I found this book to be brilliant despite having already seen the movie. The book is more intelligent and executes and telegraphs its themes in a way that makes things more explicit and, I think, more interesting. Western society itself is stripped bare, showing its sociopathic roots and marrow. Gender roles, the role of the media, the American Dream, and its values. Everything is literalized to show just how horrific and toxic relationships are.

Typically, in stories like these, I find it is rather one-sided. Usually illustrating toxic masculinity. This is more of an indictment that works on many levels. While both couples only are actually happy when performing their gender roles, the alternatives are the kind of horror stories we typically see on the news at 11. A husband who murders a wife, that's how it ends if the premise isn't that the way these two people are raised is such that they actually are only happy faking it. Or, maybe 'Wife leaves alcoholic husband as he becomes more abusive only to end up in the arms of abusive "Friend". I would go so far as to say the only semi-realistic characters are the mass media; if only because when they're in the narrative they're also performing.

Most everyone knows the marriage where either or both of them have "stopped trying". How it's contrived in conversations with gossip and packaged in the media is always as drastic as it is in this story. It's as much about the audiences' act of consumption of the story as it is about how messed up the two characters act toward one another. They epitomize the tropes or time after time favored narratives of the people who do not adequately perform their gender roles. Only that cloak offers no warmth here. There is no good alternative in western culture for people who don't share these values, and the values are bizarre and clearly arranged for men. Nick doesn't know what to do in any situation when things get hard. He is a male Blanche DuBois. Only taking responsibility at the end when he half-heartedly accepts he has created the "monster" that is Amy.

Everything Amy needs and craves from Nick are all things she should be receiving from a good partner. But she becomes a different trope than the doting, perfect housewife. The only other label women have, the crazy bitch. Amy has no choice really but to embody this and in doing so it illustrates just how laughable the typical use of this is. Guys use it all the time to gaslight women, as Nick does. But when she actually is driven off-kilter, it's as horrific as the terrible things men do to women.

I found this brilliant because this particular kind of feminism readily illustrates how toxic and messed up society is for everybody. There is no winning. Amy could end up being the perfect poster girl for feminism, packaged just as readers and media want--but it would have been missing the point. Society is insanity, and we're constantly selling it as a dream of happiness that will literally drive you wild and mad, lacking any of substance but...possibly, sickly happy.