When you are on a bus, train or airplane looking around you do you ever wonder what the other passengers are thinking? In Geoff Ryman's novel, 253 you get to do just that to the 252 passengers and driver on a Bakerloo Line train. 253 occurs on January 11th 1995 which is the day that Ryman learned that his best friend was dying of AIDs.



253 was originally an interactive web novel, which you still can access to read online. The design of the book is unique in that it is based off the number of passengers the train can carry. The train consists of seven carriages, 36 seats on each and 1 driver seat, totaling 253 passengers. Each passenger on the train is described in outward appearance, inside information and what they are doing or thinking in 253 words each.



You might say nothing remarkable happens on the Bakerloo Line train as it makes it way from Embankment station to the Elephant and Castle, but you would be wrong. The little snippets of the passenger's lives tie together into a rich, inviting world of human nature. Sometimes the stories seem unreal and made up, but then others pull at your heart in a reminder of something you have experienced yourself. For those who need more than those intimate glimpses into the other passenger's lives, there is an end of the line section that offers a bit of violence and sensationalism. Along with that comes a handy seating map of each carriage so that you can see where people are in relation to others.



I found this to be a pleasurable read that I could carry in my purse to fill time waiting in lines and the doctor offices. I loved the nosey glimpses into the character's lives and often times wished I knew more about what would happen to them outside of the train. Then there were characters that I wished I never got a glimpse at their lives. Never the less, it was a wonderful mish-mash of people and experiences that I would expect to see on a train and a few I did not. I would highly recommend this novel as