Book Review: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

Hi readers, 

Please note there's going to be some possible spoilers! Sorry, it was difficult to void it.  

If you're looking for a quick and easy novel without a complicated plot or characters whilst your sat on the beach and/or traveling then this book would fit nicely. I was drawn in by the tagline and the inside blurb when I picked up this book whilst in Waterstones waiting for my boyfriend. In my head I had this idea of a woman being like a spy and knowing details about the lives of a married couple from which she could see from the train. (Which maybe might make a good story or else just wouldn't work). I added the book to my list and asked for it when my birthday came around. 

The opening chapter drew me in and I know it's bad, but it remind me of Fifty Shades Of Grey (Which I'm actually planning to go back and look at again next month). I think it was the style of writing, that boarding on older teen to twenty-some adult language, which means a simple vocabulary is used and thus making the novel easier and faster to read. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, but it does make for repetition and a 'dumbing down' within the story.   

I really liked the opening idea of abandoned clothes on the train track because its' something that happens and people question in real life. I thought this would be a key point in the story - you know like someone getting rid of evidence- instead though it's used very briefly to aid the main character -Rachel into remembering something about someone towards the end of the novel. Actually, before the first chapter -narrated by Rachel- the book opens with two excerpts from the novel itself, which of course you don't realise nor put into place until you're read them in their context. These two paragraphs do help to draw you in. How couldn't they? When a woman has been 'buried beneath a sliver birch tree' and magpies mock another person with they 'raucous cackling' as the person recites the nursery rhyme One for Sorrow. 

Rachel's life and background story seem interesting enough; she's an alcoholic who has blackouts. That has led her to the state she is in now; divorced, jobless, depressed, boarding on homeless and bankrupted. Every day she takes the train to work to trick her friend, who she's currently stays with, into believing that she still has a job. Really she spends the days hanging around in London. Also, it allows her into the lives of 'Jess and Jason'. With the train having to almost always stop right behind their house, Rachel gets this window shot of the couple and seems to have become very knowledgeable and interested in them. 

Now, here's where it all fell a part for me - Rachel has daydreamed this whole thing up. The couple who live there are really called Megan and Scott and Rachel doesn't know anything about them. Okay, I know that everyone -especially writers-do this all the time and it does work to flag up Rachel as a unreliable narrator, but I just didn't like how it was done and I do think I would have preferred if Rachel had been stalking them or something like that. The other thing that caused me to have issues was the time and dates. I get that most people won't have been effect by this, but for someone who's not very good at keeping such a vast change of time and dates in their mind it starts to grate on you. Plus, it doesn't help the flow of the story. I've big issues with how stories flow and I so don't like narrative structures that stop/start. 

This story also flicks between two other narrative voices Megan's and Anna's- who is Rachel's husband's new wife and daughter to his child. After awhile, I struggled to tell all three voices a part, there didn't seem much difference between them and at one point I wondered why the writer had decided to give us the same point of view told by two people in the same way. I think that if it had been Rachel's voice throughout everything would possibly have worked better. I think it was at this point that repetition started to get to me, I noticed how many times the characters made and drink cups of tea and coffee and alcohol drinks. Every other page they seem to do this and it's just lazy writing to give the characters an action to do.  

To be honest the only reason why I carried on reading was because I wanted to find out what had happened to Megan and then who had killed her. There was nothing else after that first chapter that made me want to read on. I didn't really care what happened to Rachel or any other the other characters because I just didn't connect with them. The characters weren't that interesting over all nor did they do much development, except at the end where everything felt rushed anyway. The ending plot twist did kinda work, because I didn't get it till close to the reveal. I guess if you're into crime/thriller stories then you'd have got it sooner. Even on reflection though, it does seem weak and I wanted the killer to be more anger and have more motive. The police characters are just terrible, they never felt realistic and they are too far in the background to physical do anything. Maybe a flip on this story with them telling it could be another option? 

Overall, I didn't much like this book. There were problems with the plot, characters and the narrative structure. I just can't be wonder if it had been told in a better way that maybe it could have been a better book? Still, I stand by what I said before at the start, so it's up to you decided to like it or hate it. For me though, I'll be passing this book on to my mum to see what she makes of it.     

Till next time. 

A Closed Book Review: 'Life is not a novel.'

Hey readers,

I thought I'd read and review another book that as been sat on my shelf for a while. This one was suggested to me by one of my MA tutors during a lecture about very different books which don't fit into main stream reading. I brought it as it sounded interesting and possibly useful for secondary reading. However, I never got a chance to read it and as the last two months have been about reading stuff I've not gotten around to, I thought that this one would fit in.

The author, Gilbert Adair, a Scottish journalist, poet and novelist spent most of his life in Paris and London. He is most famous for his translation of A Void and Love and Death on Long Island. He is also know for his children's stories and his film reviews. A Closed Book was published in 1999 and in 2010 he collaborated on the screenplay for the movie.  He passed away in December 2011.

The novel is about a famous fictional writer, Paul, who has been blinded in an accident. He wants to write his memoirs and so hires someone, John, to help him do so. A first meeting and interview takes place between the two and then they begin the writing process. However, tension starts to build as Paul begins to sense that things aren't right. Objects and clothing appear to move or disappear and he also becomes suspicious that his dictated memoirs aren't actually being typed up. Then it is revealed that John is a figure from Paul's past and he's returned to seek revenge for a crime.    

The title of the book is really interesting and it has a lot of meaning behind it. This becomes revealed in the plot and can also be seen between the lines. Paul's memoirs are given this title as it connects with the writer being blind and living in something of a closed world. The other is to the crime which John is seeking revenge for as it's believed that it was forgotten about and so became a 'closed book' due to the saying. There are other symbolic things connecting to this title and it is very clever.

There is a limited number of characters that appear as the focus is on the friendship between Paul and John. They are well around characters, though because of the narrative structure of the novel we end up with a bias  opinion about them. This just adds to the mystery and tension that is created as we don't get a full picture about either of them.

The other characters feel like they are just there to help move the plot long or else make a statement. The housekeeper that Paul has seems to be nothing more then an obstacle that John must get rid of. This is some what done for him as the housekeeper's husband falls ill and needs looking after. However, this adds to the tension as Paul becomes powerless to stop John in allowing the housekeeper time off. Anther character that sticks in my mind is a representative of a local council party visiting the house. This is because the only role this character plays is to confirm that the book is being written and that the tension is getting to John. This doesn't effect the reading or the plot in general, I just feel that these characters could have been made more useful.

The novel has a very strange and different narrative as it is written only in the conversations or in Paul's diary enters. This means that the narratives lacks description and only overcomes this by Paul getting John to describe things around him as proof that John has a good eye for detail. Being just written as different conversations means that there is a lot to be read in-between the lines and that we don't get close to the characters. It feels like this narrative structure shouldn't work, but it over comes issues to work and it does this very cleverly. Thus it feels like a different and refreshing read as you've not got the massive description and blocks of plot that can appear in other stories and slow things down.

It is stated that the novel is styled on the works of Stephen King and Agatha Christie due to the eerie atmosphere that is created and the twists that take place. This does come across well in the novel and it easily sits on the crime shelf. The language used as its bases in these writers because they are masters of their genres. Adair has been able to add his own influence into the language as well and because of the narrative structure how he has used language to create the the tension and mystery is important.

The Movie came out in 2010 and though I've not seen it I've read enough about it to put me off seeing it. This is because it looks completely different from the book as the characters and plot have been changed to make it more balanced. I feel that this wasn't needed and that the the plot of the book works really well.

Overall, I would recommended this book if you are a fan of the two writers it's in the style of. Also if you are into your crime or if you are interested in looking at different narrative styles. I did enjoy this book, but it wasn't for me because the big twist at the end has become over used now and it didn't pay off for me.
     



Images from:

http://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/a-closed-book-by-gilbert-adair/