With the exception of Gillian Flynn's superb Gone Girl, I haven't read any of the popular psychological thrillers that have been topping the bestseller lists over the past decade or so. I wanted to give The Woman in the Window a shot, in case I decide to watch the film adaptation that is coming to Netflix this week. The novel's protagonist is Anna Fox, a New York City psychologist who has become an agoraphobic shut-in after a traumatic accident. Separated from her husband and daughter, she spends much of her time drinking wine, playing online chess, watching old black-and-white movies, and spying on her neighbors. She forms a tenuous connection after a couple of visits from Jane Russell, who has just moved into the house across the park with her husband and teenage son. However, Anna's world begins to spin out of control one night when, while peering out her window, she sees a shocking act of violence in the Russell home. Or does she? With her unstable mental state, her drinking, and her new medications, did she imagine the whole thing?
"Hitchcockian" is a term often used to describe stories like this one, and it's a perfect description in this case. The novel's storyline, about a homebound person who witnesses a crime while spying on their neighbors, is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's great film Rear Window, and Anna herself watches several of Hitchcock's films throughout the novel. Anna's love of old movies, especially the thriller and film noir genres, is one of my favorite elements of the novel, which even shares its title with a classic film noir from the 1940s. Anna's movie watching habits are described in wonderful detail: "This time I'm coiled on the sofa, watching Rififi--the extended heist sequence, half an hour without a syllable of dialogue or a note of music, just diegetic sound and the hum of blood in your ears." Be still my cinephile heart.
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