Gone Girl: Super Yarn, Dud Ending.

Having noted its aeons-long presence on the bestseller list and its ubiquity in the prime position on every bookshelf in the country and resolutely determined not to follow the crowd and just buy it because everyone else has, (a la Fifty Shades of Grey) curiosity eventually wore me down. The first line helped too: "When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with."

Gillian Flynn,  former Entertainment Weekly writer and critic and author of two previous novels, has not only created a bang up to date, financial crisis and all, study of the dissolution of a marriage in Gone Girl, she has also written a novel that while I was reading, I thought:

 If I was ever to write a novel, this is the one I'd want it to be most like.

 

Not just because it's sold millions of copies worldwide and is now being made into a movie but because I could see, hear and smell  Flynn's characters, the detail was so apt and accurate.  

 

Notwithstanding the dud ending that made me want to hurl Gone Girl against the wall, I remained glued and compelled until I got to its implausible, thrown together conclusion.

Gillian Flynn,

 

 

if you're reading this, I demand an ending re-write.

 

Before that ending, though, she mixes insights on the complexities of marriage into a tense thriller using an original, accessible writing style. Thrill-lit, maybe? 

 

Lines I loved:

"We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time."

Nick Dunne, husband, on the impact of the internet.

 

"I'd fallen in love with Amy because I was the ultimate Nick with her. Loving her made me superhuman, it made me feel alive."

Nick Dunne's on his wife when they got married. 

 

"She's a cool girl. Men always say that as the defining compliment, don't they? Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs into her mouth."

Amy Elliott Dunne's version of her husband's impression of her when they got married.

 

"Can you imagine, finally showing your true self to our spouse, your soul mate, and having him not like you? That's how the hating first began."

Amy Elliott Dunne's diary entry on the day she disappeared.

 

 

 

"Most beautiful, good things are done by women people scorn."

Amy Elliott Dunne on the family 'menial' jobs done by women such as planning holidays and children's birthdays

 

 

If you're one of the millions who read Gone Girl, what did you think?

 

 

 

Waiting in Orlando, Florida

A study somewhere suggests that the average adult spends the equivalent of a year waiting in a queue.
 I won't risk guessing how much of our one week visit over Easter to Orlando, Florida, USA, was spent waiting in line. Lines at coffee shops - fifteen minutes, fast food outlets - forty five minutes, restaurants - twenty minutes, restrooms - ten minutes. The most memorable, though,  was the line inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, on the way to
Hogwarts.  








As we moved slowly along,




contemplating how Harry never had to wait this long to get into his beloved boarding school, I admit the two hours did fly.

When finally we got there, five minutes later, we were outside again.

All the queuing aside, you would have to be spilling over with mean spiritedness not to be infected with wonder at the spectacle of the Orlando Theme Parks.

The colourful underwater life

and the dolphin shows

 

at Sea World.

 

 

The madcap Horror Make up Show at Universal Studios that was more comedy than horror,

The Jurassic Park ride, which I sat out due to a fractured wrist(long story, for another blog post) 

While sitting out on a grass verge, I watched the world go by and eavesdropped (nosey person that I am) conversations, mostly people arguing about what they wanted to do next, such is the hugeness of activity  choice.

 

 

 

The hilarious Simpsons ride, on which I did venture, only to be mistaken by Maggie for a soother, and be vigourously chewed.

Fantastic break dance displays by Streetbreakz.



The stunning Aquatica,  where man made beaches and endless water slides entertained my fellow travellers and allowed me to do what I enjoy most -

 

put my feet up and savour the greatness of Lorrie Moore's Birds of America

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feminism - RIP?

 

If Feminism is about equality and choice, then why are young women more insecure than ever? I would have thought that by now, the whole how you dress thing would be the very least feminism would have sorted out. As never before young girls are being targetted and influenced by images giving them the message - the less you wear the more attention you will get and your looks are the only thing that matter about you - whah?

 

 

 

The message in a Dove (skin products) clip posted on Brigid O'Connor's lovely blog here

has been going around in my head for weeks. (Just in case you can't access, it highlights images of perfect female bodies, cosmetic surgery and the pressures imposed by the beauty industry as witnessed by a young girl) 

 

And if I needed convincing just how up close and personal this pressure is, my recent experience of my eleven year old daughter's venture to the local GAA junior disco, certainly did the job. "But everyone dresses like that," was the response to my protest at the micro shorts and t-shirt. Sure enough, a queue of bare, shivering, calf-like legs lined outside the clubhouse entrance. Each young girl dressed (or not, if you prefer) identically. The starkest contrast was the young male apparel - everyday jeans and football shirts - pressure certainly not equal here.

 

 

In Raising Girls, Australian author Steve Biddulph writes a chapter on 'Too sexy, too soon'

 

 

"The aim of advertising is to attack your mental health - to worry you and make you discontent. If you want to sell products to a girl, whether she is 4 or 14, you first have to make her insecure - about her looks, friends, clothes, weight, skin and hair. Everything about her is an opportunity to fail."

 

 

Biddulph offers sound advice to mothers for helping their daughters resist the onslaught of commercial interests, including no telly in bedrooms and talking a lot to them instead of them relying on soaps and rom-coms for influence and information.

 

Mind you, I need a bit of a reminding myself on how to stay strong in the face of it all.

 

 

I'm hoping Clarissa Pinkola Estes'  much praised book will help.

There's a Great Stretch in the Evenings

Of all the Irish sayings, the title of my blog post is the one that lifts my heart the most.

There is such optimism in the air right now. The feeling that we've survived the worst of the winter and are safely the other side of that chilly season.

Even if the rest of the northern hemisphere think the first day of Spring falls on March 21st, the reality is, we really like to get ahead in Ireland and declare the 1st of February, the first day of Spring.


Whatever about the coldness yet of the days, the extra light makes all the difference - that great stretch in the evenings.


 And down the road from me, I spotted some green shoots.



Even super poet, Emily Dickinson, had some upbeat feelings about Spring:
    

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.
       

New Year and Film Bloat

It seems sad to admit that lately, one of the deciders for me when choosing a movie is its length. For example,  The Hobbit's backside numbing, twitch inducing three hour length, has kept me firmly away.
 
 Les Miserables ties us to our seats for over two and half hours - not too appealing.
And most of the movies I've seen over the last few years have stretched to two hours and over.  Can it take that long to communicate a story? I think not.

It's a relief then to know I'm not alone in thinking that movies are being stretched beyond human endurance. The National Association of Theatre Owners, which represents 28,000 cinemas in America, calls for reduction in "film bloat" and wants to get back to the Alfred Hitchcock dictum:





"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."

I couldn't agree more.

With all this in mind, Parental Guidance




starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler

was the choice for a New Year's Day family trip (today) and while it was fun - mostly thanks to Mr Crystal's rapid, deadpan one-liners, but ultimately forgetteable, the best bit was the neat 105 mins.

Happy New Year!

J K Rowling's Casual Vacancy

 J.K. Rowling's offering of adult fiction was an irresistible draw.

 

After the unmatcheable magic (oops) of the Harry Potter series, with its well rounded, believeable characters who grew darker and more mature as their readers grew up, (or just grew older in my case) I wondered whether J.K. could possibly write any sort of story  without resisting the temptation to inject a bit of surreality.

 

 

 

 

Such as Ron Weasley receiving a howler  from his mother when he drives his dad's car (without permission) through the sky to school. here

 

Or facing your demons by waving your wand and chanting riddikulus - your tormentor is suddenly dressed in a silly dress and floppy hat, thereby reducing their power to terrorise you. here

 

During a recent television interview, J.K. admitted that she wrote The Casual Vacancy  without the pressure of having to conform to any standard or genre, the success of Harry Potter having left her financially comfortable enough to experiment, and relaxed enough by her literary achievements not to get overly panicked if her adult writing flopped.

 

My thought as I ploughed through the first two hundred pages with its myriad of characters was, J.K., are you trying to emulate Angela's Ashes for misery lit?

 Yet, I couldn't stop reading about Pagford with its snobbery, domestic violence, dysfunctional families, bullying, drug addiction, unhappy marriages and political rivalry. Despite, the roving point of view and lack of central character, The Casual Vacancy  works, simply by letting you feel as if you are a fly on the wall, looking into every character's mind and recognising someone you know in each and every one.

The Casual Vacancy is singularly without the magic of J.K. Rowling's children's writing but that doesn't stop it from being a surreal piece of realism.

 

 

 

 

 

The influence of Katie Taylor

 

 

 

One of the highlights of this summer was Katie Taylor's

historically awe-inspiring win in London 2012 Olympics.

    

While I've never been a fan of boxing - it's just too close to blatantly violent behaviour for me - it's hard not to be a serious fan of Katie and the determination, zeal and all round Amazonian brilliance of the woman. Yes, truly, a refreshing role model.

 

 

Therefore when this item appeared on the "pester list" over the summer in our house,  there didn't seem to be a whole pile of reasons (thank you Argos for making it cheaply possible) not to succumb. Some dodgy drilling and a lot of grunting and lifting and there it was - on the wall of our front room.

 

 

 

 

Well, you have to admit, it is a change from your usual run-of-the- mill wall art.

 

And the violence is vented on a punchbag rather than a person.

 

 

 

 

 

Boxing gloves and all, it's keeping a few of the bored members of the family occupied.

 

 

 

 

Even women who should, at this stage, have more sense, are having a go.

 

 

 

 

 

A fine way to vent some frustration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katie, you have a lot to answer for.