Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

"I'd know her head anywhere.
And what's inside it. I think of that, too: her mind. Her brain, all those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast, frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?" (1)

It is the morning of the fifth wedding anniversary of Nick Dunne and his wife Amy Eliott Dunne. Nick has just gone to the bar he owns with his twin sister Go when he receives a phone call from one of his neighbours. After hearing that the front door of his house has been left open, Nick goes back home to check up on Amy. On going inside he finds evidence of a struggle and discovers that his wife has disappeared.

This is how Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl, released to much critical and popular acclaim in 2012, begins. Gone Girl has an interesting narrative structure as the story is told from both Nick's point of view as well as that of his missing wife Amy through her diary entries. Nick's story begins on the day of Amy's disappearance while Amy's starts 7 years earlier when the met Nick at a party in New York. This aspect of the novel is very important as it allows us to examine the story through two very different points of view. Utilizing this Flynn is able to create a fascinating deconstruction of the couple's marriage.

The novel gradually reveals more details about the two protagonists. Amy is the only child of two child psychologist turned authors who used her as the inspiration for their popular book series Amazing Amy. She has had a privileged upbringing, having gone to a private school and afterwards to a top university, Harvard. Despite her beautity and brains, however, Amy is unable to find love until Nick chats her up at a party in New York and this is how their romance begins.

Nick was born in a small town in North Carthage, Missouri. He works as a journalist, he's smart, handsome, charming and he manages to sweep Amy off her feet. However, while their life before their wedding is filled with bliss, their relationship starts to become complicated once they get married. We get to see this through both Nick's and Amy's eyes and it is important to note that they are both unrealiable narrators so the novel offers a lot of scope for interpretation of events.

During the financial crisis both Nick and Amy lose their jobs. An increasingly embittered Nick finds out from his twin sister Go that his mother is suffering from cancer. He makes the decision to go back to North Carthage with Amy without consulting her, which complicates relations between the two even further.

The fact that the action takes place in a small town in the US mid-west makes the novel even more complex as it also examines the impact that the financial crisis has had on the town's community. Amy's diary entries also comment on the differences between the way people interact in North Carthage and the huge metropolis of New York.

The novel takes us on a rollercoaster ride as Nick, who is at first unusually calm about the disappeance of his wife, starts to realise that there is something very disturbing about the whole affair. Gradually we get to learn about the breakdown of Nick and Amy's marriage, Nick's troubled Alzheimer-addled father, his cancer-ridden mother Mo, his twin sister Go and his parents-in-law Rand and Marybeth. Flynn's story thrives on this exploration of the different features of these people and she manages to weave a spellbinding tale in which these characters truly come alive. I have rarely read a story in which I have found the whole cast of characters so utterly convincing.

Another great feature of the book is the way it examines how modern media mass has transformed our lives. Once suspicion arises that Nick might have killed his wife, the story spins out of control as the investigation is discussed not only by the local populace but also on television talk shows. Gone Girl also demonstrates how the Internet, which has often been praised for its democratizing aspect, is destroying traditional media and the livelihood of journalists such as Nick.

The novel features several major plot surprises and it keeps the reader on his or her toes as following the timeline requires a lot of attention. The book is multi-layered, it features a cast of many interesting, well-written characters and it offers many insights into marriage, family relationships, the media, police procedures and various other things. I found it incredibly exhilarating to read although I must admit that despite the fact that I enjoyed the ending, I did find it rather difficult to believe. However, I think that each reader has to decide whether they think the novel has a satisfying conclusion and I strongly recommend that you read this book. I now leave you with a particularly interesting quote from the ending of the book.

"I was told love should be unconditional. That's the rule, everyone says so. But if love has no boundaries, no limits, no conditions, why should anyone try to do the right thing ever? If I know I am loved no matter what, where is the challenge? I am supposed to love Nick despite all his shotcomings. And Nick is supposed to love me despite my quirks. But neither of us does. It makes me think that everyone is very wrong, that love should have many conditions. Love should require both partners to be their very best at all times. Unconditional love is an undisciplined love, and as we all have seen, undisciplined love is disastrous." (2)

References
(1) Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, London: Phoenix, 2013, p. 3
(2) Flynn, Gone Girl, p. 462