Paula Bomer is the author of the new novel
The Stalker, which received a starred
Publishers Weekly review, calling it “dark and twisted fun.” She is also the author of
Tante Eva and
Nine Months, the story collections
Inside Madeleine 
and
Baby and other Stories, and the essay collection,
Mystery and Mortality. Her work has appeared in
Bomb Magazine,
The Mississippi Review,
Fiction Magazine,
Los Angeles Review of Books,
Green Mountain Review,
The Cut,
Volume 1 Brooklyn, and elsewhere. Her novels have been translated in Germany, Argentina and Hungary. She grew up in South Bend, Indiana and has lived for over 30 years in Brooklyn.
[
Writers Read: Paula Bomer (October 2012);
The Page 69 Test: The Stalker]
At Electric Lit Bomer tagged seven "novels that inspired
The Stalker and some new titles that are narrated from the point of view of a psychopath." One title on the list:
Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith
I worship Patricia Highsmith’s novels and short stories, her diaries and notebooks. I saw Loving Highsmith, a series of interviews with 
her lovers, at Film Forum. I can’t get enough of her. Ripley’s Game, focuses on Tom Ripley at a time in his life when he should be content. He is wealthy, married to a woman he adores, and yet when he overhears someone referring to him as having “no taste”, calling him a “philistine” at a party, it sets off his uncanny ability to create a massive storm of terror. The demonization of homosexuality formed Highsmith and informs the character of Ripley. But class is no less salient an issue in the novels by the young woman from Texas who came to New York and garnered great success worldwide. Does a person ever get respect from those in power, if they are not born from it? Will Ripley’s violence ever lead to satisfaction or peace? There are no clear answers, but I love the excruciating pain of reading her novels.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
and Baby and other Stories, and the essay collection, Mystery and Mortality. Her work has appeared in Bomb Magazine, The Mississippi Review, Fiction Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Green Mountain Review, The Cut, Volume 1 Brooklyn, and elsewhere. Her novels have been translated in Germany, Argentina and Hungary. She grew up in South Bend, Indiana and has lived for over 30 years in Brooklyn.
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