THE
GIRL ON THE TRAIN - PAULA HAWKINS
The book that's been impossible to avoid: The Girl On The Train
by Paula Hawkins. For the last 12 months, every time anyone's
stumbled into a Waterstone's (or WH Smith) mistaking it for some
strange, new pub that's opened, this is the book that's been there on
display. The biggest selling book of 2015, top of the New York Times
hardback bestseller list, debuting at number one in book lists and
holding the position for weeks and weeks, soon to be made into a
film... Etc, etc.
In the face of such sales and the amount of words already given over
to it on the Internet, it doesn't much matter what I think of it but
for the record I think it's....
... a modern day, old-fashioned thriller concocted from bits and
pieces from all kinds of thrillers; written in the same way as
Quentin Tarantino makes films as in using different time lapses and
different perspectives.
What I'm interested in, however, is the fact that it's such a
successful book, clocking up sales going into the millions. What's
its secret, I wonder? Well, it's not a difficult read at all and I
suspect that helps. The chapters are short, there's a limited number
of characters, a decent twist at the end, and though it tends to
starts sagging around the two thirds mark, there's a momentum to it
that keeps the reader engaged.
It is flawed, however, and the flaw that I see in it is a disturbing
one though I'm unsure if many other readers have paid much if any
heed to it?
The fact that none of the characters are particularly likeable is
neither here nor there. The fact that they're all just as bad as one
and other (apart from the killer, who's obviously a bit worse) and
that they're all hypocrites and liars is probably just a literary
device.
No, it was one particular line that leapt out at me that made me
question this book's position in the real world and that line was: 'I
liked my job, but I didn't have a glittering career, and even if I
had, let's be honest: women are still only really valued for two
things - their looks and their role as mothers. I'm not beautiful,
and I can't have kids, so what does that make me? Worthless.'
I understand that this is a work of fiction so a line such as this
shouldn't be taken as representing the author's views but the problem
is in the fact that throughout the whole book Paula Hawkins is going
for realism, even to the extent of mentioning real life stories such
as paedophile celebrities in the news and what not. So when she
disempowers women in a single stroke through a line like this, you
read it as another nod to realism within that realm of realism that's
being created. You don't read it as a sudden lurch into fiction that
has no bearing on reality.
If this particular line was thought to be a nonsensical one, a stupid
one, an unrealistic one, would Paula Hawkins have planted it
in her story? If this line was recognised as having no ring of truth
to it in the slightest would Paula Hawkins have had it said by the
main narrator? If Paula Hawkins thought no woman would ever think
like this in this day and age, would she have had it included in the
narrator's monologue?
I think not.
Would any woman reading this line flinch at it or would they not bat
an eyelid and just keep on reading?
I would hope they might flinch.
And then it struck me: All the men characterised in the book are at
best shallow, lieing, manipulative cheats and at worst they're
monsters. The women, however, are worse because they're all in thrall
to these men and define themselves through them. The men deceive
their wives and lovers but the women deceive their husbands, their
friends and themselves.
This is the dark flaw at the heart of the book and it's a political
one. The fact that The Girl On The Train was written by a woman is no
excuse. This is a very conservative, misogynistic and misanthropic
book but for all that - paradoxically - it's still an enjoyable read
because the substance of it is overshadowed by the style.
I don't want to spoil the party but this book has sold millions and
I'm not sure that's a good thing?
John Serpico
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