About The Book
The Professor lives in Brooklyn; her partner Nathan left her when she couldn’t have a baby. All she has now is her dead-end teaching job, her ramshackle apartment, and Nathan’s old moggy, Cat. Who she doesn’t even like.
The Actress lives a few doors down. She’s famous and beautiful, with auburn hair, perfect skin, a lovely smile. She’s got children – a baby, even. And a husband who seems to adore her. She leaves her windows open, even at night.
There’s no harm, the Professor thinks, in looking in through the illuminated glass at that shiny, happy family, fantasizing about them, drawing ever closer to the actress herself. Or is there?
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Looker was a novel that made me want to close all my curtains until I finished reading it. I don’t think I have ever felt as on edge before when reading.
The narrator and actress are unnamed throughout. At first this felt a little strange but it didn’t really matter. You just needed to know that the actress had everything the narrator wanted. Not possessions, a nice house and money as such, more a loving husband and children. Everything that could bring happiness to the very lonely narrator, who seems to get more isolated the more I read.
There were times I felt uncomfortable. The storyline regarding Cat, the students and the obsessive behaviour that became increasingly sinister and out of control. But, unusually I did have sympathy. Especially in the beginning when you read why her marriage collapsed.
It is only a short novel but I don’t think it would have had the same impact if it had been longer. It is intimidating, more so because I did struggle to separate reality from imagination towards the end. Was she really like she saw herself? And was the actress as happy as she imagined?
Read it and make up your own mind.
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