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!