Gone Girl | Mark Rubinstein Blog

Tortured Souls Tell Great Stories

March 2, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Poisoned by his lustful quest for vengeance, his obsession carries his crew to their demise.
(Ahab, Moby Dick)

The king goes slowly insane because of his mistakes and his daughters’ perfidy.
(Lear, King Lear)

She was forced to make a choice between two unbearable, unthinkable options.
(Sophie, Sophie’s Choice)

Their marriage, finances and lives were bankrupt; and now he is suspected of her murder.
(Nick and Amy Dunne, Gone Girl)

She could not stop remembering the sound of the spring lambs being slaughtered.
(Clarice Starling, The Silence of the Lambs)

Take the character to hell (either physically or mentally), and if well-drawn, the reader will really care about this person. All of us can relate to the torture of being alive in an indifferent world.

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A Good Story is Disturbing

February 4, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

As David Mamet told me, “If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad’s not dead, and asks him how school was, it’s boring.”

As a psychiatrist and novelist, I’m aware that all good stories are disturbing. No matter how beautifully written or “literary,” a novel resonates deeply because the storyline tugs powerfully at us. It upsets, confounds and presents chaos, conflict, imbalance and upheaval — either within its character’s mind or circumstances.

As readers, we crave instability, disturbance, and uncertainty. They make us care about the characters and the outcome. We live vicariously through the anguish, turmoil and trouble the characters endure in a quest to reorder chaos — the disequilibrium — propelling the story.

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Gillian Flynn: The Evolution of an Author

August 9, 2012 by Mark Rubinstein

I just finished reading “Dark Places” by Gillian Flynn, the author of the current best-seller, “Gone Girl.”

I’ve commented on how much I enjoyed “Gone Girl” and why it was such a compelling read. The most valuable thing (for me) about reading “Dark Places” was the chance to see how far Gillian Flynn has evolved as a writer with the publication of “Gone Girl.”

While I would give “Dark Places” a solid 3 1/2 stars, it can’t compare to the masterful storytelling of Flynn’s latest novel. It’s interesting to see how the author’s writing matured between the two novels. It shows that we tend to get better at doing things by simply doing them.

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