SALON

Friday, Jun 22, 2012 5:17 PM UTC

Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl’ poised to be summer thriller

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Flynn's 'Gone Girl' poised to be summer thrillerThis June 19, 2012 photo shows Gillian Fllynn, author of "Gone Girl" in Chicago. Flynn's third novel, "Gone Girl," is the perfect beach read - boy meets girls, boy marries girl, girl goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. "Gone Girl" has been selling for summer, entering the New York Times bestseller hardcover fiction list at No. 2 for the week of June 24 and earning a top-ten spot on Amazon's Top 100 list. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) (Credit: AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — Gillian Flynn’s third novel, “Gone Girl,” is the perfect beach read — boy meets girl, boy marries girl, girl goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary.

The boy is Nick, who grew up in a Mississippi River town in Missouri and became a magazine writer in New York, where he meets the blonde, beautiful and bright Amy. The mystery unfolds in dueling chapters, one from Nick’s point of view, then one from Amy.

“I liked playing with the idea of marriage as a ‘he said, she said’ story,” said Flynn, a Chicagoan and mother of a 2-year-old boy with her own equally compelling story — girl loses job, girl becomes best-selling novelist.

“Gone Girl” entered The New York Times bestseller hardcover fiction list at No. 2 for the week of June 24 and earned a top-10 spot on Amazon’s Top 100 list.

Critics love it, too. People magazine gave it four stars and Publishers Weekly called it “compulsively readable, creepily unforgettable.” It is crime fiction that will make readers flip to the first page after they’ve finished the last page, looking for clues and hints they missed.

Flynn, 41, grew up in Kansas City, Mo., the daughter of two community college professors. Her 2006 debut was the mystery “Sharp Objects” and her follow-up was 2009′s “Dark Places.” She said she wrote her first two books on evenings and weekends while not working as a journalist.

Flynn was laid off from her job as a writer and TV critic at Entertainment Weekly after she finished “Dark Places,” but before the novel came out. Losing her job allowed her the chance to turn full-time novelist. It also provided inspiration for Nick in “Gone Girl”. He loses his magazine writing job, too.

“I certainly wove that experience, that sense of having something that you were going to do for the rest of your life and seeing that possibility taken away… I definitely wove that sense of unrest and nervousness into Nick’s character,” she said.

Flynn’s writing focuses on women — unusual, troubled women in difficult situations, said Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Houston, where Flynn recently gave a talk on “Gone Girl.”

“Even though they’re damaged they’re all strong women and that has a lot of appeal,” Peters said.

Flynn thinks the appeal comes from giving readers a sneak-peek into someone else’s marriage: the tugs of war, power plays and gender roles. Flynn also was ready to write a mystery from inside a relationship after two novels that she describes as exploring “loneliness and isolation.”

“I wanted to kind of play with the opposite of that, which is what happens when you choose to combine lives with someone. The good things that are possible and the bad things that are possible,” Flynn said.

The book’s subject matter didn’t make Flynn’s husband flinch, she said. “It takes a big guy if your wife comes and says ‘I’m going to poke and pry around the darkest side of marriage for my next book. Is that cool?’” Flynn said. “He didn’t blink an eye. He said, ‘Go for it. Don’t censor yourself. Put everything down.’”

Her novel also tells the story of now: Characters are dealing with the aftermath of a recession. There are abandoned shopping malls, empty foreclosed homes and workers who have lost their jobs.

“I wanted the whole thing to feel bankrupt,” Flynn said. “I wanted it to really feel like a marriage that had been hollowed out in a city that had been hollowed out and a country that was increasingly hollowed out.”

The result, Peters said, is a novel that shows Flynn is more concerned with the “why” of the crime rather than the “how” of the crime.

“There’s a real propulsion, the way she tell that story,” Peters said. “You want to read it right through the end to see what’s going on.”

___

Online:

http://www.gillian-flynn.com

Caryn Rousseau

More Caryn Rousseau.

Next Article

You Might Also Like

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

Gripping photos: The people of the Turkey protests (slideshow)

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • The protests take on a festive element as police forces move out of the park and square. Wearing a gas mask, this young man dances to traditional Turkish music in front of Taksim Square’s Ataturk Monument.

  • In Gezi Park since March 31st, this protester, originally caught off-guard by the Government’s teargas and water cannons, went out and bought a Russian army mask from WWII, preparing for what was to come.

  • This rambunctious boy seems to be enjoying the chaos. After taking this picture he threw a stone at the already destroyed building in the background.

  • Forming a line, the police face off directly with protesters in Taksim Square. After a while, they retreated and there was a general cheer – a back-and-forth dance that has been common since the beginning of this protest.

  • An elderly woman in Gezi Park reads the news. The tent community occupying the park was violently destroyed on June 16th.

  • Many different groups had set up booths to promote their cause in Taksim Square and Gezi Park. Standing in front of one, this man waves his flag while posing with conviction.

  • Many home-remedies are used to minimize the effects of tear gas. This woman has put a milky solution on her face, removing her mask after the tear gas dissipated. Before sunrise, the police came again for another round of teargasing.

  • People capitalize on the uprising -- selling flags, beer, gas masks, sky lanterns and spray paint to name just a few of the popular items.

  • On Monday morning, June 11, the police execute a strong offensive. Many plain-clothed police officers, like the ones seen here, clash with protesters in the side streets away from the main stand-off in Taksim.

  • The authorities seem to be most aggressive in the night, pushing protesters away from the square and park. After being teargassed this young woman catches her breath with other protesters on Siraselviler Street.

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Video of the Day

Watch More Here »

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves": Growing up primate

Recommendations