The Stalker

(Hardback)

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Description

An Untalented Mr. Ripley, a Dumb American Psycho- A young man combines boundless self-confidence with perpetual failure and ineptitude as he tries to manipulate his way into a better life, preying on women in New York City in the early '90s. An Untalented Mr. Ripley, a Dumb American Psycho- A young man combines boundless self-confidence with perpetual failure and ineptitude as he tries to manipulate his way into a better life, preying on women in New York City in the early '90s. Robert Doughten Savile, aka "Doughty," is the son of a once-wealthy, now hard-up family from Darien, Connecticut. Doughty lives in a perpetual cloud of delusion, convinced of his own genius and certain that the wealth and high status that he believes to be his birthright are just around the corner. While he has little capacity to accurately assess his own abilities or prospects, he cruises through life on the sheer force of his own sense of entitlement, dropping out of college and landing in the early '90s in New York City, a place brimming with both prosperity and desperation. He cons his way from a bed at the YMCA into the posh Soho loft of a middle-aged book editor, while pursuing a young bartender, whom he also abuses and gaslights. He spins elaborate tales about his imaginary high-power job in real estate while, in reality, he passes his days watching George Carlin specials on VHS, smoking crack in Tompkins Square Park, and engaging in occasional sex work in the restrooms of Grand Central Station. His many failures, however, only serve to sharpen his one true gift- Doughty is a skilled predator, and the damage he inflicts on the women around him is real and remorseless. Fans of true crime podcasts about con men like Dirty John and Who the Hell Is Hamish will revel in this novel and its portrait of the sociopath as a young loser. As shocking as it is illuminating, The Stalker confirms Paula Bomer as a contemporary master of the pitch-black comic novel.

Reviews

Praise for The Stalker

Rarely does a book come along that rearranges perception and sings with psychological acuity. The Stalker is an impeccable character study of the least self-aware man on earth. How often do we get to see a monster from his own vantage With Paula Bomer in charge, a stylist of the highest order, I wanted to follow him anywhere. This novel is heart-pounding, endlessly entertaining, and in complete touch with humanity. Risky and brilliant, dark as hell and bitingly comic as only the masters can pull off. Wholly satisfying to the final glorious moment.
Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman and Godshot

The Stalker is the kind of thrilling, demented literary fiction that will keep you reading late into the night and when you get to the end youll want to start it all over again. Masterful.
Bud Smith, author of Teenager


Praise for Paula Bomer

Bomer offers her characters no outsonly the creeping sense that theyre doomed to swing forever between futile attempts at self-determination.
The New York Times Book Review

Phenomenal.
The Atlantic

Dark, sharp, and hilarious.
New York Magazine

Haunting, defiant.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bomers book will be talked about because she writes with such honesty about sex, but it is in matters of the soul she is most honest. These are women laid bare. Bomer dares us to look.
The Rumpus

I inhaled this novel. Astute. Empathetic. Unsparing. Brilliant. Bomer pushes the emotional envelopeand then shoves harder.
Thelma Adams, author of Bittersweet Brooklyn

Author Bio

Paula Bomer is the author of the novels Tante Eva and Nine Months and the story collections Inside Madeleine and Baby and Other Stories, as well as the essay collection Mystery and Mortality. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including New York Magazine, LA Review of Books, BOMB, Fiction, and The Mississippi Review