Here’s my book review of The Girl on the Train by Paula
Hawkins.
I don’t often review recent releases. But there was such a
buzz about The Girl on the Train,
I couldn’t help myself. Especially since, after I’d downloaded the ebook
sample, that Buy Now button was burning a hole in my digital wallet.
(The book has been out for months, so maybe, given the
nanosecond pace of social media, it’s a classic by now?)
Yes, I was engrossed. But before you rush out to the e-store,
be warned.
Right off, this is a book for and about women. The two male
main characters – both thirty-something husbands – are strapping hunks of
man-flesh. They exude charm and flash winning smiles. And they are both
abusers. Several walk-on male characters are nicer, sort of metrosexual
candidates. But one has a drug habit, another is a drunk, and the third is a
spineless shrink.
The wives and ex-wives are smart but vulnerable, emotional
sponges thirsty for guy-sweat. They spend a lot of their emotional energy in
cat-fights with each other.
Okay, here’s the gist of it. The Girl on the Train is a chilling psychological drama centered –
not on a love triangle, but a pentagon – or is it a hexagon? Anyway, the
permutations and combinations don’t quite include the entire neighborhood.
Main character Rachel is recently divorced from Tom, who
seems like a nice guy who just couldn’t put up with her drinking habit. (She
had her reasons.) He’s now married to Anna and they have a new baby. The couple
live in a the same bungalow where Tom and Rachel once thought they were happy.
A few doors down, Scott and Megan seem like childless lovebirds. Megan
occasionally babysits for Anna.
Although it’s been a while since the breakup, Rachel can’t
help spying on her old house from the commuter train she takes to work in
London every day. She occasionally catches sight of Megan and Scott lounging on
the porch of their cookie-cutter cottage. She doesn’t know them well, but she
develops a fantasy about their perfect relationship. It’s the relationship
Rachel thought she had with Tom, a love now presumably lost.
It turns out that Rachel is more than casually curious about
Tom and Anna. Rachel is a stalker. She phones him at all hours, she leaves
notes at the house, and she wanders the neighborhood as she stares at the front
door.
One night when she’s there, neighbor Megan goes missing.
A problem is – and it’s huge – when Rachel has been drinking
she’s prone to mental blackouts. There are whole chunks of time – from minutes
to hours – for which she has no memory. So combined with her guilt and
self-loathing over her failed marriage, Rachel begins to wonder whether she’s
been bad. Maybe really, really bad?
Like, maybe, did she somehow hurt perfect-housewife Megan?
And what happened to Megan, anyway? Did she run off with a lover, or will they
find her body in a ditch?
That’s as far as I’ll go. No more spoilers. But I’m just
priming the pump. This is a big book, and, by turns, Rachel, Anna, and Megan
tell their first-person stories.
Debut novelist Paula Hawkins knows her craft. At its basis, The Girl on the Train is an ingeniously twisted
mystery. It’s a woman-jeopardy plot with
multiple victims. But, be warned, there are occasional bouts of intense
domestic violence.
You might wonder whether this bestseller will be a movie,
and apparently it will. DreamWorks has
it in pre-production with Tate Taylor
(The Help) to direct. Emily Blunt has been cast in the title
role of Rachel. In the book she’s described as pudgy and somewhat homely. I
guess Hollywood (UK office?) thought that was a bad idea. I doubt if the svelte
Ms. Blunt will be donning a fat-suit or actually putting on weight for this
role. Perhaps a touch less makeup, dear?
As I say, this is a big book, and what probably won’t make
it to script or screen are Rachel’s agonizing internal monologues.
But what you will see, I can predict, is every one of those
wife-battering fights.
Even more titillating to movie audiences than a good wartime
firefight with semiautomatic weapons is to see some sweaty guy slapping his hot
babe around.
