Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept of borrowing e-books. How do these library networks connect to Amazon? And if I download the book file, how does it expire? One of my loans ended yesterday, but I can still read it. I’m confused. Another thing about the ebook library system is that the selection isn’t there yet. Almost every book I want to read is not available. And those that are available have huge lines. That’s how I ended up reading Gone Girl.
1) “Because isn’t that the point of every relationship: to be known by someone else, to be understood? He gets me. She gets me. Isn’t that the simple magic phrase?”
Being understood and not having to explain yourself is one of the best feelings.
2) “‘This place is so white, it’s disturbing,’ said Amy, who, back in the melting pot of Manhattan, counted a single African-American among her friends.”
NYC is really diverse, but, from what I see, it’s a heterogeneous collection of pockets of homogenous people. By race or class. Not saying that’s bad. It just makes sense.
3) “George shows up about twenty minutes later – sheepish, tense, a terse excuse about work, Insley snapping at him, ‘You’re forty minutes late,’ him nipping back, ‘Yeah, sorry about making us money.'”
There is no better comeback. And like any great excuse, it ends up making the situation worse.
4) “Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.”
Wow. This analogy is perfect. It’s like Schrodinger’s cat, except every time you think about sleep, the cat dies and you can’t sleep.
5) “Republicans go to Sam’s Club, Democrats go to Costco.”
Mindblown. I don’t know anyone who goes to Sam’s Club. I don’t even know if there are Sam’s Clubs here.
6) “Does anyone do anything profusely except apologize? Sweat, I guess.”
I can’t think of other uses of “profusely”. Maybe thanking? What a waste of a great word. I’m going to make an effort to use this adjective as much as possible, even if it profusely doesn’t make sense.
7) “But I don’t really think Nick would hurt me. I just would feel safer with a gun.”
Diary Amy hits the nail on the head. What would she think about gun control laws?
8) “I am stuck here on earth, and every day I must try, and every day is a chance to be less than perfect.”
Dark thought: you can only ever make more and more mistakes.
9) “The media has saturated the legal environment. With the Internet, Facebook, Youtube, there’s no such thing as an unbiased jury anymore. No clean slate. Eighty, ninety percent of a case is decided before you get in the courtroom.”
I really want to try being a jury member. I wonder how my biases and the social group interactions would play into my decision.
10) “Penny in penny in. The money that they waste goes to the underfunded public schools that their bored, blinking grandchildren attend.”
I’m all for casinos. It’s a choice. If people want to flush their money down the toilet, let them. As long as it generates government revenue and gets used properly, it’s a reallocation of wealth that works.
Gone Girl is the most entertaining book I’ve read in a while. I didn’t see the big twist coming at all, and I enjoyed the alternating chapters of Nick and Amy narrating. I hated the ending at first, but now that I’ve had some time to think about it, it’s the perfect ending for the story. Looking forward to watching the movie.