7 thoughts on “April 2020 – The Woman In The Window”
417-page suspense thriller located in gentrified Harlem family home and in the head of housebound Dr Anna Fox who watches her neighbours through a Nikon camera lens. Mainly dialogue with little description, the readers’ knowledge of old films provide images as black & white murder mystery movies are scattered about the story to lead and mislead. Anna watches while guzzling wine and medication: over 50 films but not “The Woman in the Window” 1944 Fritz Lang movie in which Edward G Robinson as psychiatrist Prof Wanley murders a man, but in the end we find it’s all a dream.
So I ask myself did Anna imagine the murder of her neighbour Jane Russell; is it mistaken identity? Who is to be trusted: David, the lodger in the basement; Ethan, Jane’s teenage son; Alistair his father; and so on? The plot skips through various types of the genre: murderous passion triangle; acquired identity; psycho-traumatic; moral confrontation. Finn lovingly melds all these in an apparent homage to film noir.
Was the novel anything more than a mystery with well-crafted promises, tensions, postponements, periods of doubt, satisfying denouement?
The eerie synchronicity of reading this in lock-down (and with Killing Eve series 3 imminent) provokes thoughts of morality, grief, death. Police officer Norelli breaks the spell on page 327 solving one mystery hinted at sporadically from “we’d decided to separate” page 147 and running parallel to what we thought was the story.
Like Judy & Sandra I enjoyed film references. There was enough intrigue & confusion to keep me reading. I’m surprised to find I have sympathy for a character who’d killed three people. And at the end I was urging her along with Bina to step into the light. “What are you waiting for?” What are we waiting for?
Cannot imagine how this woman ever became, or worse, after her trauma, continued to be a psychologist. I found her depressing in the extreme, and as a bit of a claustrophobe myself, found the agoraphobia very oppressive. This, of course, means the author succeeded in setting the atmosphere and tone. Although she set out her stall as an unreliable narrator, Anna’s vindication regarding the violence across the road made sense, as there seemed to me that something was not right. Her assertion that the son was basically a good young man shows what a rubbish psychologist she was. I cannot say I enjoyed this book, but it had the merits of good narrative using the slow day by day self obsessed motion of her perceptions, and was for me, somewhat saved by the film references. Judy
Liked the writing, snappy, sharp, kept the story going
Overall a good read and not too demanding, old movie theme added interest
Plot contrived to deflect all blame from Anna the victim.
In reality she wasn’t a very nice person – cheating on her husband, manipulative, egocentric, in fact not the ideal child psychologist really, zero empathy, more interested in scoring a result.
Hate how American authors have to tie everything up at the end – too cosy
Is Anna a victim in this story Ross, whether or not we like her? Perhaps Anna can be considered to encompass many elements of a traditional suspense thriller: she is investigator; witness to a crime; perpetrator; as well as being under threat. In this way Finn explores boundaries in social and intimate relations.
Enjoyed the book.An extreme picture of post traumati stress disorder.guilt, alcoholism and pills. Lots of twists and turns.Some of them found difficult to
follow,as she changed the subject quickly from one situation to another.
Liked the film references ,many of which set the scene for her on going scenarios.
Could have done with being shorter but on the whole enjoyed it
Update: The April meeting has been cancelled
417-page suspense thriller located in gentrified Harlem family home and in the head of housebound Dr Anna Fox who watches her neighbours through a Nikon camera lens. Mainly dialogue with little description, the readers’ knowledge of old films provide images as black & white murder mystery movies are scattered about the story to lead and mislead. Anna watches while guzzling wine and medication: over 50 films but not “The Woman in the Window” 1944 Fritz Lang movie in which Edward G Robinson as psychiatrist Prof Wanley murders a man, but in the end we find it’s all a dream.
So I ask myself did Anna imagine the murder of her neighbour Jane Russell; is it mistaken identity? Who is to be trusted: David, the lodger in the basement; Ethan, Jane’s teenage son; Alistair his father; and so on? The plot skips through various types of the genre: murderous passion triangle; acquired identity; psycho-traumatic; moral confrontation. Finn lovingly melds all these in an apparent homage to film noir.
Was the novel anything more than a mystery with well-crafted promises, tensions, postponements, periods of doubt, satisfying denouement?
The eerie synchronicity of reading this in lock-down (and with Killing Eve series 3 imminent) provokes thoughts of morality, grief, death. Police officer Norelli breaks the spell on page 327 solving one mystery hinted at sporadically from “we’d decided to separate” page 147 and running parallel to what we thought was the story.
Like Judy & Sandra I enjoyed film references. There was enough intrigue & confusion to keep me reading. I’m surprised to find I have sympathy for a character who’d killed three people. And at the end I was urging her along with Bina to step into the light. “What are you waiting for?” What are we waiting for?
Cannot imagine how this woman ever became, or worse, after her trauma, continued to be a psychologist. I found her depressing in the extreme, and as a bit of a claustrophobe myself, found the agoraphobia very oppressive. This, of course, means the author succeeded in setting the atmosphere and tone. Although she set out her stall as an unreliable narrator, Anna’s vindication regarding the violence across the road made sense, as there seemed to me that something was not right. Her assertion that the son was basically a good young man shows what a rubbish psychologist she was. I cannot say I enjoyed this book, but it had the merits of good narrative using the slow day by day self obsessed motion of her perceptions, and was for me, somewhat saved by the film references. Judy
Don
Liked the writing, snappy, sharp, kept the story going
Overall a good read and not too demanding, old movie theme added interest
Plot contrived to deflect all blame from Anna the victim.
In reality she wasn’t a very nice person – cheating on her husband, manipulative, egocentric, in fact not the ideal child psychologist really, zero empathy, more interested in scoring a result.
Hate how American authors have to tie everything up at the end – too cosy
Is Anna a victim in this story Ross, whether or not we like her? Perhaps Anna can be considered to encompass many elements of a traditional suspense thriller: she is investigator; witness to a crime; perpetrator; as well as being under threat. In this way Finn explores boundaries in social and intimate relations.
Well, the author has peppered the story with film references- at least 50 films kindly listed by NYPL https://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/10/13/woman-window-watch
Enjoyed the book.An extreme picture of post traumati stress disorder.guilt, alcoholism and pills. Lots of twists and turns.Some of them found difficult to
follow,as she changed the subject quickly from one situation to another.
Liked the film references ,many of which set the scene for her on going scenarios.
Could have done with being shorter but on the whole enjoyed it