There are 253 passengers on a seven car Tube train that is about to crash. Every person, along with their thoughts and actions on their brief train ride (and including footnotes explaining their direct and/or indirect relationships with other people on the train), is described in exactly 253 words each.

While on the surface this may sound like nothing more than a mildly interesting experiment in constrained writing, the book manages to reach a deeper meaning than you would expect. Whether you read the book from beginning to or flip around to random parts at your leisure, the overall effect is the same; allowing you to freeze a moment in time and examine the lives and deaths of 253 people with more in common than they will ever truly realize. Contrasting and comparing their personalities and motivations affords the reader an almost God-like chance to examine the fantastic and mundane worlds of a train full of strangers as an intrinsic whole.

But don't let that scare you away. If you rather enjoy as a distraction rather than a perceptions-enhancing experience, it easily works on that level as well. No matter how you attack 253, it remains a truly unique book in both structure and subject matter, and equally enjoyable whether read in short bursts or cover to cover. ( )

Esential reading for Bakerloo line afficianados

"A Bakerloo line tube train with no one standing and no empty seats carries 252 passengers. The driver makes 253."
Each person on the train has a page of the book devoted to them and in 253 words you find out all about their thoughts and lives and how each of the passengers lives link up with each other.
If you are the type of person who when travelling on public transport spends their time wondering about the lives of your fellow passengers then you will really enjoy this unusual novel by Geoff Ryman. 253 started off on the Internet before being published on paper. Ryman has created a snapshot of modern London, and as you know that the train is hurtling towards a derailment you can’t help wondering who will live and who will die. ( )

http://spwebdesign.livejournal.com/51... ( )

This is a hard book to rate. I tried to read it as a novel and found it tedious. But the interconnected pieces are interesting and engaging, the way a poetry collection is engaging. So I'll leave it unrated. If you're picking this book up because you liked Ryman's Air, you're going to have to keep an open mind and not expect it to satisfy all your novel cravings. If you liked Was, this takes the non-linear, interrelated narrative style a step further.