An offbeat and hilarious story of voyeurism, obsession, and relationships-both real and imaginary-from the bestselling author of High Maintenance and Going Down.

Since she was thirteen, one of the few things New York novelist Rebekah Kettle has been able to count on is the thrill of seeing a new movie by world-renowned filmmaker Arthur Weeman every fall. Now thirty-0three, the humor and poignancy of Weeman's singular movies have inextricably merged with her own memories-to the point that she has begun writing him letters under the guise of her thirteen-year-old self-and her teenage admiration has become fullblown obsession. So when Rebekah steps back and takes stock of her own life, she isn't happy with what she finds: She's unlucky in love, hopelessly stalled in her work, and unable to get over the past.

It's time for Rebekah to take action. She starts a relationship with Isaac Myman, a quirky paparazzo with whom she's suspiciously compatible. And she befriends Mrs. Williams, an eccentric older woman who needs her companionship. It seems things are looking up. But, just as unexpectedly, Rebekah discovers that Mrs. Williams's apartment has the most coveted view on the Upper East Side-straight into Arthur Weeman's town house-where she can watch the object of her obsession's life displayed like a silent movie. Weeman has always been a fixture on the rumor mill, but Rebekah has been his staunchest defender-until she sees the evidence for herself, and has to ask herself some questions. Does she give her new love a chance at the scoop of a lifetime-a photo of the compromised Weeman-or does she remain loyal to the man whose films have defined her life?

Riotously funny and astonishingly moving, Little Stalker is a bold, daring, twisted, and lovable novel that could have come only from a literary voice as sharp and original as Jennifer Belle.
 

Reviews:

From Publishers Weekly
At age 33, in search of a man, a second novel and a life, Manhattan writer Rebekah Kettle occupies the singleton's circle of hell. Having defaulted on her book contract, she's reduced to working as a physician's assistant for her eccentric dad, her only meaningful relationship with a senile old woman with whom she wallows in Little House on the Prairie reruns. And she's plagued by a bitchy, big-breasted gossip columnist who wants her to blurb her book. One bright spot: her brain tumor isn't fatal. The unlikely catalyst for Rebekah's recovery is her obsession with Woody Allenesque director Arthur Weeman. She begins dating a simpatico young Weeman look-alike and rekindles her creative spark by writing the filmmaker flirty letters in the voice of a 12-year-old girl. When she spies Weeman in a compromising position, she reexamines her own romantic history with much older men, beginning with her middle-school defloration and subsequent abortion. Belle (High Maintenance; Going Down) sometimes loses the story amid a swirl of wisecracking, madcap moments, and the tone she uses on her more intense psychosexual material doesn't always work. Still, she's in fine form, and her sensibility sparkles with offbeat humor.
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From Booklist
At the opening of Belle's third novel (after High Maintenance, 2001), thirty-something Manhattan novelist Rebekah Kettle is on the verge of yet another relationship breakup. She bemoans her fate but soldiers on, reveling in the release of a new film by her idol, Arthur Weeman. (She is several steps beyond fanatic; her apartment is littered with props from the director's movies, including a gondola and a couch.) Meanwhile, Rebekah's physician father enlists her assistance at his office, where she befriends Mrs. Williams, an elderly woman who is fully ambulatory but rides around in a wheelchair nonetheless. (The eccentric senior refuses to walk or talk on the streets of New York.) Rebekah soon falls for an offbeat paparazzo and discovers a family secret (thanks to a tip-off from her psychic kinesthesiologist). Belle has moments of comic inspiration (Rebekah's conversations with her father often resemble the Abbott and Costello routine, "Who's on First?"), but they aren't enough to sustain this predictable addition to a chick-lit field already well populated with comely heroines and clever quips. Still, for those addicted to the genre, it will provide the necessary fix. Allison Block
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