This month while the snow was making venturing outside an unpleasant prospect I looked forward to nothing more than cooping up in bed with Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
This explosive thriller echoes flavours of Stephen King with
its authentic characterisation and brilliantly acute observations on modern
life and relationships.
Set in a small town in Missouri, Gone Girl is the story Amy and Nick Dunne, a couple who are
suffering marital problems. Both writers, the pair originally lived in New York,
but after losing their jobs during the recession cutbacks choose to relocate to
Nick’s hometown.
The novel opens on their fifth wedding anniversary, when
Nick receives a phone call from his neighbour to say that his front door is
wide open.
Nick returns to the house to find that there is evidence of
a struggle and that Amy is gone.
The novel is fractured into two accounts, Nick’s
bewilderment during the ongoing police investigation, and Amy’s diary, written
before her disappearance.
Little can be said of the plot without revealing crucial
details, but much can be said about Gillian Flynn’s talent as a writer. In Gone Girl she
demonstrates a sharp understanding of the human condition and the novel pierces
you at times with its frighteningly accurate portrayal of failing relationship. Listed amongst Flynn’s repertoire is also her extraordinary
power to manipulate the angles of language and distort the distinction between
trust and alibi. These two skills combined mean that in between chapters you
will find your alliance drastically switching from Nick to Amy, so get your
TEAM AMY or TEAM NICK t-shirts at the ready! Yet amongst this well-played out gender battle the book also
pauses with poetics passages contemplating the recycled clichés
and
derivatives of modern living.
Her third novel in a line of other interesting creations
with dynamic female characters (which I am now on the quest to devour), Gone Girl definitely possesses the power
the shock. You may find yourself wanting to throw the book in anger after
some excellently well-timed revelations by Flynn, but undoubtedly you will be
gripping it with white knuckles until the very end.
