Off The Tracks
Rachel Watson commutes to and from London every day, and from the window she sees couple she names Jess and Jason, and in her mind gives them ideal lives.
She is an alcoholic and her life is in the dumps. After her marriage to Tom broke down, he married a pretty young woman, Anna, who promptly gave him a much-wanted child. She lives as a lodger with the kindly Cathy, who puts up with her craziness. She hasn’t the courage to confess even to her only friend that she lost her job months ago and pretends to go to work every day, spending her time in a boozy haze.
She drunk dials Tom constantly, and makes a nuisance of herself, because she is seldom sober to even feel embarrassed. Her old home is a few doors down from that of her ‘Golden Couple’ so every time the row of houses appear by the tracks, her anguish multiples.
Then, one day, she sees ‘Jess’ kissing another man, and soon after comes news that the woman, whose real name is Megan, has gone missing and her husband, Scott, is the prime suspect. Suddenly the life of the lovely couple seems even more sordid than her own, and only she knows of the other man. Because of her obvious mental instability, the cops treat her with contempt. Much to Rachel’s despair, she knows there was something that she witnessed the night Megan disappeared, but she has a memory blackout.
Paula Hawkins’s debut novel, has zoomed up the bestselling charts, and its success is being compared to that of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Rachel is a pathetic woman to have as a protagonist, but that does not take away from the suspense that is revealed gradually. The story is told in the voices of Rachel, Megan and Anna—all three women trying to find happiness with unworthy men, and all going through varying degrees of suburban ennui. The rail tracks by their homes and the trains passing up and down all promise escape and adventure that they will never have.
In every chapter some new fact springs out and the fate of Megan seems to be linked to all the characters. There is some monotony in Rachel’s falling on and off the wagon, but still, it’s a very good read.
The Girl On The Train
By Paula Hawkins
Publisher: Riverhead
Pages: 336
No comments:
Post a Comment