Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

During the train’s first scheduled stop, Ernie participates in an author talk. He’s puzzled by McTavish, who looks bored and trapped, seemingly lacking the curiosity about the world that Ernie associates with writers. Ernie notices that McTavish’s left side is visibly weaker than his right due to a long-ago hit-and-run injury. Majors, in her dual role as author and festival organizer, begins the discussion by hinting that Fulton has taken 21 years to write a second novel because of writer’s block and becoming a single mother. Wolfgang calls Ernie’s book cheap and sensationalist. Ernie and Wolfgang then argue about what “real” literature is. Wolfgang reveals that his current work isn’t a novel at all but a kind of “‘interactive art installation’ titled The Death of Literature” (68). McTavish surprises Ernie by coming alive once it’s his turn to speak. He talks about how, following his accident, he was afraid that he’d never write again. He seems to struggle with his emotions when Majors asks him to talk about ending his popular series of books and implies that the apparent end of the series might not be its actual end. The final writer to speak is Royce. Ernie notices how Majors keeps redirecting Royce’s attempts to dignify his work as high literature into discussions of its gory details and Royce’s past as a forensic pathologist.