I don\u2019t read fiction \u2014 as a general rule, at least, and I haven\u2019t in quite a while.\u00a0 Many years ago, I built up a collection of paperback classics from the used book store, but that was as much about crossing famous books of an imaginary list as it was about enjoying them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Every now and again, I pick something up, from the library or the bookstore.\u00a0 And usually it\u2019s a bust.\u00a0 The characters aren\u2019t sympathetic, they say f*** a lot, and I end up reading through it in a semi-skim, wanting to know what happens but not really enjoying the process of finding out.\u00a0 Maybe I should take up my son on his suggestion to read his tween fantasies instead.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Of course, I know that not all fiction is like that \u2014 there\u2019s always the sort with the soft watercolor covers, the love stories (no, not the Harelquin Romances) \u2014 and my husband, a couple years ago, even got me a\u00a0decent historical fiction book for my birthday.\u00a0 But whenever I pick up whatever seems to be popular, I\u2019m disappointed \u2014 and I wouldn\u2019t go anywhere near 50 Shades of Gray.<\/p>\n
Such it was with Gone Girl, which I picked up at the grocery store the other day (that\u2019s Meijers, for locals, supermarket + discount store before SuperTarget conceived of the idea, so in an actual books section).\u00a0 Yes, it was a page-turner, and, yes,\u00a0I stayed up late reading it.\u00a0 But after I finished it, I just felt dissatisfied with it.\u00a0 Even disregarding the plot itself, there were elements of the backstory that weren\u2019t realistic (her parents get rich off a series of moralizing children\u2019s books which sound horrid, he teaches a class on \u201chow to write for magazines\u201d for a community college, he and his sister buy a bar which appears to support both of them and a dad in a nursing home without his seeming to actually work very much, etc.)\u00a0 And that\u2019s before the plot got going.\u00a0 And the characters are unlikeable (which is part of the structure of the book \u2014 it\u2019s meant to keep you guessing, at least at first, as to who\u2019s innocent and who\u2019s not \u2014 but it still dampers the enjoyment of the book) and say f*** a lot.<\/p>\n