Wilbur, an eighty-one-year-old man lives alone in a big sprawling house. When he collapses his gardener finds him but is too late to revive him.

Wilbur finds himself on the Midnight Train where he is given the chance to travel through his life reflecting on his regrets notably his true love with Maggie who left him more than twenty years earlier.

I’d read Midnight Library based on a similar idea where a woman is given a chance to do the things she had most regretted not doing. I’d enjoyed that one but this one didn’t leave me with the same excitement. Wilbur travels on the train and gets off during various scenes of his life. He can only observe but not intervene although he is very tempted to because he can see where things for awry for him. He was a selfish and self centered man during his life reminding me a little of Scrooge.

I did hope for more from this one but I simply could not feel much of a connection to the characters especially Wilbur. I didn’t care about his regrets or the events of his life. It just wasn’t that interesting. I was wishing for the end and thankful that it wasn’t a long book.

It might be a little harsh perhaps, but it wasn’t for me.

An elderly gentleman, Theo arrives in the town of Golden. No-one knows who he is or anything about his background let alone why he has turned up.

He soon becomes a presence when entering a café, he sees a number of portraits for sale by a local artist. He decides to purchase them one at a time and give them to the person in the painting.

He quickly becomes embroiled in peoples lives by his kindness, generosity and friendship.

It’s a lovely idea that a person who has lived a long life can give something back to people in the form of art imparting wisdom along the way.

Levi takes us on a journey with each portrait involving the reader in the lives of the recipient as well as a growing appreciation for the kindness of this one elderly man.

However, I was disturbed about themes about illegal immigrants and anti-abortion and the underlying sense of disapproval. After a while the bestowal of the paintings and the recipients life story became a little repetitive and I found myself losing interest on occasion with some of the characters. Perhaps some editing may have helped. The last quarter of the book was better bringing everything together with a few surprises.

It’s a highly rated book and for many it does resonate, but for me that wasn’t consistent enough. The writing at times was a little too flowery, the characters were too real to be true and it almost felt like a series of fables. The argument for religion appeared to become more heavy handed as the novel progressed. There was even a sermon which really was hardly warranted. I wasn’t expecting a Christian fictional novel.

I did like it but I didn’t love it. Maybe my expectations were too high after the hype.