Reviews

Flynn does a good job of keeping reader attention with her image grabbing, hard-edged cynical writing that opens with what should have been a tag for this novel, “Should I remove my soul before I come inside?”

Both Nick and Amy are void of any real connection to each other and they live in what many would call a ‘settled,’ relationship, neither willing to voluntarily leave their self-imposed, constructed prisons. This in itself is toxic, but now add to this mix volatile chemicals of two psychopaths and you would expect an explosion and instead what happens is a slow-simmering stew of competition. This has a reality TV feel to it where participants are always trying to outguess the other’s motivations and emerge as the top-dog winner. In this case,

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the story seems unfinished because there is no clear defeat, both engage in a sort of deranged truce, but the ending indicates that it is not done with one-upmanship.

I can see why this novel and subsequent movie have such appeal. It’s like a version of Celebrity’s Gone Bad, with a status like that of the OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson event. Brought down to the level of public, Gone Girl has appeal because of its commentary not only on the American headspace as a society but also on the state of marital relations as affected by this climate of dog eat dog, yet kept intact by the veneer of social nicety.

In a marriage where there are two Survivors left and both are psychopaths, you would think that only one would normally emerge unless of course they tuned and partnered together in their deviance. It does, however, have a creepy Hitchcockian ending with it open-endedness.

Not quite sure though that Flynn meant this as an exposé of American culture and conventions, yet that is really the aspect that appealed to me, that and the ending which really made me think. Even about the gullibility of the public to trade the most outlandish answers in place of truth

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as in when Amy’s perceived veracity as a victim is never questioned.

For me, Gone Girl boils down to a mediocre unrealistic thriller, and some good social commentary told with an incisive and vindictive tone. I'm sure though that the movie will kick ass. 3.25