Memory loss is always an excellent theme for a thriller story. Paula Hawkins might not be the first to use this theme, but her incredibly effective use of twists and unreliable narration makes her The Girl on the Train stand out from other novels with similar theme and genre.
 |
| Source : Amazon.com |
The plot of the novel circulates around the tragic interweaving of the life of three women who play the central figures of the story: the boozer Rachel, the self-satisfied Anna, and the coquettish Megan. The core of the story lies in Rachel’s attempts to cope with her insobriety, which she believes to be the cause of her marriage breakdown, career loss, and—most essentially—loss of sanity.
Amidst her despair, the lonely Rachel begins to develop a habit of patronizing a train going back home from London and passing by the home where she used to live together with Tom, which is now occupied by the happy family Tom, Anna and their daughter Evie. Unable to bear the pain of recalling the bitter memory of her dissolved marriage, she turned her attention to another home occupied by a family of young couple Scott and Megan, which appears perfect from outward but actually hides a serious problem due to Megan’s dissatisfaction with her romantic life.
At first, Hawkins draws an utter contrast between the life of the sozzled, overweight, relatively unattractive, and hapless Rachel and that of the much luckier and more charming Anna and Megan, but later in the story, especially beginning with Megan’s disappearance, the contrast becomes even more blurred and the plot that starts with relatively undisturbed storyline becomes even more suspenseful as Rachel craftily involves herself in Megan’s affairs. In her novel, Hawkins juggles with the volatile perspectives and personalities of the characters so skillfully that the thrill that the novel offers is ultimately comparable to that of Gone Girl. Perhaps this is the reason why Hawkins uses Girl in the title of her novel instead of Woman, which sounds more accurate.
The Girl on the Train was the number one on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list between February and April 2015 and again on January 2016. About 11 million copies of this novel, including its translations, were already sold by August 2016. A film adaptation of it was already released on October 2016. With overwhelmingly agreeable readers’ reception of the novel, The Girl on the Train is obviously a perfect collectible to be included in your reading list.
Also Read : Home Review in Amazon
0 comments:
Post a Comment