter explores racism with a cold eye in 'Train', rarely politically correct and always unafraid to find pettiness in the lives of liberal whites, beatniks, philanthropists, and powerful African-Americans. Outside of the purity of Train's golf swing, Dexter finds little to celebrate in the troubled times, and every page offers the possibility of new catastrophe. Yet, 'Train' is not a bleak novel, and Packard's detachment lends the book an air of dark comedy" (Patrick O'Kelley). It is important to keep in mind that Dexter set his novel in the 1950's, not in the present Age of Tiger Woods, precisely to make his point. An absolute "must-have" title for Pete Dexter collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Pete Dexter. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Award in 1988 for "Paris Trout". One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PETE DEXTER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0385505914.