The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

The Sleeping Car Porter is lovely and heartbreaking and emotional … but most of all it, it delivers so much warmth and humanity. This meticulously researched historical novel explores the lived experience of Baxter, a young train porter with aspirations of becoming a dentist.

As a young black man in 1929, his options are limited, but he perseveres by keeping his head down, slowly collecting twenty-five cent tips to pay his tuition at McGill Dental School. It’s a thankless job made more difficult by the long hours he is forced to work without proper sleep or nutrition, not to mention the systemic racism he faces from all sides. Affluent passengers make (often outlandish) demands without fully acknowledging his existence, his employment ever on the brink. But Baxter is quiet and sharp and focused on his goal, until he makes a discovery while cleaning the WC that could betray his secret and unravel everything he’s worked for.

Suzette Mayr creates such rich characters and depicts the setting so precisely that the reader can’t help but feel the airlessness within the train cars, how tight the passageways are. Baxter’s hunger and sleeplessness are palpable, as is the constant threat of being outed, of being fired, of being jailed. The tension Mayr crafts in her narrative arc is masterful, but so is her falling action; maybe one of the most satisfying endings I’ve read in a long time.

The Sleeping Car Porter is a phenomenal read. It’s clear why it was selected for the Giller shortlist; this will be a hard one to beat!

The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr Coach House Books, pp. 209 ISBN: 978-1-55245-4589