In fact, when I began reading this book, I often confused the names of her dogs with the names of her children, and could just barely begin to differentiate between them based on the context.

For instance, although Susan has three children they seem wholly unimportant to her life. The characters are also decently developed, but Tony, Susan, and Edward all come across starkly clinical, and identically so, which I found strange. As I read on, however, I really began to enjoy the style and in moments when the plot might otherwise have dragged on, the puzzle-like prose allowed the story to progress more swiftly. The fluidity of thoughts into dialogue, fragments into sentences, imaginings into reality was a bit too confusing as I was starting out, just trying to familiarize myself with the characters and the settings. The style of prose can be a bit confounding in the beginning, as it was for me. As a reader, you follow Tony’s story through Susan, who gives voice to many of the same emotions and questions you are likely to ask yourself as you read along. Susan’s own story acts as a frame narrative for Nocturnal Animals. Centered around a middle-aged college professor named Tony Hastings, Nocturnal Animals begins with a terrifying chain of events that irrevocably changes Tony’s life and leads him down a path to face his demons. She is surprised by the request, but as she starts to read the Edward’s story, entitled Nocturnal Animals, she quickly becomes engrossed in it. Living in the suburbs of Chicago with her second husband, Arnold, and three children, Susan hasn’t had contact with her first husband Edward in 25 years, prior to receiving his manuscript.

Susan is a woman in her late 40s who teaches English at a local college. The story opens on Susan Morrow, the story’s protagonist, as she receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband Edward Sheffield, accompanied by a note asking her opinion. As I retain an irrational sense that I must always read the book before seeing the movie, I set myself the task of accomplishing just this, which is how I found myself recently engulfed in the harrowing narrative of Tony and Susan. Thoroughly intrigued by the preview, I soon discovered that Tom Ford’s most recent foray into cinema was inspired by the aforementioned novel.

I had never heard of Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony and Susan until I saw the trailer for the Tom Ford film, Nocturnal Animals.

Tony & susan