The stalker

Robert Doughty Savile ("Doughty") is a legend in his mind but an astounding mess in real life, as chronicled in this unsettling novel from Bomer (Tante Eva, 2021). Born into a family with a once-respected name in Connecticut, Doughty fancies himself an undiscovered genius who will one day dominate the world; in actuality, he is a misogynistic grifter whose only talent appears to be gaslighting women into opening their homes to him. As Doughty bounces amongst his three victims, his drug use also ramps up, making his delusions even grander. The deeper his addictions, the more disturbing his behavior. While Doughty is far from likable, he makes for a compelling character study. Bomer has created an antagonist who is a unique blend of an even more troubled Holden Caulfield mixed with a less appealing Patrick Bateman. Readers' desire for Doughty to receive karmic retribution will propel them forward through the thriller's disconcerting content.

Bomer (Tante Eva) tracks the increasingly threatening behavior of a sociopath in her excellent and shocking latest. As a boy growing up in 1980s Darien, Conn., Robert "Doughty" Doughten Savile obsesses over The Karate Kid and George Carlin, berates his alcoholic mother, and commits such troubling acts as ashing his cigarette on his drunk friend's tongue. In the early '90s, he drops out of college and moves to New York City, convinced his class and economic privilege will make his life easy and pleasurable: "Knowing his place in the world meant knowing his due, meant knowing who he was." There, his drug use ramps up as he lies about working in real estate and sponges off of women, including the middle-aged book editor he's sleeping with and the young woman from back home he's trying to get with again. As Doughty insinuates his way into the lives and homes of both women, the novel enters into genuinely disturbing territory. Bomer is equally adept at rendering Doughty's warped psychology (he has an erotic fixation on condensation and enjoys rereading an encyclopedia entry on the word) as she is with injecting dark humor into the proceedings, such as when Doughty urinates "mostly to admire his dick." This is dark and twisted fun. (May)