Teddy Wayne, you sure do know how to master creepy. Is Loner a gothic, this novel about a lonely Harvard boy from New Jersey who becomes obsessed with an immeasurably more sophisticated fellow student? Which descends into a tale of stalking with a surprise ending?
It’s not really a gothic. Although there is madness and he “..uses diction to build suspense and a sense of unease in the reader.” (Goodreads.com), it doesn’t stand up there with Dracula and Frankenstein. Let’s say it’s a modern gothic, although I don’t remember heavy use of the setting to build suspense. Two out of three ain’t bad.
I can’t say that I liked this book, though I had to finish it because I wanted to know how it ended. The strategic relationship between the main character and the stalkee’s roommate disgusted me, though it did illustrate the degree of his alienation.
Teddy Wayne writes “Daily Shouts” for The New Yorker. If you read those and his book, you’ll wonder how the same person wrote them.
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