Book review: The girl on the train

Have you ever been commuting and wondering what the lives of the people were in the houses you looked at out the window? Making up stories about them? Rachel does exactly this. 

The train she takes every day to London stops at a red signal on the tracks, just opposite the house "Jason" & "Jess" live. She does not know these people, she has given them names herself and she imagines the perfect loving life they have together. Until something different happens one day and it completely changes her view. The next day the woman disappears and Rachel feels she is connected to this event, but she cannot remember how. You see, she is an alcoholic, still attached to her ex-husband, who lives with this new wife and baby girl in a couple of houses down "Jason's" and "Jess'" place. 

Rachel is desperate to find something to keep her out of the unhappiness, loneliness and misery she lives in. She pretends to know something about the disappearance and is pulled into the other characters' lives with unexpected results towards the final twist of the story.

The book is unputdownable. It keeps the reader's interest and curiosity until the last page, a psychological thriller that is well planned, well written and gripping. The three narrators of the story, who give their own perspective, are all unreliable and horrible in their own way; but the development of their characters is very strong and the readers find themselves engaged with what is happening. However, one should not expect to actually like these characters; all with their secrets and dark past in their life. Frustration, anger, pity, disgust....one may feel all these over a few pages. You will either love or hate it. Totally recommended.

+ good plot, well developed characters

- disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

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Book review: The Lowland

Subhash and Udayan are two brothers growing up in the years after the Indian Independence. They are very close to each other, but they end up taking different paths. The '60s is a turbulent decade for India and Udayan opts to join the Communist Party while Subhash continues his studies in the USA.

The years go by and practically the two brothers have very little contact, just a few letters sent by Udayan with news about India, their family and his marriage to a girl that their parents did not approve of. One day Subhash is called back home by his parents; his brother was killed due to his illegal activities.

Subhash goes to India in a house filled with memories. He meets his sister-in-law, who is pregnant to Udayan's baby and decides to relieve her from a life in a house she is not wanted. He marries her and she follows him to Rhode Island, where he completes his PhD research. Will Subhash and Gauri be able to forget the past and carry on? Will there be a happy ending for them?

The story itself is quite interesting, although the pattern of family sagas has been used by authors so many times. Lahiri's writing is quite good and the sentences flow easily. However, there are some major drawbacks.

The style is very descriptive, there are hardly any dialogues between the characters and this does not allow them to come closer to the readers. There is, also, a strong focus on the Indian history; the narrative informs on the events that took place in the country during the '60s and the '70s, trying to incorporate the story into them instead of the opposite. One feels the characters come second and some parts are more like an essay than a work of fiction. As a consequence, the storytelling becomes stiff, impersonal and dull. Moreover, the characters' lives span for around five decades and one expects that during this period their personalities, thoughts and feelings evolve and change. Yet, in this book the characters remain static; the same feelings around immigration, longing, grief, bitterness, love and sadness are found until the end. They do not grow, do not express themselves, they are not explored.

Personal opinion: unless you are into modern Indian social/political history or eager to get informed about it, try something else.




+ good writing, focus on the modern socio-political history of India
- too descriptive and stiff storytelling, characters lack of depth




(written by FK for Walkley Library)



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(written by FK for Walkley Library)

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