Every now and then, you come across a novel that utterly defies expectations. GONE GIRL is so thrilling, so crazily compelling, I read it in a single day. I never do this. In general, I’m a big proponent of the slow burn, novels that call to you day after day, books you don’t read all in one sitting, books that might stretch over a week or two, maybe even a month.
I always read essay collections in this manner (I’ve been reading William Gibson’s excellent Distrust That Particular Flavor for about a month and a half now), and I frequently read novels that way.
Not so with Gone Girl. I kind of resisted the book, because any novel that gets that much attention can’t possibly live up to the hype, right? Wrong.
Gone Girl begins with the disappearance of Amy Dunne from the home she shares with her husband in North Carthage, Missouri, on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary. The Mississippi River is practically in their back yard, and police soon discover that someone has been googling things like “body float Mississippi” on their home computer. There is the matter of messed-up finances, not to mention an extra-marital affair, years of matrimony disappointment on both sides. Nick seems really, really guilty. Amy’s diary entries over the last several years only intensify the finger-pointing. But you’re never really sure if Nick is guilty or just sort of incompetent in his expression of emotion. He seems like the high school hunk who never quite grew up.
About halfway through the novel, everything you thought you knew to be true about this couple is turned utterly on its head. If you thought you might read part one and then save part two for tomorrow, forget it.
On a sentence-by-sentence level, Gone Girl is nearly flawless. And it’s very, very funny. Flynn turns her biting wit on some of the uglier aspects of marriage, to terrific comic effect. It’s dark, but you’ll be laughing through your horror. And you’ll be thanking your lucky stars that, compared to Amy and Nick Dunne, your own marriage borders on Utopian.
If you’re a mom with kids at home, Gone Girl is best read on your birthday or Mother’s Day, which are the only two days of the year that you’re likely to get to read the whole thing through in one sitting without neglecting little things like feeding your children and reading them bedtime stories. Because I promise, once you start, you’re not going to want to quit.