What a pleasure of a book this is!
The book starts with an image of the Hampton Court-Waterloo Station line in London that handily mentions which character boards where. I appreciate any drawings, maps, charts, and family trees, in the front of a book as it makes the reading experience a lot easier. I do not like having to leaf back pages to remind myself of what or who.
Anybody who has ever had to commute for study or work, recognizes the premise: after a while you start to recognize the people that board the same train/bus/metro/tram/ferry as you. And because you don’t know anything about them, you give them nicknames. I often find myself on the same metro as “Gel head” (overdoes the slicked back hair), “MC Hammer” (once randomly carried a hammer with him), and “Justin Bieber” (due to the overuse of the word ‘baby’ when on the phone with his girlfriend). I don’t know these people but recognize them. They surely recognize me as well and probably have a nickname for me too. The weirdest thing is bumping into these people in places other than the metro because that’s when I realize they have lives outside of the commute as well.
And that’s exactly what this story is about: commuters getting to know each other, taking their friendships off the train and into real life.
This book was also published under the title Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting. This makes sense because Iona clearly is the main character. She also is the first to board the train.
Iona doesn’t travel alone, she always carries dog Lulu with her, and a bag that contains not just a thermos filled with tea, but a cup and saucer as well. (One of her rules for commuting relates to being equipped for any possible happening, and enjoying a cup of tea is a happening.)
Martha refers to Iona as The Lady with the Magic Bag. Piers calls her Crazy Dog Woman. And Sanjay has nicknamed her Rainbow Lady due to the colorful outfits she wears.
Then something happens which sees them breaking the don’t-talk-to-strangers protocol.
And when that happens they quickly learn that there is more to their fellow commuters than meets the eye: everybody has a story.
Iona is a magazine therapist (don’t call her an agony aunt), and although the people at work think of her as outdated and aged, Emmie, Sanjay, Martha, Piers, and David, start to share their problems with her on the train, and she gets to help them in real life, providing them with advice and suggestions. She dives into her role of match-maker and problem-solver, and the talks with the youngsters are give-and-take they make her better at work as well, and suddenly her columns are making headlines. Ever since hitting the fifty mark, Iona felt herself become increasingly invisible to the world, so revitalising her career and having people around her eager to listen, appreciating her opinion and experience, is doing wonders for her self-esteem.
The story is difficult to describe further without giving any spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at this and only will tell you to get your hands on this book if you’re looking for something enjoyable and fun to read, that will restore your faith in people on public transport.
Bookworm in the City 