Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, Crown, 2012, 444 pp
OK. I have read one of the most talked about books of 2012. I read Sharp Objects last year and didn't like it much, so I was not going to read Gone Girl, but it is on the Tournament of Books list.
So. Plotting leading to compulsive page turning. Check.
The two voices of the wife, the one of the husband. Check. (But an overused device these days.)
The Patricia Highsmith influence. Check.
The surprising twist at the end. That was the best part of the book.
Bad parents do produce dysfunctional offspring sometimes (Flynn's theme in both books, it seems) and often, said offspring never recover. Sometimes great parents, like mine, produce troubled offspring. There are no answers in Gone Girl.
My opinion: the good points including the timeliness (about the current economic scene), do not make up for a novel that is mostly a spectator sport. It might make a good movie. Keep your eyes peeled for that.
(Gone Girl is available in various formats by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
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