Sunday, September 27, 2015

Rashmi bookmarks “Gone Girl”

by Gillian Flynn.

Narrated alternately by Nick and Amy - either by means of relating present accounts, or by means of recounting the past - this is the story of a married couple and the mysterious disappearance of one of them.

Let me sum up my thoughts on this book in 4 short sentences:

1. Amy Elliott Dunne is one of the most irritating characters of all time. Reading those diary entries was sheer torture, and after a point I was skimming through most of it.

2. There is no payoff to this unnecessarily long book; things happen, and then they stop happening.

3. This does not fall in the crime / mystery genre - it is a psychological study of two people; and while neither of them is typical of the sex they represent, neither is unique or interesting enough to warrant such a detailed study.

4. There are stories which are based on a great idea but are expressed poorly. There are stories with generic ideas at the core, but are narrated so beautifully that one feels compelled to keep reading anyway. And then there are books which are simple both in content and execution. This was one of them.

There's not really much else I can add to this review. I didn't abandon it, so I suppose there was some level of interest that the author kept alive, to see me through to the end. Perhaps if someone could have edited out about 200 or so pages - preferably from the first half, it might have made for an interesting read.

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