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There are I suppose a few people Left who have not read “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. Until a couple of weeks ago, I was among them. Having read the recent best-selling thriller / mystery / crime story, I was most taken by the intricate, complex plot. I haven’t read any reviews of the novel or interviews with Ms. Flynn, and consequently lack insight on how she went about writing the novel, how detailed or not she may have outlined the story, deciding when and where to drop the little hints that reveal all is not right with what you are reading. I would hazard a guess that there was a very detailed outline or story board.
It wasn’t until I read one sentence early on that I realized (as no doubt Ms. Flynn intended) I had been duped by the unreliable narrator.
But what intrigued me most was the theme relationships, or more accurately manipulation of relationships, in the case of “Gone Girl”s, between Amy and Nick. Entrapment of one party by another.
Coincidentally, a few days after turning the last page, I happened to tune into a movie I’d taped on the television. It was a 1993 remake of Edith Wharton’s age of innocence. A “Gone Girl’ circa 1870 — without the sex and violence of course. Here is a tale of relationships “gone wrong”. In Ms. Wharton’s version never right, even from the beginning. In the film adaptation we see Archer suffering silently through a marriage he knows is wrong and only rarely May, who is as devious and calculating as Amy but far more subtle in her manipulation and entrapment of her Archer in the upright uptight mores of an earlier age.
I’m downloading Ms. Wharton’s novel now and intrigued to view “Gone Girl” through 19th century eyes.