Christal Cooper
Right, media photo of Paula Hawkins on the London train. Attributed to Kate Neil.
The Illustrated Analysis of
THE GIRL
ON THE TRAIN
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is published by Riverhead
Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in hardcover on January 12, 2015 and
in softback on July 12, 2016.
It is the first novel written by Paula Hawkins
who worked as a journalist for fifteen years before she turned to writing
fiction.
Media photo of Paula Hawkins. Attributed to Kate Neil
Mixed Media Painting by Christal Rice Cooper
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is a psychological
thriller and a murder mystery, but on a much deeper level it is about three
women – Rachel Watson, Megan Hipwell, and Anna Watson - connected by trauma,
pain, a London suburban neighborhood, two men, and a train.
RACHEL
Rachel is still coming to grips with her divorce
and her husband’s remarriage to his mistress, Anna, and the existence of their
baby girl, Evie. Rachel and Tom had
tried to have children during their five-year marriage, but Rachel was not able
to get pregnant, which led her to drinking.
She is also having trouble of letting go and
exhibiting obsessive behavior – she
can’t stop calling Tom, texting Tom, emailing Tom, and finally she can’t stop
going to their house, the same house she and Tom once shared – number twenty-three
Blenheim Road.
As a result she is unemployed, renting a room
from a friend, and drinking to extreme excess.
There is one thing she finds solace from that doesn’t produce a
hangover, vomiting, or blackouts – it is the London train.
She loves to listen to its music as the wheels
caress the tracks; she loves to feel its vibrations as she rides in its
carriage, almost as if it’s a mother and she is the baby protected and loved in
the womb. Finally, she never feels
stuck, like she is always going somewhere, taking one step ahead.
She rides the train Monday through Friday every
morning at 8:04 and every evening at 5:56 p.m.
It is when the train makes its scheduled red traffic stop that she finds
her greatest escape – at trackside house number fifteen Blenheim Road.
It is here that the perfect couple lives – Scott
and Megan Hipwell. Every day and every
evening she sees this couple, loving, perfect, beautiful, full of laughter and
joy.
More importantly she can’t help but notice Megan
and imagine her own reality of who Megan is and how perfect she is. This Megan is her escape, her interpretation
for what success is, what happiness is, everything she is not.
But then she sees something that literally
earthquakes her world and the depressed, tired drunk woman is full of energized
rage. Now her only escape and joy that she could
find in her black and gray world has been shattered. And this shattering sends her into a tailspin
of sobbing rage – rage enough to want to kill.
Then she wakes up to find blood on her face and
on her hands. And she can’t remember
anything.
MEGAN
Megan is blond, beautiful, talented,
loves to paint but has secrets as well as unresolved pain over two deaths that
happened in her life; pain of being a victim of statuary rape over a period of
years; and, as a result, to find relief from that pain, Megan seeks sexual liaisons
with other men. This sexual addiction
lasts for years and in the end, plays a role in her losing her art studio.
Even though she is sure of her husband’s love
for her, she can only imagine what he would do if he were to find out her
secrets. Or should she say sins.
She tries to fiend fulfillment not in these
affairs but in being a nanny for a couple’s baby that lives a few houses down
from hers. But even this doesn’t suffice
and she quits.
Finally she decides to see a psychiatrist – Dr.
Kamal Abdick, and is determined that she will get over this. But then she can’t help but notice that Dr.
Kamal Abdick is a very handsome man . .
ANNA
Tom chose her over his ex-wife and she
feels lucky, especially since she and Tom now have their own little baby girl
Evie. There are just two problems.
Anna never wanted to live in the house that he
shared with his ex-wife Rachel. She begs
Tom for them to move to a different location, but he insists they cannot move
due to financial reasons.
Rachel will not leave her, Tom and even their
daughter Evie alone. She is constantly
calling, sending text messages and the final straw is when she takes baby Evie
from their home into the family’s garden.
Anna is now full of panic, paranoia, and she can’t sleep nor focus.
Anna wants to call the police but Tom tells her
he will take care of it; that he doesn’t want to get Rachel in trouble. Anna knows that Tom feels some guilt for
Rachel and the trouble she is in now; after all, Tom left Rachel to be with
her.
But no
matter what Tom does Rachel still some how manages to do something else– and
this time Anne is even more panicked when she realizes that Rachel has been
spending time with Scott, Megan’s husband – and she’s been spending time with
Scott since Megan has disappeared.
Anna is scared for herself and her family, but
Anne also knows she should be scared of something else. She just doesn’t know who or what that
something else is.
BETWEEN THREE WOMEN
These three women share a bond so strong
– the bond of pain, escaping from that pain, which is the condition of the
world today. We all respond differently
to traumas - rather it be alcohol, food,
caffeine, sex, - the book delves into the mystery of a vanishing woman, who
ends up being murdered, but more importantly the books explores the mystery of
how we as women and men handle our grief, pain, and trauma.
It
also explores the question of at what risk should we as humans continue to
escape from our pain? These women escape
through sexual addiction, construed reality, alcohol addiction, obsessive
behavior, grandiose thoughts, and self-denial.
It seems to work – but only for a moment.
The Girl On The Train is all of us –
trying to find some distraction from our boring, painful or just unsatisfactory
lives. We may not be on a train waiting
for it to stop at the red light so we can view the beautiful couple on number fifteen
Blenheim Road – but we are that person who sits at their sofa every night
immersed in television or in bed at night immersed in a book.
