What I've Read: Gone Girl
I realize I'm probably the last person on the planet to read Gone Girl and to do so without having the ending ruined for me since the movie came out this year. I bought the book at the end of summer, hoping to read it before the film released, but since I didn't get to it by the time school started again, it sat on my nightstand all semester. I finally took advantage of winter break and got some just-for-fun reading in, including Gone Girl. Here are my thoughts (way after everyone else has already given theirs).
1. I was impressed that the ending surprised me even when I thought it had been given away by general chatter in pop culture in all the talk surrounding the movie. Way to avoid spoilers, world!
2. I read it in a single sitting, which I highly recommend if you choose to read this book.
3. Yes, it's a thriller, and yes, it's a surprise ending and all that -- but what I was more impressed with was the novel's commentary on marriage in general. Gone Girl may show an extreme version of a certain kind of marriage, but strip away the gory details, and Gone Girl has a lot to say about the state of a healthy or unhealthy relationship, about whether and how much we can truly know one another, and about the complicated reasons people get and stay married. The applications of the film to "real life" were more mind-blowing for me than the extreme circumstances of the novel because I can see examples all around me, and that's kind of scary.
4. Gillian Flynn's writing is fantastic. Of course her writing has everything a good thriller needs to make you keep turning the pages, but it also has interesting and playful use of language and mastery of multiple narrative voices. It was a lot of fun to read.
5. Now, I'm curious about the movie, reports of Ben Affleck's more revealing performance notwithstanding.
What are you reading this winter?
1. I was impressed that the ending surprised me even when I thought it had been given away by general chatter in pop culture in all the talk surrounding the movie. Way to avoid spoilers, world!
2. I read it in a single sitting, which I highly recommend if you choose to read this book.
3. Yes, it's a thriller, and yes, it's a surprise ending and all that -- but what I was more impressed with was the novel's commentary on marriage in general. Gone Girl may show an extreme version of a certain kind of marriage, but strip away the gory details, and Gone Girl has a lot to say about the state of a healthy or unhealthy relationship, about whether and how much we can truly know one another, and about the complicated reasons people get and stay married. The applications of the film to "real life" were more mind-blowing for me than the extreme circumstances of the novel because I can see examples all around me, and that's kind of scary.
4. Gillian Flynn's writing is fantastic. Of course her writing has everything a good thriller needs to make you keep turning the pages, but it also has interesting and playful use of language and mastery of multiple narrative voices. It was a lot of fun to read.
5. Now, I'm curious about the movie, reports of Ben Affleck's more revealing performance notwithstanding.
What are you reading this winter?
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