The Girl on the Train (novel)
The
Girl on the Train is a 2015 psychological thriller novel by British author
Paula Hawkins
that gives narratives from three different women about relationship troubles
and binge drinking.[1] The novel debuted in the number one spot on The
New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list (print and e-book) dated 1 February 2015,[2] and remained in the top position for 13 consecutive weeks,
until April 2015.[3] In January 2016 it became the #1 best-seller again for two
weeks. Many reviews referred to the book as "the next Gone Girl",
referring to a popular 2012 psychological mystery, by author Gillian
Flynn, with similar themes that used unreliable narrators.[4][5]
By
early March, less than two months after its release, the novel had sold over
one million copies,[6]
and an additional half million by April.[7] It occupied the #1 spot of the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks, the longest any book has ever held
the top spot.[8] By early August, the book had sold more than three million
copies in the U.S. alone, and, by October 2016, an estimated 15 million
copies worldwide.[9] The audiobook edition, released by Books on Tape,
was narrated by Clare Corbett,
Louise Brealey
and India Fisher.
It won the 2016 Audie Award
for "Audiobook of the Year".[10][11]
The
film rights were acquired before the book was even published, in 2014, by DreamWorks Pictures
for Marc Platt Productions.[12] The American film adaptation, starring Emily
Blunt and directed by Tate
Taylor, was released on 7 October 2016.
Plot
The
story is a first-person narrative told from the point of view
of three women: Rachel, Anna, and Megan.
Rachel
Watson is a 33-year-old alcoholic, reeling from the end of her marriage to Tom,
who left her for another woman, Anna Boyd. Rachel's drinking has caused her to lose
her job; she frequently binges and has blackouts. While drunk, she often harasses Tom, though she has little
or no memory of these acts once she sobers up. Tom is now married to Anna and
has a daughter with her, Evie – a situation that fuels Rachel's
self-destructive tendencies, as it was her inability to conceive a child that
began her spiral into alcoholism. Rachel follows her old routine of taking the
train to London everyday; her train slowly passes her old house, where Tom,
Anna, and Evie now live. She also begins watching from the train an attractive
couple who live a few houses away from Tom. She idealises their life
(christening them "Jason" and "Jess"), though she has no
idea that their life is far from perfect. The wife of the couple, Megan Hipwell
("Jess"), has a troubled past. She finds her life boring, and escapes
from her troubles by taking a series of lovers. Megan has sought help by seeing
a therapist, Dr. Kamal Abdic. Eventually, she reveals to him a dark secret she
has never confided to anyone before.
Anna
is young, beautiful, in love with Tom, and happy as a stay-at-home mother to
the young Evie. While at first she enjoyed the idea of showing off to Rachel
that Tom picked her over Rachel, she eventually becomes furious at Rachel's
harassment of her family. One day, Rachel is stunned to see Megan kissing
another man. The next day, after heavy drinking, Rachel awakens to find herself
bloody and injured, with no memories of the night before. She learns that Megan
is missing, and is questioned by the police after Anna reports having seen her drunkenly
staggering around the night of Megan's disappearance. Rachel becomes interested
in the case and tells the police she thinks Megan was having an affair. She
then contacts Megan's husband, Scott ("Jason") and tells him as well,
lying that she and Megan were friends. Rachel learns that the man she saw
kissing Megan was Kamal.
Rachel
contacts Kamal, lying about her identity to get close to him and learn more
about him. She makes a therapy appointment with him to see if he can help her
recall the events that happened during her blackout that night. While Kamal
suspects nothing, Rachel begins to gain insight into her life by speaking with
him, inadvertently benefiting from the therapy. Her connections to Scott and
Kamal, though built on lies, make her feel more important. She ends up not
drinking for several days at a time but always relapses. Meanwhile, she
continues to call, visit, and harass Tom. Megan's body is found; she is
revealed to have been pregnant, and her unborn child was fathered by neither
Scott nor Kamal. As Scott discovers Rachel's lies and lashes out at her, her
memories become clearer. Rachel remembers seeing Megan get into Tom's car. Anna
discovers that Tom and Megan were having an affair.
Rachel
begins trusting her own memories more, and realises that many of the crazy
things Tom told her she did while drunk never really happened. He had been gaslighting her for years, which made her question her sanity. Armed with
this sad realisation, and the knowledge that he must have been the one who
killed Megan, Rachel warns Anna. When Anna confronts him, Tom confesses to
murdering Megan after she threatened to reveal that he had gotten her pregnant.
Anna is cowed, fearing for her daughter's safety. Tom tries to beat and
intimidate Rachel into keeping silent, but she defies him and fights back.
Knowing he is about to kill her, Rachel stabs Tom in the neck with a corkscrew;
Anna helps Rachel make sure that he dies from the wound. When the police
arrive, former adversaries Rachel and Anna support each other by co-ordinating
their stories to explain their actions as self-defense. Finally free, Rachel
decides to quit drinking and move on with her life.
Reception
The
review aggregator
website Book Marks
reported that 29% of critics gave the book a "rave" review, whilst
43% and 14% of the critics expressed "positive" or "mixed"
impressions, respectively. Another 14% of the critics "panned" the
book, based on a sample of seven reviews.[13]
The
Girl on the Train received mostly positive reviews
from critics and audiences alike. In 2015 it became the fastest-selling adult
hardcover novel in history, and it spent over four months on the New York
Times Bestseller List following its release.[7] Kirkus
Reviews praised the novel with a starred
review, writing that "even the most astute readers will be in for a shock
as Hawkins slowly unspools the facts, exposing the harsh realities of love and
obsession's inescapable links to violence." Subsequently, the novel was
honoured by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best books of 2015, in the
fiction category. The book also won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award in the category Mystery & Thriller.[14]
In
a less positive review for The New York Times, Jean Hanff Korelitz questioned the novel's narrative
structure and criticised the protagonist for behaving "illogically,
self-destructively, and narcissistically."[15]
The
Girl on the Train has been compared frequently to Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn,
as both novels employ unreliable narrators and deal with suburban life.[1] Paula Hawkins has waved these comparisons off, however,
saying in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: "Amy Dunne is a psychopath, an incredibly controlling and manipulative, smart, cunning
woman. [Rachel is] just a mess who can't do anything right."[16]
No comments:
Post a Comment