Her Majesty, The Queen
of England, is depressed. She reads
biographies about The Royals and writes
"Not true" or "Never happened" in the margins. To keep calm
and fit and rail against aging, she takes up yoga and even tries to learn the
computer. But nothing can dissuade her sadness over her children's marriages breaking up, the death of Princess Diana, the
fire at Windsor castle and other woes. The Queen had "internalized the
shock, stored it up, and now she was suffering," writes William Kuhn in Mrs.
Queen Takes the Train, an affecting, yet amusing, fictitious look at
the heart and soul of Queen Elizabeth.
When the Prime
Minister informs that the government can no longer subsidize the Royal
Train--an outdated, expensive mode of transportation dedicated exclusively for
official business of The Monarchy--the 80 year-old Queen is delivered a final
jolt. She gets fed up and walks away from Buckingham Palace, unattended, on a
rainy day. Cloaked beneath a borrowed hoodie with a skull stenciled on the
back, she sets off for King's Cross, London's busiest public train station, and
sets off to the Royal Yacht Britannia moored in Scotland. Along the way, she
encounters an array of ethnically diverse commoners - some who mistake her for
a homeless person, others Helen Mirren.
Orbiting the suspense
and excitement that swirls around Her Majesty's mysterious disappearance are
engaging stories about the lives of those who work behind the scenes at the
palace, those who know Queen Elizabeth best. Kuhn
(Reading
Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books) delivers a clever, funny send-up
mirroring all facets of contemporary British life while portraying The Queen as
an emblem of "correctness...in a secular era."
Harper, $25.99,
Hardcover, 9780871404619, 384 pp
Publication Date: October
16, 2012
Please note: This review is
a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the
permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review
on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (10/26/12), click HERE.