SWF Seeks Same by John Lutz 2.2

When they made a movie based on John Lutzs SWF Seeks Same, they changed the title somewhat. Single White Female is the name of the now-famous 1992 film starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but in some ways, the original title serves the story better. The novel and film both are about sameness, about one person wanting to be the same as another, encroaching upon and, at times, actually usurping the others identity. When Allie Jones, searching for a new roommate, places the add "SWF seeks same" in the New York Times, she has no idea how apt, and how chilling, that line will come to seem.

The new roommate is Hedra, a diffident, somewhat homely woman whose deferential nature Allie imagines will be an appealing quality in a new roommate. Hedra, however, begins to wreak her havoc only after she has been invited inside. Her undisguised admiration for Allie soon begins to seem something more like idolatry, and Allie is distressed when she returns home unexpectedly one day to find Hedra trying on her clothes. But this is, of course, just the beginning. Inexplicable things begin to happen in Allies life, including a series of obscene phone calls and an odd run-in with a strange man on the street, and it doesnt take long for her to link these occurrences to the bizarre, obsessive Hedra.

Encroachment is one of this novels most dominant themes and Lutz does a splendid job of creating an atmosphere of claustrophobic paranoia. From coincidental encounters on the street and in restaurants to all manner of intrusive phone calls to Hedras almost constant presence in the apartment, Allies life seems boxed in, and New York City seems surprisingly small and menacing. She feels both anonymous and specifically targeted, a feeling brought about by Hedras actions but also reinforced throughout the book by the seemingly predatory nature of many of the people who cross Allies path. One of the best things Lutz does in this book is to keep the intentions of the male characters inscrutable; they appear to us as they appear to Allie, and the result is that even the friendly, boyish next-door neighbor arouses our suspicions, and contributes to the air of paranoia we cannot help but breathe with her.

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