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A review by look_whos_reading
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
5.0
The Girl on the Train is Paula Hawkins’ debut novel. It is a thriller in the genre of Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn) and We Were Liars (E. Lockhart) and slightly hints at Tell Me Your Dreams (Sidney Sheldon). It also reminded me of a detective TV series I watched as a child. There was one particular case of a woman who wouldn’t remember what she had done while sleep-walking. Although ironically now I can’t seem to recollect what series that was.
The book is written through the point of view of the different women in the story – Rachel, Anna and Megan. The author shifts easily between narrators to construct a series of events that occur over months. The characters narrate at different points of time as well and the plot does not progress chronologically. However, the way it is written is easy to follow and place in terms of timelines.
Each of the narrators also has a distinct voice that helps to build their character more wholly. The author provides snippets of personality as you read through and slowly you start building the person in your mind – their motives, their fears, their ambitions…
The atmosphere created in the book is that of an average day in your life. The plot is not an action based thriller but develops more in the mind. The characters are not overtly active. They go about their life like average Joes. The story is more about psychological motivations that drive human beings.
The men in the book are portrayed more like the objects to which the story happens. They have well-developed personalities too but you wouldn’t know them first hand because they are never the narrators. They are depicted as seen by the women around them. It’s an interesting perspective, especially as the story unfolds because often you forget to see them as “actors” who are behaving independently throughout.
The whodunit angle to the story is captivating and provides the reader with the opportunity to play the guessing game. Of course, the last 100 pages or so reveal a lot about the criminal and suddenly once you’ve figured out who did it, the plot becomes more about the why. How did the sequence of events play out?
There are three strong themes that spoke to me in this book – the idea of motherhood, the human capacity/motives for lying and the idea of redemption.
On motherhood and being a housewife:
How each of the characters perceived motherhood to define their success or failure in life, how as women we see this topic from an individual stand point as well as through societal expectations. Should we be having children? Should we be working? Is it about wanting a job and family or being required to have a job and family? There is often a struggle trying to reconcile these two and it comes across in a relatable manner through these women’s inner conflicts.
Telling lies:
We all lie every now and then for various purposes. Some lies occur by omission of truth, others are more premeditated. Again in purposely lying, how much harm is done can vary not just from the liar’s view point but also from the POV of the person being lied to. The dangerous part is that invariably human perceptions are formed and judgments made based on what we see and hear. So what we know to be the truth may not necessarily be the truth. And so then, knowing this, how far will a person go to avenge themselves or where will the liar draw the line?
Redemption:
Everyone has flaws. They may be physical, emotional or mental. The book refers a lot to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) where compulsive drinkers can seek help with their problems. While reading it, I remembered an episode on Oprah where she spoke to Mathew Perry about addiction. He said that addicts find their redemption either as one blinding moment of realization or a series of events that leads them to recovery. For the protagonist here, there was a single moment where it all came together. It is also the moment of revelation for the reader.
In conclusion, this was a wonderfully gripping story after a very long spell. Apart from one typographical error and one other incorrect sentence construction (largely the fault of editing) towards the beginning of the story, Paula Hawkins has effectively leveraged the power with every first person narrative and her background as a journalist and freelancer comes shining through in her crisp use of language.
The book is written through the point of view of the different women in the story – Rachel, Anna and Megan. The author shifts easily between narrators to construct a series of events that occur over months. The characters narrate at different points of time as well and the plot does not progress chronologically. However, the way it is written is easy to follow and place in terms of timelines.
Each of the narrators also has a distinct voice that helps to build their character more wholly. The author provides snippets of personality as you read through and slowly you start building the person in your mind – their motives, their fears, their ambitions…
The atmosphere created in the book is that of an average day in your life. The plot is not an action based thriller but develops more in the mind. The characters are not overtly active. They go about their life like average Joes. The story is more about psychological motivations that drive human beings.
The men in the book are portrayed more like the objects to which the story happens. They have well-developed personalities too but you wouldn’t know them first hand because they are never the narrators. They are depicted as seen by the women around them. It’s an interesting perspective, especially as the story unfolds because often you forget to see them as “actors” who are behaving independently throughout.
The whodunit angle to the story is captivating and provides the reader with the opportunity to play the guessing game. Of course, the last 100 pages or so reveal a lot about the criminal and suddenly once you’ve figured out who did it, the plot becomes more about the why. How did the sequence of events play out?
There are three strong themes that spoke to me in this book – the idea of motherhood, the human capacity/motives for lying and the idea of redemption.
On motherhood and being a housewife:
How each of the characters perceived motherhood to define their success or failure in life, how as women we see this topic from an individual stand point as well as through societal expectations. Should we be having children? Should we be working? Is it about wanting a job and family or being required to have a job and family? There is often a struggle trying to reconcile these two and it comes across in a relatable manner through these women’s inner conflicts.
Telling lies:
We all lie every now and then for various purposes. Some lies occur by omission of truth, others are more premeditated. Again in purposely lying, how much harm is done can vary not just from the liar’s view point but also from the POV of the person being lied to. The dangerous part is that invariably human perceptions are formed and judgments made based on what we see and hear. So what we know to be the truth may not necessarily be the truth. And so then, knowing this, how far will a person go to avenge themselves or where will the liar draw the line?
Redemption:
Everyone has flaws. They may be physical, emotional or mental. The book refers a lot to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) where compulsive drinkers can seek help with their problems. While reading it, I remembered an episode on Oprah where she spoke to Mathew Perry about addiction. He said that addicts find their redemption either as one blinding moment of realization or a series of events that leads them to recovery. For the protagonist here, there was a single moment where it all came together. It is also the moment of revelation for the reader.
In conclusion, this was a wonderfully gripping story after a very long spell. Apart from one typographical error and one other incorrect sentence construction (largely the fault of editing) towards the beginning of the story, Paula Hawkins has effectively leveraged the power with every first person narrative and her background as a journalist and freelancer comes shining through in her crisp use of language.