The Complete Tales of Merry Gold

I love love love this book. Yes, triple love. To me, Merry is the dark side in us all. She is selfish, and cocky, mean and manipulative, alcoholic and self hating. In a way she's the tragic hero. Despite her character flaws and sociopathic tendencies I couldn't help rooting for her. Maybe it was our joint love of vodka and sarcastic judgement of others, but I felt connected to the character in the sense of being able to fully picture her and her motivations in my mind. I kept imagining this wonderful Tim Burton inspired character. A little girl with pig tails and black bows who goes around causing havoc. The evil Eloise if you will. I absolutely loved her description of the the joggers and their running suits indicating, " I am a member of Team Loser." She has such a wicked wit, that I both admire and love.
On a structure note, I found the lack of chronological order to fit perfectly with the story. Bernheimer jumps back and forth between POV as well as Merry's childhood and adulthood, crafting an intricate "pattern" of story. At first I found this frustrating as their was little footing for the story but as soon as I let go of attempting to make sense, I easily jumped back and forth throughout Merry's life. I think this fits nicely with the rhythm of Merry's emotions throughout the novel. She goes from elated to depressed and back up several times throughout the course of the book. This peak and collapse pattern conveys the confusion of the story further as well as the unraveling of Merry's life.