The Sleeping Car Porter

Paperback

English language

Published Sept. 27, 2022 by Coach House Books.

ISBN:
978-1-55245-458-9
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4 stars (1 review)

When a mudslide strands a train, Baxter, a queer Black sleeping car porter, must contend with the perils of white passengers, ghosts, and his secret love affair

The Sleeping Car Porter brings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a queer man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you’ll feel the rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment.

Baxter’s name isn’t George. But it’s 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. So when the passengers call him George, he has to just smile and nod and act invisible. What he really wants is to go to dentistry school, but he’ll have to save up a lot of …

2 editions

The Sleeping Car Porter

4 stars

The Sleeping Car Porter is kind of an ensemble farce with subtle paranormal elements, experienced through a porter for a sleeping car on a transcontinental voyage across Canada.

The porter is a gay (or bi?) black man in Canada in the 1920s, and there's a strong focus on the various aggressions and disadvantages he's exposed to in light of that.

Weird and enjoyable.