‘Gone Girl’ dissects dysfunction, darkly

Gone Girl

Meet Nick and Amy Dunne, whose marriage is their most obsessive and dangerous passion.

Their marital un-bliss is so destructive it could undo George and Martha who burned up the pages of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

How did things get so bad? That’s the reason to read this book. Gillian Flynn — whose award-winning Dark Places and Sharp Objects also shone a dark light on weird and creepy, not to mention über-dysfunctional characters — delves this time into what happens when two people marry and one spouse has no idea who their beloved really is.

Life starts to unravel when Nick and Amy lose their jobs in New York and move to Hannibal, Mo., to care for Nick’s ailing mom. One day Amy disappears, and because they always do, the police take a close look at the seemingly distraught husband.

To peel away even one layer of what happens to Nick and Amy is giving too much away. Nick insists he had nothing to do with her disappearance even though he’s a liar and a cheat. Someone may be setting him up, and as the investigation goes deeper, he’s looking more and more like a murderer with a means and a motive.

Flynn tells this dark story by alternating first-person accounts from Amy and Nick. What you’ll find within their sides of the story will astound readers who will roll over, look at their mate and wonder, “Who are you, really?”