DERAILED

FICTION:  DERAILED – James Siegel/Warner Books – 2003

I have to say that DERAILED was worth the 48 cents I paid for it.  I got really sucked in by the easy-to-relate to tale of an advertising executive commuting on the Long Island Rail Road and hooking up with a beautiful woman, eventually winding up in bed in a cheap hotel.  As a New Yorker, I could relish the depiction of some local landmarks, making it even more believable (except for his identifying a street in Forest Hills, Queens, as Continental Boulevard when it’s actually Continental Avenue.  That’s a glaring error for Queens residents as this is not only a major thoroughfare but an express stop on the subway.  Well, Perhaps Mr. Siegel never got off the railroad between Merrick and Penn Station.)

Although I was actually kept awake one night, sorting out what was going on and succeeding early in my reading, I kept going to prove myself correct.

This “New York Times Bestseller” got really silly really fast.  I think of BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES and DERAILED comes off badly in comparison, with its same ordinary and adulterous man caught in crisis.

I think Siegel did his “what if…,” starting with the conclusion and weaving in plot details to get there.  He’s thrown in a daughter with Juvenile Diabetes to bring urgency and a sense of betrayal and danger throughout the book.

I don’t want to be a spoiler, but Siegel’s protagonist finds himself up against embezzlement, murderers and fantastical occurences that seem contrived to get Charles Schine where Siegel wants him to be at the conclusion of the novel. 

I was unaware of this book and the film version, but can see that it could translate well to film of the action/adventure type.

Once it stopped being believable for me and I kept reading anyway, I felt as duped as the main character.