Girl on a Train Book Club Discussion

[billyhorrible]

I haven't finished the book yet, so I don't feel like I can give a full answer to most of these questions, so here are my thoughts.


From a lit crit point of view, Rachel is a fantastic unreliable narrator. Which drives the story forward. Without Rachel's alcohol abuse, there would be no story, no mystery. Typically, an unreliable narrator isn't an issue for me as a reader, but for some reason in this book it is. I dislike Rachel and find her very contrived and purposely unsympathetic, even when you find out about the reason for the breakdown.

Similarly, I find Megan very unsympathetic in an Anna Karenina kind of way.

I also don't like Anna.

Disliking all the characters in the book (the men are hugely underdeveloped props - at least where I am right now) makes it really difficult for me to get into the book.

[jessila]

I only read the 3 assigned chapters! I fought so hard not to read ahead. Guess I have my work cut out for me! Off to finish!!

[pghtruelove]

The first time it showed Megan having an affair I guessed it was with Tom. It was a fairly predictable book. It kept me reading though.

[Bluedaisy]

While I enjoyed the book I found it was a huge let down after all of the hype about it. I saw the book compared to Hitchcock and after reading it I think that was a poor comparison. I felt like the "twist" at the end was so predictable and the characters were completely unlikable.

1. How would you have reacted if you’d seen what Rachel did from her train window—a pile of clothes—just before the rumored disappearance of Megan Hipwell? What might you or she have done differently? I honestly wouldn't have been phased by this. There are often piles of rubbish on the side of roads or on railroad tracks. I might have over analyzed a bit after hearing about the disappearance but never to the extent she did.

2. One of Rachel’s deepest disappointments, it turns out, is that she can’t have children. Her ex-husband Tom’s second wife Anna is the mother to a young child, Evie. How does Rachel’s inability to conceive precipitate her breakdown? How does the topic of motherhood drive the plot of the story? I think Motherhood really starts the story because it is the key motivation for all three women in three very different ways.

3. To what degree did you make assumptions about Rachel early on based on the facts and appearances you were presented? How did those change over time and why? How did your assumptions about her affect your reading of the central mystery in the book? Did your assumptions about her change over its course? What other characters did you make assumptions about? How did your assumptions affect your interpretation of the plot? Having now finished The Girl on the Train, what surprised you the most?

I felt more sympathetic towards her as the book went on but nothing really surprised me. I did think that the therapist would become a bigger character.

[jessila]

I'm back. I finished last night. The book drew me in but like @jemomma, I found the ending somewhat predictable.

1. How would you have reacted if you’d seen what Rachel did from her train window—a pile of clothes—just before the rumored disappearance of Megan Hipwell? What might you or she have done differently?
I probably would have just looked at them and wondered how they got there. Nothing more than that. Seeing things alongside the road or train tracks isn't abnormal.

2. One of Rachel’s deepest disappointments, it turns out, is that she can’t have children. Her ex-husband Tom’s second wife Anna is the mother to a young child, Evie. How does Rachel’s inability to conceive precipitate her breakdown? How does the topic of motherhood drive the plot of the story?
It appears as though the beginning of her breakdown is from figuring out that she can't conceive. Tom doesn't appear to be supportive in any way of this and doesn't really show to be a great husband. If he were also longing for a child, I think that he would be more active in her grieving process because he would be upset, too.
Tom getting Anna pregnant while he was still married to Rachel would definitely drive an already unstable Rachel over the edge. The three girls have different positions on motherhood and very different stories of their own. Megan is terrified of being a mother because she's already 'failed' at it once. Anna appears to have kind of fallen into being a mother while Rachel desperately wants nothing else. While it's an overarching commonality between the three, I guess it drives the story forward but not until we learn about Libby and Megan's new pregnancy.

I'll have to answer question 3 later. I have to go be responsible and work.

[stinybean]

I finally finished! Okay on to the questions...
1. I would've freaked out if I saw that pile of clothes, but they were there before Megan went missing, I thought, so I wouldn't make that connection.
2. I think Rachel's inability to conceive is a giant cause of her breakdown. But now that I know about the lies Tom had told her, I feel like that contributed as well. Since he kept telling her she was doing these awful things, I think that threw her further into a depression and caused her to spiral. All of the women were influenced by the idea of motherhood. Whatever happened in their personal experience in motherhood brought about how they acted in the book. Rachel was in a depression because she couldn't have a child & was also jealous of Anna. Anna freaked out over everything because of Evie. And Megan couldn't commit to anything truly because she was still stuck in a teenage state from when her baby died.
3. I became more sympathetic for Rachel as the book went on. There were plenty of times that I thought she killed Megan, though.

I really didn't see the Tom thing coming until just before Rachel realized it. I did not like the character of Anna, I don't know if this is because of the way she was portrayed by the reader for the audio book or because of her storyline.