Funds for bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed, or you are the only animal. You are a very special breed,

or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblot, and this is Bookworm.

Today, I'm pleased to have as my guest for the first time, a writer I've wanted to talk to for quite a while. It's Pete Dexter, and his new novel is Train. It's published by his new publisher, Doubleday. He's the author in Order of God's Pocket, Deadwood, Paris Trout, Brotherly Love, and the Paperboy. All novels, all available at one point or another, probably still in paperback.

The new novel is trained.

Now, I remember a book that I was reading by Jim Thompson.

A criminal had come home to his mother.

He lifts her up in the air, and she's so frightened to see him that she urinates.

And there's a certain kind of world, you know, that noir world, in which even blood ties are in some way violated.

Something of this kind happens in train. A woman realizes that she's urinated to protect herself.

And I wanted to begin by asking you to describe that kind of a world.

Well, I guess what I'd say to that is the world's always struck me as a very fragile place.

And that, I mean, you go around taking things for granted a lot, I mean, the way things are.

You forget the nature of change and the nature of chance.

And that, you know, when you're

suddenly confronted with that,

it can be a...

And it can be, it doesn't have to be in the...

You know, as part of a boat

...