Thursday, November 7, 2013

GRAB(ook) Club: "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

Wow. Well.

I had heard the hype about "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn -- so many people seemed to be reading it & raving about it -- and so I kept debating whether it would be worth buying the hardcover or waiting for the paperback (which seems to be taking forever to come out...!). Then Mel added it to the GRAB(ook) Club agenda, so I wound up getting an e-book version via my sister.

And, as many reader reviews I've read alluded, this was a hard book to put down. Adding to the allure -- reading an e-book (particularly on my almost-original model Kobo) made it more difficult to flip ahead & sneak a peek at the ending -- incentive to keep reading!! By Monday night, I was getting close to the end. I was so eager to finish (particularly when I had a post to write before the book discussion posts went up Thursday) that I set aside my usual newspapers & continued to read the book on my Tuesday morning commute. With just a few pages to go as we pulled into the train station (curses!), I speedwalked to my office, threw down my briefcase, & finished off the book in my cubicle before I even turned on my computer.  ; ) (I read the papers on the evening commute home.)

I liked this book. It's definitely a page-turner. I did NOT particularly like the main characters, Nick & Amy, each with their own flaws (although I found Nick slightly more sympathetic than Amy).  (Disturbingly, I found myself thinking of serial killers/rapists Paul Bernardo & -- especially -- Karla Homolka, at one point.)

But I couldn't help but be drawn into their story.  And think about the strengths & weaknesses of my own marriage, even as I watched theirs unravel.

Amy disappears on the day of her & Nick's 5th wedding anniversary -- and guess who's the prime suspect?  The story unfolds in alternating "he said, she said" style, between narration from Nick and past diary entries from Amy.  Whose account of the relationship do we believe? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between?  Plot twists and surprises galore along the way. There are even subplots/references to pregnancy loss and infertility. (Melissa already asked one infertility-related question related to the book.) 

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So here's my question(s):

One of the recurring threads in the book is the tension and contrast between city & country/small town life. Nick grew up in smalltown Missouri; Amy in New York City. The two live a charmed life in Manhattan -- until they both lose their jobs and their finances take a nosedive. When his aging parents require care, Nick persuades Amy to return to his hometown with him.

Would you ever want to move back to your hometown (if you don't already live there)? Both Nick & Amy voice some stereotypes about smalltown life and people;  likewise, their family members & neighbours have their own ideas about what life in the big city must be like. Do you think these observations (on either side) were true, or fair?

I know dh sometimes feels guilty that I am living so far away from my family. "We can move back," he sometimes offers.

My parents actually moved to the small town (population about 2,500) where they now live almost 30 years ago, when I was finishing university. I only ever lived there with them for a little over a year before I got married. But even though it's not one of the towns where I grew up, suffice to say, it's close in location, size and ambience, lol. The largest town I lived in, before going to university, was 12,000 people.  Dh, on the other hand, grew up in Toronto and has spent his whole life in the Greater Toronto Area, aside from the years he went away to school.

Sometimes I think about it. It would be nice to be closer to my family. I miss the friendliness and simplicity of small town living (no traffic jams! affordable housing!!)(well, affordable when compared to Toronto, lol). But then I think about the lack of choices, the lack of privacy, the lack of tolerance of different viewpoints (although you don't always get that in a larger centre either)...

The thing is, I have lived enough places in my life to know that there is good and bad everywhere you go; it's up to you to make the best of things wherever you are. Some stereotypes are true and some aren't. Amy observes in the book something to the effect that many of the North Cartharge people had opinions about New York without ever having gone near the place, and I find that's very true. Whenever I go back, people will ask me, "So how's TORONTO?"  in a slightly snide tone of voice, as if they can't really believe anyone would ever want to live here (Toronto being the city that everyone in Canada loves to hate)(even long before Rob Ford ever became mayor, lol). And of course, a lot of them have never set foot here.

Of course, city people can be incredibly obtuse and condescending about smalltown life too.

So to answer my own question -- I'm not really sure I'd want to move back to the same town where my parents live. That might be a little too close for comfort. ; ) But I might not mind living in a larger town or smaller city. closer than where I am right now. ; )

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One more question I can't resist asking: 

I remember reading quite awhile ago that the movie rights to "Gone Girl" had been purchased by Reese Witherspoon. Maybe it's the blond thing ; ) but I naturally assumed she would be playing Amy.  (Although -- likely because of the name -- I kept seeing Amy Poehler and her sly grin as I read the book, lol.)  However, in Googling "Gone Girl movie," I learned that the movie will be released in the fall of 2014, with Ben Affleck as Nick and Rosamund Pike as Amy.

What do you think of this casting? Who would you nominate to play Amy? Nick? Any of the other characters?

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for Gone Girl.  You can get your own copy of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn at bookstores including Amazon.

9 comments:

  1. I wouldn't want to move back to my hometown, not now and I don't think that will change later on either. I might want to move back to my homeland at some point though but that's another thing...

    About stereotypes and making assumptions, well you can't really have an honest opinion about a place if you haven't been there yourself.
    Most people are drawn to either a small town, the countryside or a big city, and that will show in how you talk about and view the opposite as well.

    Personally I think I would have a love-hate feeling about the closeness of a small town. It would be lovely but at the same time not enough space if that makes sense.

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  2. I wouldn't want to move back to my hometown, not now and I don't think that will change later on either. I might want to move back to my homeland at some point though but that's another thing...

    About stereotypes and making assumptions, well you can't really have an honest opinion about a place if you haven't been there yourself.
    Most people are drawn to either a small town, the countryside or a big city, and that will show in how you talk about and view the opposite as well.

    Personally I think I would have a love-hate feeling about the closeness of a small town. It would be lovely but at the same time not enough space if that makes sense.

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  3. This is a really interesting question, because I think the setting plays a major role in the plot. There's a certain media angle to the idea of a small town being rocked by the disappearance of one of its citizens - as though this just doesn't happen in small towns.

    I do actually live in the town I moved to when I was 9, and I'll confess that it can be frustrating to live in a place where people have known you since you were young. There's a way in which it can be very difficult for some people to see me as an adult (age 31 now) and not as the child or the teenager I was - and treat me accordingly.

    As far as the actress I'd pick to play Amy...I could totally see Reese Witherspooon with that very "girl next door" vibe playing Amy really well. I could also see Jennifer Lawrence doing a good job of it, though.

    Thanks for the questions :)!

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  4. I actually think Ben Affleck is perfect for Nick - he has that sort of likeable/dislikeable aspect to him that I think Nick embodies. I'm not sure about Rosamund Pike - I don't really know anything about her.

    I moved from Big City (Chicago) to small town, and it was definitely different. Realistically, I'm in a suburb of a medium-sized city, so it's not too alien. But I would return to city living in a minute, if not for my husband. I think the transition from small to large is a little easier than large to small. With the small to large, you might feel a little lonely or disconnected, but you can distract yourself with additional conveniences and amenities. When you go from large to small, you find your movements constricted (really? No 24 hour grocery store? Why?????), and people may be friendlier, but you're still an outsider and therefore suspicious.

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  5. Interestingly enough, I did move back to my "hometown" four years ago. Mo and I made the leap after losing his father and his grandfather within a year of each other. We lost our first baby after that, and I felt I needed the support that my family could offer.

    In some ways it has been great. I love being able to see and spend time with my parents and my sister and her kids. But life is busy, and even though we live within 30 minutes of each other, weeks can go by without us seeing one another. And there are lots of things I don't like about living in Podunk. It's very conservative here and uber-religious (says the liberal atheist). I find myself biting my tongue and changing the topic of conversation more than I would like. I wonder about how I'm going to counter-balance common viewpoints when my son is old enough to understand. And I miss the food (fresh seafood, crab legs, mmmm fried grouper....) that we had in our old town. There's nothing like it here.

    Would I move back again if I had a chance to do-over? Yes, because it saved my marriage, and possibly my husband's life. But its not without its drawbacks, and its nowhere near as idyllic as I imagined it would be.

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  6. I've been considering reading the book, but haven't gotten around to it, so can't contribute much in the way of book talk but thought I would mention they're filming the movie in Cape Girardeau, MO...about 70 miles south of where I live! If I hadn't been on the brink of death (ok, well maybe not) with pneumonia I totally would have gone and celebrity stalked!

    And I live 4 miles from my hometown! We're considering buying a house 3 doors down from where my parents still live in the house I grew up in! Yeah...I'm a hometown girl!

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  7. That was sort of one of the most realistic parts of a pretty unrealistic story :-) Which, by the way, I liked very much despite finding it not realistic. I thought she did a good job illustrating those differences between the city and a small town; the way one can disappear in the city and the way it's hard to hide in a small town.

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  8. I've read the book, and enjoyed it, though hated the ending. (No, that's not contradictory - the ride was good, the destination disappointing). Would I move back to my home town?

    Well, I grew up on a farm, outside a small town. A small town in NZ is about 3000 people, so you really can't hide there. As I was growing up, all my thoughts were about leaving and exploring the world. Pretty much all my friends left, and most of my family have left too. (Uncles remain - that's about all). I have changed so much, my life is so different, that I can't see myself fitting in there at all. If I'm honest, I shudder at the thought!

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  9. Haven't read the book, but your question about moving back to a hometown intrigues me. :-) I second Mali, though it's actually a backward process for me. I mean I came from a big city with over 2.5 million inhabitants and I moved to a place with about 5,000 inhabitants.

    I was at first so scared whether or not I could cope with living in such a small place after spending 28 years in a big city. But I've enjoyed living here now and I don't think I want to live in my hometown anymore - too many people, pollution, nosy (albeit warm) people, traffic jams, noise. Funny thing is that people in my hometown is much nosier than the people here, even though I live in such a big city. It's probably the culture.

    But I do agree that living in a small village like this means that gossip spreads like a wild fire ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...I remember one time a coworker of mine moved to work in a bakery and many people asked me, "I thought you left this place and moved to the bakery." LOL!!! I was surprised to hear it and I heard the same sentiment from several people (not just one person), so it made me realize how much people talk about things behind my back HA HA HA HA HA...

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