Shelia says...

I have finished the book and loved it. I am almost too afraid to admit it but I like Amy, sure she is a psycho path but she is so organized, well thought out and disciplined, however; on that note I don't know why the author choose to have her have her money all in one place, why her first choice was to seek Desi instead of plot out a way to get her money back.  At first I liked Nick, the affair---- I understand the freedom and the excitement of an affair, I also understand oh too well the betrayal of an affair (book really makes me wish I had read it before I divorced my ex ;-)  In the end not so sure if I liked Nick or not its still up in the air. See ya on the 10th...

Gone Girl, Week 4

Ok, I've finished the book.

Warning! Spoilers!

Here's my main thought: I find myself identifying with the Nick character, in ways that make me uncomfortable.

Let me explain. 

Nick is revealed to not be overly concerned about the consequences of his actions.  I feel I am like that.  Frankly, like Nick, I never worry much about outcomes, I'm much more concerned about inputs, about doing what is "right" then letting the chips fall where they may.  Nick is described that way as well: he sees himself in the stereotypical role of "the provider".  He ascribes many of his own emotional troubles in Missouri to his inability to provide for Amy in the manner to which she had become accustomed, including the society available in New York, as compared to Missouri.

 Nick is "nice to everyone", in part due to the doing what is "right" thing, but in part because internally, his self-image is somewhat in doubt in his own mind.  I definitely feel that way myself, I worry about whether I have met the expectations of others, that kind of thing.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm doing what I think is "right" irrespective of the opinions of others, I just wonder how others see me, and whether my notion of "right" is close enough to what others think right is, that I can pass for "right enough anyway". 

Much like Nick, I am quite flawed in ways that (I hope) are not obvious to the casual observer.  When there is no clear "right or wrong", convenience becomes important to me, and I will likely half-ass something or not do it at all if there don't appear to be significant consequences.  My close friends have seen me drunk and angry, and listened while I raged of things neither they nor I had the slightest control over, and they probably had little interest, except for my well being. Hopefully they too were drunk and have forgotten some of that :-)  But, Nick's videos manipulating Amy to return to him, are representative of things I have done, putting spin on what I say or do, to influence others in ways that I believe are to my advantage.

I understand Nick's affair, both the opportunistic elements of it, and the emotional freedom from expectations that he felt burdened by when he was with Amy.

Amy on the other hand, should be institutionalized immediately.  No redeeming qualities to Amy at all.

One giant plot hole here, is that anyone who is as sociopathic as Amy, is really unlikely to be able to operate in society. 

Among my other criticisms:  Amy did not apparently punish her parents, yet she is very hostile about their expectations she will be "Amazing".  Amy did not punish the two folks at the cabins she hid out at who stole her money.  While she was able to orchestrate this multi-faceted frame-up of Nick, where was her backup planning and all that when they were taking her money belt from her? At least split the money into two hiding locations!  Why was it all with her, especially since she had become paranoid about them?  It seems to me she should have had a plausible amount in the money belt for them to steal, say a few hundred bucks, but the rest should have been in a hole in the ground somewhere.

I was rather enjoying the book until Nick figured out Amy was alive.  After that, I no longer enjoyed the book.


I did like this line, where Nick is describing Amy during their honeymoon:

"She'd made a grim figure on the Fiji beach during our two-week honeymoon, battling her way through a million mystical pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, casting pissy glances at me as I devoured thriller after thriller." Nick is describing to the police how Amy did not abandon a project (the ironing), with this being one example. 

Note that I seriously considered adding Chronicle to the candidates list a while back, when I was looking for a Japanese author... In fact I think I will do so.  623 pages, available on Kindle.

I liked this line as well, Amy narrating, describing what it is to be cool girl:

"I didn't worry about anything that came next. Nothing had consequence, I was living in the moment, and I could feel myself getting shallower and dumber.  But also happy."

That is really interesting... the idea that not worrying and being happy leads to shallowness and stupidity?  I wonder if there is, in fact, some relationship there...

Anyway, looking forward to the 10th!

Alice Says...

I have completed our book. Thanks for the easier, interesting read.

Very interesting. Crazy people!

Susanna Says...

I finished the book last night. It was captivating and infuriating. Definitely worth reading to the end. It was an enjoyable read, not to tough. The author did a great job at toying with the readers emotion. When she wanted me to like a character I did, if she wanted me to not like a character I did, no questions asked. I absolutely hated (yes, I'm willing to use that strong of language) the characters at times, my blood boiled. Every character (besides perhaps Go) is at one time or another loved and despised

Discussion of "Butterfly Burning"

We met June 5th to discuss Butterfly Burning.

In attendance were:

Dave & Mary
Darryl & Barbara
Jeremy
Alice
Susanna
Catherine

Of these, Four of us had finished the book, the rest of us read somewhere between a third to half the book.

Prior to the meeting, we had a poetry reading from Darryl Hand. The selection was a poem by Anne Sexton, a Pulitzer prize winning poet, who died by suicide in 1974.

"Butterfly Burning" really brought out some lively discussion about women, and the roles of women in society, both in Africa in the 1940s, and in the US today.  Much discussion centered around the role of privilege, and around role models, for women.  One member specifically stated she was uncomfortable saying everything she felt from the book, due to concerns about the reactions of the men in the group.

This book was pretty much universally disliked by the group.  Some found the writing overwraught, and felt there were excessive use of simile and metaphor, so much so that the book was difficult to get through.  Others did not like the dark themes and the basically unrelieved tragedy.  One member described the book as a "perfect tragedy", having no relief from the suffering of the main character.

One member talked about having to re-read sections more than once, as he felt he missed something in the story and had to go back and re-read to understand what was going on.  At the end of the novel, he thought the main character had been murdered by her boyfriend, missing that her death was actually a suicide.

Several members indicated they would not have read the book on their own, but despite not liking the book especially, they were glad they had read it.

The discussion of this book was lively, with good participation amongst the members.  The discussion ran well over the allotted hour.

Following the discussion, a fair bit of time was spent talking about what the future reading of the club should look like, with most folks apparently agreeing that we should read "outside our comfort or familiarity zones", but that a lighter read between the heavier books would help folks enjoy it more.

With some debate, we settled on "Gone Girl", by Gillian Flynn, as the next novel.  It is a recent mystery/thriller, from which a movie is being (or may already have been) made, so should provide a somewhat lighter, easier read than other books we have been reading.  We also decided to read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" after Gone Girl, which will add a non-fiction book to our reading topics.

At least one member expressed their positive opinion about selecting books one reading cycle ahead, so we will continue to do so going forward.