Unreliable narrator in the window

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn is the latest entry in the trend of thrillers told by an unreliable narrator--in other words, someone we may not be able to trust to tell us exactly what's going on. Sometimes, as in the case of The Great Gatsby, that unreliability may be subtle; for me, it seems clear that Nick is so dazzled by Gatsby that the real story falls between the cracks in his narration, but not all readers feel that way. But Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a solid example: the narrator thinks that the heart of the man he has murdered is still beating, but we can tell that he's gone a bit mad and only he hears the sound, triggered by his guilt.

When this is employed in popular commercial fiction, I think of it as a gimmick because it's more about keeping information from readers rather than being used, as in Gatsby, as a sign of some psychological trait. The current trend has included best-sellers like Gone Girl (with two unreliable narrators) and The Girl on the Train. In the first example, it's definitely a gimmick, with both narrators hiding things they already know just to keep us in suspense for a while. I enjoyed the book, and liked the little "gotchas" that came from the narrative style, but I felt manipulated by the author. In Girl on the Train, the unreliability stems from character: the narrator is an alcoholic who is prone to blacking out, thus the things she doesn't share with us are things that she doesn't remember. This feels more organic and less gimmicky.

Finn's book combines both approaches to the narrative style. Anna, an agoraphobic woman, sees the murder of a neighbor through her window, but can't get anyone to believe her, especially when it appears that she may actually may be delusional and dangerous to herself and others. In addition to feeling like The Girl on the Train, the novel also mashes up elements of Rear Window, Gaslight, Vertigo and other thrillers told by unreliable narrators. I love the many classic movie references--the narrator fills her days by mixing booze and prescription pills, and watching lots of Hitchcock and film noirs. As in Girl on the Train, Anna's unreliability is due to her drinking and her unsettled mental state--she suspects that she's having blackouts. But sometimes, as was the case with Gone Girl, the author has the narrator keep information from us just to dole it out slowly to keep us off guard. We know that some traumatic event involving her, her husband and her daughter, triggered her agoraphobia, but for a couple of reasons, we're kept in the dark for at least half the book's length as to what that event was. When the circumstances are revealed (no spoilers here), we don't feel totally cheated because the effect comes off quite nicely, but it still feels artificial. I liked the supporting cast, and speaking of cast, this will surely be made into a movie some day. The writing is solid without being especially interesting. It's a fast and easy read, and will surely appeal to the Gone/Train fans.