AGS Book Club September: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Part 2)

[Snarky]

There's not been a ton of activity in the first thread, but what with the spoilers, I thought it would still be best to do this as a separate thread. It will contain unmarked spoilers for Part One of the book. So...

PART TWO:
BOY MEETS GIRL

And again I'm dividing it into sections, where discussion of all but the first should be behind labeled spoiler space:

Section 4 from
Amy Elliott Dunne â€" The Day Of
"I'm so much happier now that I'm dead."
(p. 247 in my edition)

Section 5 from
Nick Dunne â€" Seven Days Gone
"I had to phone Tanner..."
(p. 269 in my edition)

Section 6 from
Nick Dunne â€" Nine Days Gone
"Good morning!"
(p. 345 in my edition)

[Snarky]

OK, so what do you think about the big twist? That Amy's alive, having faked her own death and the whole diary in Part One? (I think it's safe to say she's a psychopath, wouldn't you agree?)

I'm also curious about your reactions to her rant about "Cool Girl," the part she played when wooing Nick. Even considering the source, it doesn't sound totally crazy. There's something to it.

And another thing, about the titles for the main parts of the book. If you don't recognize them, this might be a spoiler:

Spoiler

It's of course from the old Hollywood quip that every movie can be boiled down to "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" (sometimes "boy gets girl back" or "boy gets girl in the end"). Flynn shuffles the order and provides some double meaning to each part: In Part Two, we get the "real" story of how Nick and Amy met, but it's also when Nick starts to realize who his wife really is, so in a sense he's finally "meeting" her.

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[Stupot]

Part 2 - Section 1.

Good twist!  It answers my question of why did it need to be in diary form and why did we only get to read a certain selection of entries.  The answer is obvious now. I think you're right, she's got a lot of issues, to say the least.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but the whole 'Cool Girl' thing sounded almost like an anti-men rant from the author, rather than Amy.  Perhaps I'm just jumping to that conclusion because the author is female (perhaps Flynn is actually attacking militant feminists and I have missed the point).  Not that I entirely disagreed with what she said.  The bit about waiting for the pendulum to swing the other way "for men to start reading Jane Austen, learn to knit [...] and make out with each other while we leer" was an interesting point.  But I think she's focusing her anger on the men when it's really the girls' behaviour that she doesn't like.  She thinks that just because she had to pretend to be 'cool girl', that all 'cool girls' are pretending, but the fact is some girls do enjoy drinking beer, watching sports and getting off with each other at parties.  Each to her own.

[Bad Armchair Psychology Alert] She has classified all girls into 'types', or characters, and reels off her list of types with such scorn (80's Preppy Girl, etc) that she clearly resents them all.  I think her problem might be a case of not having a sense of her own identity (or having her own identity stolen and abused by Amazing Amy), not fitting in with any kind of type, so all her life she has had to pretend to belong to certain types.  She hates them all. She hates women for being women and she hates men for being men.

I actually think Nick's side of the story should be much more believable to the police now that he knows the truth (and Go seems to be on his side too, thankfully).  All he needs to do is admit some of his lies, and his affair, to the police and they should be able to see clearly that the treasure hunt was designed out of spite.  I don't think he'll get off quite so easily just yet though, with half the book still to go.

[Myinah]

Section 1

I loved this twist and was hoping for it deep down. I feel like this explains why diary Amy was so fluffy, because real Amy created her to be OTT loveable. I love that both she and Nick are both the villains of the piece. She is full on psychopath for sure, but that doesn't mean Nick is off the hook for being a shitty husband by any stretch. Both are just totally flawed people, but Amy has her insane narcissism driving her.

Regarding the cool girl rant I don't think it is the author hating on men or women, I think it is just an opinion Amy has and it's not invalid. Our culture does worship these "cool girls" and that to some degree they are just a pretence in the majority of cases. I say this because the cool girl has no real flaws and that is the issue. It's not what she likes, it's the idea she is never disagreeable. You'll notice cool girl flaws are always endearing quirks or "lack of femininity" like "Oh I belch really loudly." or "I can eat a whole pizza by myself, man I'm such a pig!" (not that she ever gains a pound or looks slovenly in any way.) Having no genuine flaws is just not possible. It is part of them being a real human beings. Cool girls basically live to please their man. I think in 99% of relationships there is disagreement and compromise over at least one thing, and once that occurs you can no longer be a "cool girl" because they aren't disagreeable. At least that's how I interpret it.

I mean we all fake it at the start of relationships to some degree. We want the other person to like us so we put on our best face, but eventually the flaws will come out.

A big deal is made about how they like to do stereotypically masculine things, and take a more stereotypically masculine approach to emotions and relationships which is fine. Girls do often like things that men like and vice versa, but that is not the point. It's about that being perceived as perfect. That a girl who is up for anything is the ideal, and up for anything again is code for "never disagrees with her man." Why are they never disagreeing? Because they need to be with a man and need to be perceived as a cool girl, or because they are genuinely fine with the way they are being treated? I don't know any guy who would be cool if I agreed to go to his work event and I just didn't call or show up the way Nick did to Amy at the girls night where partners were coming too.

So even if I like beer, sports and "making out with girls", even if I like all the stuff a guy likes, unless I'm a door mat I can't be a cool girl. Also with regard to girls making out, it's fine if the girl is doing it because she is bisexual and enjoying it, but if she is straight and doing it for male attention then it's not really cool is it? She's kind of making a mockery or genuine lesbian relationships in the process too because she is making it all about the male gaze. Men are the target, lesbianism is the weapon. This is why many lesbians and bisexuals resent these straight performers. Bisexuals are often rejected because they get lumped in with the fakers and lesbians become the target of unwanted male attention because they are used to lesbian pda's being sexualized for their benefit.

Sorry to get a little off topic but those were my thoughts on that subject. Apologies for any generalizations. I know we are all individuals capable of reasoning and independent thought so of course I am not a man hater, or woman hater

I do like your theory about lacking her own identity Stupot. I think it is very insightful. I think her own identity being magnified in the books has left her trying to find her place in the sun in an extremely twisted way. Her stillborn/miscarried siblings have also contributed I think. She could never truly be herself because her mistakes were always corrected in print via her parents books, and so she has probably always felt less than and needed to latch onto others to fill the emptiness of their "subtle" rejections. I think her parents are incredibly oblivious and I also think that their closeness probably didn't help her much as a child. They should have been a unit of three, but it seems like they were a team of two and Amy was outside of it high up on a pedestal.

I also agree she categorizes people into groups, preppy, etc, but I think she just hates everyone or at least is incapable of feeling love for them. She's a complete narcissist and has at least a vague disdain for everyone she speaks about. She sizes everyone up and bluntly calls it how she see's it. Noelle for instance. Everyone is a pawn, a tool to be used. I think Nick was the first person she wanted to use to create a lasting happiness and identity and that is why she is so full of rage now. I think Nick is one of the first people she didn't have a quick disdain for and that is why he was unique to her.

But yes, I love real Amy in the sense she's fascinating. Her planning is spectacular to read about. She's cold and meticulous and like I said I am oddly pleased to see her as a villain instead of a victim. Excited to see where it goes now Nick knows he's completely fucked.

[Stupot]

Part 2 sections 2/3

Spoiler

I've just finished part two.
I must admit, there is probably so much to talk about but I don't really know what to say.
I'm a bit disappointed in Amy in a way.  She's on the verge of foiling her own plan by falling back in love with Nick.  Well, it's not really love, she just believes that he will dote on her for the rest of her life, and that is all she really wants... except not by someone like Desi.  Desi dotes on her, but she can see through his ulterior motives.  I'm glad she has put him to sleep. Despite the fact she is an evil psycho, I found myself rooting for her to do something about Desi.  He really is a slimy person.

Same with Greta and Jeff; I really wanted her to realize that she couldn't trust them (I never trusted the fishing trip for one moment), and I was even gutted for her that they managed to steal her money.  Flynn is clever in that she manages to make you (well, me at least) empathise with a character, even if they are evil (like the way you find yourself rooting for the Firefly Family in Devil's Rejects).

One thing I find the book shows well is how fickle the public can be.  People change their minds in whichever direction the media dictates.  It's embarrassing actually.

I'm starting to wonder how part 3 will pan out.  I think she is going to go back to Carthage claiming that it had been Desi who kidnapped her all along. She might even be able to convince Nick that her clues were genuine and that she hadn't known about Andie.  Nick will hate himself for thinking she tried to frame him, she will 'forgive' him, and they will live happily ever after.  Mind you, that won't explain the fake diary entries... maybe I need to work on my theory or just read the rest of the book )

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