Help me identify where this scene is from! Novel, most likely.

August 14, 2009 9:53 PM

ID-the-scene-source: Someone watches a neighboring woman through a window as the neighbor carefully prepares for her lover to come visit. The lover comes in, gets it done with, leaves, and she cries.

Please help me remember where I saw/read this, AskMeFi! Fairly sure it's a scene from a novel:

The narrator (a young boy, possibly) watches a neighboring woman from a window. The woman prepares carefully for her lover to come visit. She lights candles, gets dressed up, puts on makeup, etc. He comes in, has sex with her quickly (narrator describes him as being sweaty, oaf-ish, not good enough for her), then leaves, and she sits and cries, sobbing into her hands while seated on the sofa. Narrator describes this scene/the affair happening more than once, I think.

posted by NikitaNikita to media & arts (4 comments total)

It sounds a little like the Decalogue, film VI. But it's a movie rather than a novel, and it doesn't quite match up in the details you mention.
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:04 PM on August 14

It's Augusten Burrough's "Possible Side Effects " - the story "Peep". He also talks about peeping on Uma Thurman's apartment.
posted by kerning at 10:24 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Tsk, that's it. Thanks.
posted by NikitaNikita at 10:37 PM on August 14

There's a Will Eisner story that's pretty much as described here - I guess it's a common theme.
posted by Artw at 11:52 AM on August 15