Parisian coiffeuse!

Yes, I have actually had my haircut by a Paris hairdresser. If you know me, you know how precious I am about my hair. Not in the way that I'm always having it done/spending hours on it, in fact I'm the complete opposite- I barely ever cut it. But when I do, I want it to be perfect. So it took a lot of guts to do this, and to explain what I wanted in French. Aside from the fact that a little misunderstanding about shampoo treatments which added more to my already above average bill, I was pretty happy. My side fringe was a little too short, as are my layers but it's already settling down and she did make it look super glossy when I came out. All in all, I think we can call that successful!

Cute waves and my highlights are still making an appearance!

Side view of the a-little-too-short side fringe

Progress

Firstly: There’s still time to use the EXCLUSIVE OFFER CODE for PrettyandBling’s Etsy shop. Quote RTB10 to get an exclusive 10% OFF any purchase! CLICK HERE!

So, hi from Paris again! How is it October already? Not only October, but over a week into October. And also just over a week until I go home. That means I’ve spent five weeks here, which has gone incredibly fast and, at the same time, feels like an entire year. That’s no bad thing: I have got myself into a routine and feel so much more at ease now; it’s as if I’ve been doing it forever.

However, I haven’t, and I know I still have a lot to learn. Over the last few days, I have listened to, and spoken a lot of French and I really do generally feel like I can understand more, especially when it’s fast. The teachers are really making an effort to help, which is excellent practice for me and they have welcomed me as one of the staff with open arms. In fact, I have been invited to dinner by several of my colleagues which makes me feel a little bit warm and fuzzy as I realise I must be making a good impression!

Read the rest of my Paris post here.

Beautiful, beautiful Montmartre

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gilllian Flynn

I have just finished reading Gone Girl, after attempting to draw it out for as long as possible so that I would still have something to do when I am in France and the internet decides to stop working. But it was so hard to put down! I genuinely haven’t found a book this brilliantly written and thought provoking for a long time. Sure, I like my exciting but trashy crime novels, yet the quality of that writing certainly doesn’t match up to this.

The best thing about this novel is that there is no messing around. Within a couple of chapters, the reader is presented with the problem/crisis. For the rest of the novel, one is presented with pieces of information, literally interwoven between the alternate narratives of Amy and Nick. A part from a few characters in the more classic novels, like Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein for example, I have never, ever had such a turmoil over who to trust, which narrator is reliable, which story is real.

So here come the SPOILERS… And you really do not want to spoil this book for yourself. My summarised verdict is right at the end of this post, minus any spoilers.

Right from the start, I honestly did really want to like Nick. But the “lies” kept creeping in and that absolutely did what it was meant to for me- I began to wholeheartedly distrust him and wanted to scream, “Just tell the truth goddammit!” I got so frustrated with how annoyingly ignorant he could be to his situation. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my exasperation after he gave that ridiculous smile at the first press conference- who does that?! But at the same time, I desperately wanted him to sort himself out because I think I knew he was innocent, even when it was initially set up to make him look guilty, it just wasn’t quite right.

Being a literature student, throughout the entire book, I was aiming to be one step ahead, to spot the clues when they were given, and to pick apart these characters. I was successful in some of my thinking: for instance, early on I decided Amy was alive; I thought Nick was having an affair; and at the end, when Desi came back into the picture, I realised pretty quickly he would be the solution. But I can’t work out whether these deductions were a result of being subtly directed by Flynn, or the result of some good literature skills. It’s at times like these, I wish I could read a book for the first time without over-analysing everything. (At this point, my good friend would probably say: #litstudentproblems.)

When I suspected Nick of the affair, it practically coincided with the explosive words “I’m so much happier now that I’m dead. Technically, missing” which confirmed Amy was alive. These words gave me an incredible sense of female empowerment as I thought: my god, you clever girl, it serves him right. Yet this was another way that Flynn played with her readers: after a few more chapters, instead of thinking ‘heroine’, I was thinking ‘psycho’. In many ways, Amy was the strong feminist character, from the moment we discover she’s alive, to the realisation that she is literally kind of crazy. She has her reasons sure, but I suppose what has deemed this book a thriller is that she doesn’t deal with these issues in a sane and levelled manner. Hats off to her though, the plan she does create is bloody brilliant. It’s just a shame that it ended up sacrificing feminine authority a bit, but perhaps what partly makes this novel such a page turner is how difficult it is predict where Flynn will go next. And making Amy a mentally unsound, revenge-driven wife was certainly not on that list of predictions.

I significantly remember reading most of this novel with my eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and concentration. Trying to work out who did what, who was to blame, who to trust was a constant turmoil. There were obvious gaps in Nick’s narrative, and Amy’s diary entries got my feminist side up so that he further plummeted in my estimations. And yet there was something holding me back on trusting Amazing Amy. She was just too perfect, and yet ironically, I agreed with everything that she said about not being the whiney wife and allowing her husband to do his own thing. But I suppose this is all to do with the theme running throughout the narrative about one’s own identity, and whether it is inherent, or whether it’s something we can create ourselves…

This leads me to the “Cool Girl” chapter: one of my absolute favourite parts. It’s an impressive comment on the social constructions of today. Actually, it is almost wrong that I call it social constructions because it is individual men and women who bring this upon themselves- not just the varying influences in society. Guys want this perfect girl: the one who will watch football with them, doesn’t nag them, gives them total freedom without feeling tied down- the perfect girlfriend. This is Cool Girl. And I know exactly to what Flynn refers in this chapter, and it is amazing for somebody to write about this so explicitly, so unexpectedly. As women, we know she’s the one the men want, and the one we want to be. But Cool Girl doesn’t exist. Yes, women know about this figure guys want, and they try and recreate it, but I agree that there really is no such thing. I’m no exception- there have been times when I have told, or have desperately wanted to tell, a guy something which I know they will think is amazing, because it matches this image of perfection. “Cool Girl” highlights this conflict within individual identity: of being who you really are, or being the person you want to be.

My verdict: definitely a great read, and well worth picking up if you haven’t already. The ending is a little anti-climatic, but I have since realised that’s because there is a sequel. Nevertheless, this is a totally different take on two individual’s relationship, how they come to understand each other, as well as themselves. And it’s just a little bit deliciously twisted, too.