A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.
With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarified world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to the end of the holidays moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.
Comment: One more impulsive pick at the library. I thought, since it's a small book, why not try this author, perhaps it could be a good surprise...
Alex is a young woman, only 22, and she seems to be a laid back and calm person. She is also staying with her older boyfriend Simon at his summer house and things seem go smooth until Alex does something she shouldn't at a party they attend. Then, her boyfriend decides it would be better if Alex goes back to the city and gives her train tickets but the problem is that Alex has no other money and no house, for she left everything behind to stay with Simon for as long as possible... only she didn't think it would not last longer. Alex isn't certain on what to do but the tells herself she only needs to stay around for a few days, somehow making time, because Simon will host a party later in the week and probably all will be forgotten by then...
Years ago, this author's debut The Girls had many good critics and was liked by many readers. I confess I have never felt the appeal because of the theme but I was aware of the praise and that is the main reason why I brought this The Guest with me. It also helped it's not a big book and I figured I could have an idea of the author's style.
The plot is quite simple, Alex is with an older man for money and security and we don't have much of an explanation of why she chose this life or why she ended up in the situation. We have glimpses of what might have been because she keeps mentioning other women who gave her tips, and a few other details, but her back story is not shared. We only know she has been through rough situations and that her recent past includes being unable to pay rent and find something stable.
I will say that this is not the type of story I'm much interested in but I went along hoping to see if Alex would change her ways, if she would "wake up" to life and make changes, make plans that would include better options. However, Alex quickly has yet another turn of luck and Simon no longer wants her around and she is now adrift, without an obvious path. She decides to stick around and make time moving from place to place under the disguise of knowing this or that person, but of course that is all a lie. I still wished she could understand this is no life, but...
Well, I can see why some people liked this, the whole "will she make it or not" while waiting to see if Simon takes her back after a silly mistake does induce tension and stress. Part of me really wanted her to find an answer, to get help, but it's a morally complicated issue.. she should make other choices. Therefore, I easily got annoyed at Alex. I can understand the idea of this novel and the notion that we are all kind of expandable, especially people who don't have a support system for some reason, or people we label a certain way or whatever other intention the author might have had. But Alex doesn't actively take steps to change.
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