The Stalker — Paula Bomer

A young man combines boundless self-confidence and profound stupidity as he attempts to con his way through New York City in the early '90s. You might call him an Untalented Mr. Ripley, a Dumb American Psycho -- but even as his lies and delusions become increasingly absurd, the damage he inflicts is real and remorseless.

Robert Doughten Savile, a.k.a. “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 New York City in the early '90s, a city brimming with both prosperity and desperation. He cons his way from a bed at the YMCA to a posh Soho loft, and enters abusive, gaslighting relationships with a pair of women, a bartender and a middle-aged book editor. He spins elaborate tales about his imaginary high-power job in real estate while, in reality, he passes his days watching VHS tapes of George Carlin specials, smoking crack in Tompkins Square Park, and engaging in occasional sex work in the restrooms of Grand Central Station.

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. The Stalker is horrifying and illuminating, shocking yet hilarious, a novel confirming Paula Bomer as a contemporary master of the pitch-black comic novel.