Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


By now (August of 2013) the hype around this book has reached such lunatic heights that you can't read it with a completely open mind. But I think I came pretty close, knowing nothing whatsoever about the plot or twists, only aware of its popularity and my various friends' reactions to the end (ranging from "standing ovation" to "rage").

While probably needing no introduction, Gone Girl is a chilly thriller that centers around a wife's disappearance on her fifth anniversary and the twisting, turning weeks and months that follow. It's a bit mystery, a bit thriller, and a lot psychological horror.

Way darker and much more dismal than I anticipated, it's still a page-turner that very much keeps you guessing, even as each specific section goes on a bit too long -- especially the first section, which I would argue ultimately reached the level of "plodding." I understand the device of establishing a straightforward narrative before twisting it, but the establishment went on too long and was actually too straightforward. Obviously the twists and turns (when they came) were great, but the first section was almost a dull standalone thriller unto itself. And you never want to use the words "plodding" or "boring" to describe even a section (or a page!) of your breathless summer thriller.

Overall, it's not the kind of book that's particularly up my alley -- if I'm going to read a fun summery book I'm probably looking for more fun & crackle & sparkle (think Elmore Leonard) than the slow, dreary closing of a heinous vise. Less horror, more thrill. I'm ideally looking for: one car chase, maybe one gun fight, and three decent one-liners. Probably a tiny bit of triumph even in defeat. This felt more like an awful, yet compelling, CNN special on the most toxic, irredeemable people of all time. I can't blame Gone Girl for not being an Elmore Leonard book, I just happen to prefer reading a breezier kind of summer read.

View all my reviews

Review: The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book that makes me glad to be undertaking this "Year of Reading Women" project. In our now-centric culture, where the laws of hype and marketing would have us believe the Next Thing is always the Best Thing Ever (corollary: there's always a New Next Thing), there's rarely a time when I feel compelled to look backwards to a work of fiction from 1985. Even an acclaimed bestseller that got made into a movie. In some ways reading The Accidental Tourist in 2013 is a small metaphor about the pleasures and benefits of taking a break from sprinting endlessly forward, allowing a brief moment to reflect back a bit.

Despite the fame of this book (& attendant movie) I knew literally nothing about it. Same for Anne Tyler, who I've obviously heard of, but who I'd never read, or formed any kind of opinion about. Turns out she's exactly the kind of author I'm happy to have finally read, at the recommendation of a friend who saw my "YoRW" project.

"The Accidental Tourist" tells the story of Macon Leary, a staid forty-something travel writer living in Baltimore whose marriage is falling apart following a tragedy. Saying anything further than that about the plot or the characters would be a disservice to the book, I think. I enjoyed going into the novel with zero expectations. Suffice it to say that all the characters are neatly and expertly drawn, in the wonderful space in between comedy and tragedy. Not quite over-the-top enough to be parody, but not so sad and serious that things fall completely into woe.

I enjoyed this book through and through; it features great writing full of pathos; deep emotion; deft humor and evocative characterizations. I thank Katherine Gotsick for the suggestion and look forward to more Anne Tyler, within or without specific reading projects!


View all my reviews