On the HahaFiction shelf
The People on Platform 5
Audiobook available · 8 hr 35 min
Iona and her fellow commuters observe the rule against talking to strangers on the train until a passenger chokes on a grape. The emergency brings them into conversation, beginning friendships among people who have been traveling together without knowing one another.
From the author’s blurb
“Nobody speaks to strangers on the train. But what would happen if they did?”Read the full description at Clare Pooley’s author website
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What makes it funny?
Iona has a confident idea of the impression she makes. A change of viewpoint lets readers hear what her fellow passengers think instead: the same clothes and behavior tell quite different stories depending on who is looking.
The comedy at work
Pooley lets one passenger make a judgment, then gives another a turn to complicate it. Private insecurities undermine the confidence people display in public, making their rigid ideas about train etiquette and each other increasingly hard to sustain.
Try this if…
An ensemble learning to look after one another supplies the warmth. Readers who enjoy friendship stories built from strangers gradually revising their first impressions have that shared journey to follow.
Good to know
The US edition is titled Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting. The opening includes sexual harassment as well as the medical emergency.
A few distinguishing details
- A choking emergency breaking the silence of a commuter train
- Passengers with competing accounts of the same people
More funny contemporary & literary
Sources & further reading
- US publisher edition
Publisher
- Author
Author commentary
- Publisher’s reading sample
Reading sample
- Google Play audiobook
Book information
- Publisher audiobook
Publisher
- Publisher
Publisher
- Catherine Larner’s review
Review
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