Join the Ladies on Literature as we embark upon a bestseller that is blazing up the charts, solidifying author, Gillian Flynn, as one of the hottest around.

From Amazon:

Marriage can be a real killer. 

“One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong…A nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn. 

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?”

And here we have three lovely Ladies on Literature: Gail, Vikki, & Laurie @ our recent wrap-up of Gone Girl.

Gone Girl...one of the best books I've read in recent years...is well, gone. Over. Finished. For the LOL at least. The run away best seller inspired some serious discussion at our recent meeting, hosted by the lovely Ruth in her beautiful lakeside home. Ruth made some delicious delicacies, including coconut shrimp and stuffed mushroom caps and let's not forget about the cream puffs, oh my! Watch for the recipes to be posted this week and meanwhile, what did the LOL think, in the end, about this work?

Most of us thoroughly enjoyed the book, finding it incredibly suspenseful, thought provoking (if not disturbing), and most certainly well-written. Interestingly, not everyone liked the ending--a common complaint among reviewers. As I've previously mentioned, the challenge to blogging about this book is to not ruin it for readers. If I mention specific events, surely I must sound the spoiler alert. It's hard, then, to get too detailed about the ending, but let's just say it was unsatisfying to some. If you've read any of the interviews with the author (including some posted here) you will know she felt it was the only way the book could end. Let's just say that because it left certain issues unanswered or better--unaccounted for--the reader is left with that niggling, "OMG! Seriously! But what about...." feeling! Not that the ending isn't plausible and it certainly isn't one of those frustrating endings that leave you feeling ripped off, like the author just couldn't decide how to wrap things up. It's more, well, like the book...disturbing.

Enough said.

What I think is interesting is the idea the book is supposed to generate: Just how well do you know your spouse? Don't we all have at least a small space  that is occupied by us alone? Even if it's just your journal...aren't there thoughts racing through your head you'd never want to share? This book takes that idea to an extreme. Of course, we're talking about the relationship between two pathological people so their thoughts are downright frightening. Still, with the recent discovery of Amanda Berry and two other women held captive in a run-down house near their neighborhoods in Cleveland for more than 10 years, the idea of not really knowing your neighbors is very, very real. www.wkyc.com/news/article/299344/45/Amanda-Berry-Gina-DeJesus-Michelle-Knight-rescue-video  What if the person that is supposed to be closest to you is a stranger?

Intriguing idea. Exceptionally well-written book. While I may need a break from the intensity of her stories, I'll be back for more of the Fabulous Flynn.

And please come back here for more from the fantastic Ruth and her recipes, tomorrow & Friday.

Cheers,

Shannon

Every time I go to blog about the LOL’s latest read, run-away hit, Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, I swear I see something new online. The book is on fire and the flames growing hotter with all the movie hype. It’s well known that the author is writing the screenplay and that Reese Witherspoon has purchased the rights and will produce. With David Fincher (Social Network, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Alien 3, Benjamin Button, among many) reportedly directing,  the movie world is all a-buzz about who will star in the leading roles of Amazing Amy and Nick, as well as supporting roles of Nick’s twin sister, Margo, and the seedy lawyer, Bolt. Check out this link to Digital Spy and take your pick….

www.digitalspy.ca/movies/at-the-movies/a467176/gone-girl-who-should-star-in-david-finchers-gillian-flynn-movie.

They’re both amazing actors and maybe it’s because I’m Canadian but I love Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling…separately, but certainly together. Now there’s a couple with chemistry…too bad it didn’t last in real life…

More on this novel over the week with a wrap up of the LOL’s meeting to discuss it, plus recipes from Ruth. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Shannon

Who knew that Gilllian was pronounced with a “hard” G? According to Guardian reporter, Oliver Burkeman, maybe it’s fitting. Click the link below to read his most excellent article on the talented writer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/01/gillian-flynn-bestseller-gone-girl-misogyny

Now nominated for the Women’s Prize for fiction, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl isn’t going anywhere soon.

If you loved this book, like me, you want to know more about its author; you’re dying to know what makes Ms. Flynn write about, well…death…& the devil in each of us…some more than others.

Today I’m simply including a link to a very well written article that appeared in the Guardian. Read on to learn from Paul Harris, how Gillian Flynn came to write her blockbuster book and a little about what makes her tick.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2013/mar/24/gillian-flynn-gone-girl-profile

Not only does writer Gillian Flynn weave a masterfully suspenseful tale in her blockbuster, Gone Girl, she writes with an intoxicating edginess. Every character is witty in his or her own way, but none more than Nick and his perfect wife, Amazing Amy.

I guess this is no surprise considering Flynn admittedly put pieces of herself into Nick.  A writer for Entertainment Weekly, Ms. Flynn lost her job after a decade of what I imagine was distinguished service (how could it not be with her talent?). That would explain Nick’s on-going commentary about how he had a job for eleven years and then he didn’t. How he was “A writer who wrote about TV and movies and books. Back when people read things on paper…” before “All around the country, magazines began shuttering, succumbing to a sudden infection brought on by the busted economy.”

While Amy is ultimately very difficult to like (and it will be nearly impossible to write about her without giving plot points away), I did enjoy her honest if not slightly offensive take on the world around her. Her description of former f*cks with different kinds of men followed by her take on meeting her future husband for the first time was brilliant. There’s the “guy who wears his cockiness like an ironic t-shirt, who carries himself like a guy who likes women, a guy who would actually f*ck me properly. I would like to get f*cked properly!” And on it goes as she describes the Wall Streeters with money in their eyes, their ears, their mouths, the sensitive boys who are so self-aware everything feels like a joke, the Fitzgerald fellows who tend to be ineffectively porny in bed, the smart boys who f*ck like they’re composing a piece of math rock…etc. Then there’s Nick.Amy finds herself drawn to him because he is so gorgeous–distractingly gorgeous…”he looks like the rich-boy villain in an 80′s teen movie–the one who bullies the sensitive misfit, the one who will end up with a pie in the puss, the whipped cream wilting his upturned collar as everyone in the cafeteria cheers.” And then there’s his smile. “Like a cat’s smile. He should cough out yellow Tweety Bird feathers, the way he smiles at me.”

We get a good look at how Amy project into the future, imagining an established relationship with Nick, when she thinks, “A year from now we will be walking along the Brooklynn Bridge at sunset and one of us will whisper, “Just one olive, though,” and we will start to laugh (at the inside joke).” Then Amy says, “I catch myself. Awful. If he knew I was doing a year from now already, he’d run and I’d be obliged to cheer him on.”

Already we know Amy is smart—scary smart–and manipulative–scary manipulative–and demanding and spoiled and New York pompous and….but we really don’t know the real Amy yet at all. But for that matter, nor do we know the real Nick.