Part of the joy of blogging is the recommendations offered
by my fellow book bloggers. Today’s
book, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl is
the perfect example of how these recommendations cause overwhelming delight
while simultaneously ruining my life. I
picked up Gone Girl in a quaint
little bookstore in Halifax in an effort to kill some time while my hubby
finished up with his conference at Dalhousie.
Yup, I killed some time alright; this is a book you will not want to put
down!
The story centers on the marriage of Amy and Nick. Amazing Amy has the perfect life with wealthy
parents who create their perfect daughter, who lives what appears to be the
perfect life. She is the "cool girl". She meets her match in
Nick, sharing their love or writing, quirky inside jokes, one-liners, and silly
mannerisms. They have it all. It’s romantic, right? But when they both lose their jobs as writers
in New York City and move to Missouri to take care of Nick’s ailing parents,
things change. The last semblance of a
happy life ends when Amy disappears and Nick becomes the primary suspect.
Flynn switches between Nick’s point of view and Amy’s diary entries. The ease in which Flynn encompasses each
character makes this transition much easier to navigate, so don’t be thrown off
by this. Flynn also astutely massages
the nuances that happen in characters and marriages as both the character and
marriage mature over time. Her ability
to create some complex and compelling characters is reason enough to read this
book.
I’m not sure if Flynn was intending this novel to be a
commentary on marriage or not, but certainly the dynamic between Nick and Amy
generates ample discussion. What does it
mean to love? Do you change who you are for love?
Without giving away the
novel, I’ll leave you with this quote: “There’s a difference between really
loving someone and loving the idea of her”.
Please, just read the book.
As an added note: the movie does a pretty good job of
catching the essence of the book, so I’d recommend that too.
