Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a fictional mystery torn from the tabloids. It's the sensational story you try to ignore but can't. Amy was the inspiration for a bestselling children's series, and now she has disappeared on the eve of her fifth anniversary. The media points a finger at her drop-dead-gorgeous husband, Nick. He hadn't even bought her gift, and she had arranged a treasure hunt for him with odd clues.

On the day that Amy vanishes, Nick admits that his beautiful, intelligent wife was unhappy. After losing their jobs, they'd quit trendy Brooklyn to tend to his unwell parents in the midwest. Nick borrowed money from Amy's trust fund to open a bar in his hometown while she moped in their McMansion, pining for the city. His current-day narration alternates with her diary, telling their backstory. Her witty, charming voice is more compelling than his whining denials. Still, you can't help feeling a bit sorry for him. Nick may be a cad, but is he a murderer?

Author Gillian Flynn breaks nearly every rule of narrative fiction, but somehow she gets away with it. Gone Girl has hovered near the top of The New York Times bestseller list since its release in June. The real mystery for me was how did the author do it. Her narrators are unlikable and unreliable, and the plot twists contort and overrun the characters. The ending is absurd. Nonetheless, the reader is gripped.

Gone Girl is not without literary merit. The relationships are well developed and the cultural observations about NYC versus the midwest are hilarious. In many ways, this suspense thriller works best as social satire with the media cast as the number one villain. It is also a comedy of errors. Flynn spotlights the secret jokes, tender moments, irritating habits and infuriating missteps of marriage. She asks, who hasn't, at times, wanted to kill his or her spouse? The resolution was disappointing after all the build up, but it was certainly a quick, fun read.

Disclosure: I picked up this book and put it down in more than one bookstore, underwhelmed by the first chapter and wary of all the popular hype. The hardback cost $25 and my Kindle had died on the beach. On NPR the author cited V.C. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic as her inspiration. Talk about trashy. I bought literary paperbacks that failed to hold my attention under the hot sun. More people recommended Gone Girl to me. Others shook their head. When author Beth Kephart gave it a positive review, I headed to my local bookstore and laid down the cash with few regrets. Gone Girl was just right for the last days of summer.

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@Barrie Summy

Wildflowers, Carnivorous Plants and Wild Edibles in Baxter State Park

A Mystery Wildflower

There are some wild things growing in Maine's Baxter State Park. This looks like a nice bog, right?
My son knelt down and pointed out two species of carnivorous plants. Yikes!

1. the Pitcher Plant traps and drowns insects.

2. Sundew is sinisterly sticky. 

We decided to stay on the viewing platform.

In the woods, we foraged for bunchberry from the dogwood family.
My son described the taste as plum/tomato.
He'd learned plant ID from Chewonki Wilderness Trips.

I didn't need his help identifying laurel, which grows all over Maine.

Neither one of us could ID this common wildflower,
featured in the opening shot. It lined all the roads.

It's too tall for common dandelion 
and the leaves don't look right for cat's ear.
(Thanks, Gail, for identifying the Kirgia and for hosting.)

It thrived on woodland paths in mid July. Any idea what it is?

More about our Baxter trip here:

Mt. Katahdin

Moose and Calf

Canoeing

Visit Wildflower Wednesday hosted at Clay and Limestone. 

This is my first time.

Reminder: Friday 9/28 is the 10X10 Art Show in Brunswick, Maine.

10X10 Art Show in Brunswick, Maine

Friday September 28th is the fifth anniversary of the 10X10 Art Exhibit and Sale. My two watercolors are among the 325 works by local artists. This benefit will fund an artist-in-residence program in Brunswick elementary schools. There will be a silent auction too, including works by Bowdoin College professors, Mark Wethli and John Bisbee. Local restaurants have donated hors d'oeuvres. Come join us!

Rising Tide at Lookout Point

Lookout Point in Harpswell is one of my favorite places to paint.  

At low tide this miniature island connects to land, 

but at high tide the trees nearly drown.  

As the tide rises, seaweed floats like long hair.  

A reflection of trees develops on water, undulating in the current.  

My initial sketch was submerged in water and in paint.

Lighthouse Islands at Popham Beach

It was a challenge to fit a long, flat beach into a square.  
I searched for vertical elements offshore.  
I wanted to include all three islands 
but settled for the two with lighthouses.  
As I painted, a curious seagull kept me company, 
insinuating himself upon the page.  
I love Popham in September for the clear blue skies 
and the space to find 
solitude.  
As the days get shorter and colder, 
this painting will recall the feel of warm sand 
under bare feet.

10X10 Art Show

Curtis Memorial Library & St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Next door venues on Pleasant Street, Brunswick, Maine 04011

Friday September 28, 2012 from 5-8 pm
(non-auction art is $200, including 10-inch-square frame) 

Public Preview:

Thursday 9/27 5-8pm & Friday 9/28 12-3pm

Or click for Online Preview

Painting on Location

This is my art studio.

September is my favorite time of year to paint. My kids are back at school so the afternoons are mine. The air is both cooler and clearer, making colors more intense, shadows longer. Potts Point in Harpswell is empty other than lobstermen. There are fewer biting insects too. 

After checking the weather radar and the tide chart, I drive a few miles to the coast. It's quite precarious balancing a camp chair on slippery rocks. I fear I've lost a brush or two to the tide. 

Watercolor, however, does a better job than photography at capturing the sea and islands. A photograph flattens the landscape and bows the horizon. Colors on a bright day become washed out. The human eye knows how to compensate. What is captured on paper is not just a shutter stop instant, but an entire afternoon. It's a dynamic experience rather than a frozen moment. 

The problem is often too much movement. The wind blows. The tide rises. Watercolors like to flow too. I tape my paper to a board to keep it stable. First I pencil a loose sketch. Then I save the whites and the bright buoys with masking fluid. I wash in the sea and sponge the sky before working in the details with a drier brush and more intense pigment. 

The most challenging part of autumnal paintings is keeping the reds from blending into brown with the greens. Those seasonal hues will come last of all, along with the deepening shadows. The original underpainting is only a memory.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Back in June, I posted a list of good summer books, including just released Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, which I had only just started. From the first page, I was gripped by the unusual premise and entranced with the whimsical voice. A captured British spy is writing a confession for her Gestapo interrogators. This World War II Scheherazade spins a convoluted tale to postpone her death sentence. She tells the happy story of how she met her pilot, another 18-year-old girl, and the events that led to their crash landing in occupied France.

Author Elizabeth Wein, a pilot herself, has clearly done her research into how women were involved in the war effort. She uses small details, like the advent of ballpoint pens, to make history seem real, but it's her idiosyncratic characters that bring the pages to life. Even the Nazis are well developed with the line between good and evil somewhat blurred. I can't think of another war book that has young women as protagonists, and not romantic interests of the soldiers. Code Name Verity allows the girls to lead the action and to form a close wartime bond, while still maintaining historical accuracy. The somewhat epistolary writing style matches the time period too.

The spy narrator was one of the best characters I've ever encountered. Her plucky spirit reminded me a bit of Juliet from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peal Society, but this story, despite being written for teens, was darker. Although the descriptions weren't graphic, the details of the spy's confinement and the cries of her fellow prisoners haunted my dreams. Still, I spent more time laughing than crying as the protagonist had a most British sense of humor: stiff upper lip with ironic, self-deprecating asides.

Most of the narrative avoided the grim realities of war and instead focused on how two girls from opposite ends of society, one upper class Scottish and the other working class English, became best friends. There's a hint of romantic attachment, but it's not spelled out. Their close friendship followed the tradition of Anne of Green Gables and her bussom body, Diana. It's a welcome change from more recent clique books to have a teen novel centered on a positive female friendship.

Don't let the young adult label put you off; Code Name Verity is perhaps better suited for adult readers due to the dark subject matter. My husband loved it too and found the battle scenes realistically chaotic. It would be too scary for our sensitive 15-year-old daughter, but I recommended it to her best friend, who reads mostly adult fiction. It's exciting to find innovative, literary work with strong female characters for teen readers.

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@Barrie Summy