Girl, Revisited

One of the greatest disappointments of my reading life involves Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Back in 2013, curious about this hot new title that I hadn’t yet started, I perused the Amazon reviews, unconcerned about spoiler warnings. Because of my impetuosity, I will never experience the pleasure of reading this seminal work without knowing beforehand its shocking, game-changing twist. Mistake made, lesson learned.

If you haven’t read this book (or seen the 2014 movie version), you have probably seen it referenced. It is one of those literary phenoms that launches a plethora of imitators. Many fall short of the bar. So what does this book have that so many others do not? I recently re-read it in an attempt to understand. Here is what I uncovered.

1. The story is a finger-on-the pulse social satire. Long before Trump talked about American carnage, there was Gillian Flynn illustrating it. Nick and Amy’s idyllic life is shattered by the same forces that gave rise to MAGA and the Bernie Bros. Carthage, MO, a small Midwestern town where Nick and Amy are forced to move, has been ruined by online retailers and tech forces. A group of homeless called the Blue Book Men (named for the local shuttered factory which used to produce exam booklets) wander the streets and camp out at the deserted former mall. When Amy goes missing, opioid abuse is an early police theory. Considering this was published in 2012, her insight is impressive.

2. The famous twist is hidden in plain sight. As the novel opens, Amy and Nick are celebrating their five-year wedding anniversary. We learn that every year on this day, Amy creates a list of clues that Nick must solve to eventually reach his gift. While clever in its own right (the first clue leads to a pair of Amy’s panties in Nick’s office; we later learn he is cheating on Amy with his student) it also sets up the inevitability that Amy is playing a game with Nick.

3. It’s a suspense story, but it’s not just a suspense story. In addition to meeting the requirements of the genre, the book is also an insightful look at male-female relationships. If you took the genre aspects out, you would be reading decent literary fiction.

4. Gillian Flynn is a good stylist. Even without her considerable strengths at plotting, she has some good turns of phrase. Look at all she does with this early introduction to her main character: Carmen, a newish friend – semi-friend, barely friend, the kind of friend you can’t cancel on – has talked me into going out to Brooklyn, to one of her writers’ parties. Now, I like a writer party, I like writers, I am the child of writers, I am a writer.

5. Finally , the brilliant opening line – when I think of my wife, I always think of her head – sets the whole thing up.