I normally paint myself as someone who will trade a decent plot for beautiful prose, but perhaps I have found my limit for that as being somewhere around 300 pages.
I don’t think I’m treading new ground to say I thought The Goldfinch would never end. There is such a thing as too much perfection. Tartt has a magic about her writing – without any obvious brush strokes, you are in a scene – you can see and smell and feel everything. She is a master at “show, not tell,” without being a diva about it and insisting on hitting high notes just for the sake of showing she can. But when the plot can be summarized in just over 1600 words on Wikipedia, and the book is nearly 750 pages long, you have to wonder if there couldn’t have been an in-between? I liked the first part of the book, my introduction to Tartt’s writing – but there were unbelievable moments even then. After a terrorist bomb takes out a museum, the narrator – a 13 year old boy, is not only the only survivor from his area of the museum, but he gets out without running into any responders and is shooed away from the site without anyone noticing he was obviously a victim. I’m not sure if we’re to think Theo is an unreliable narrator from the very beginning, or if it only requires the suspension of disbelief to proceed. While I realize social services is rarely perfect, dealing as they do, with the most imperfect of situations – there are enough adults and enough money involved that being sent off with an obviously unstable parent is implausible at best.
From there the story declines into just about every drama you can think of: child abuse, gambling, alcoholism, drug use and distribution, adultery, racism, art theft, international intrigue, unrequited love, wealth, terrorism, and gangs, to name a dozen. Almost no characters are likable by the end of the story, save Hobie.
All the same, I’m still interested in trying out Tartt’s other works, including The Secret History. But I might just double speed the audiobook through any lengthy narration.
I read The Secret History and The Little Friend a few years ago, I didn’t enjoy either of them. I remember excellent writing, but unlikeable characters. Those books left such an impression on me that I have been reluctant to try this one.
Yay! I can finally admit I find Donna Tartt insufferable. I couldn’t finish either The Secret History or Goldfinch.
I hated The Secret History and remain deeply sceptical of anyone who claims to love it. I therefore have no difficulty believing that this book was bad.
I despised The Secret History. It was given to my by my boss at the time, who promised I would love it. When I didn’t, she was genuinely shocked “HOW COULD ANYONE NOT LOVE THIS?” It was seriously a deal breaker for her.
Around the same time I read Special Topics in Calamity Physics which had a slightly similar feel and which I adored. Marisha Pessl > Donna Tartt
Oh yeah, Special Topics in Calamity Physics is SO much better than The Secret History. It wasn’t as awesome as I’d hoped it would be, based on the hype, but I really liked it.
This is why you guys are my people. If I went to any other of my friends and started a conversation based on The Secret History vs Special Topics, I would just get a bunch of blank stares.
:)
*adds to TBR pile*
I read this for CBR7 and thought it a bad sign that I, queen of literary fiction, was left with “Meh.” My sister, on the other hand, LOVED IT. I think this is a book you either love or hate with no in-between.
Hmmm. The Secret History is one of my favorite books. I re-read it every few years and think about it often. I wonder if it has anything to do with experience. One of my sisters went to a huge university while living at home, the other went to the Naval Academy. I made them read it and they both HATED it. I went to a small liberal arts college and found it very recognizable. I mean, I didn’t KILL anybody, but the atmosphere of the college and the many characters Tartt created were very familiar. That said, I hated The Little Friend and The Goldfinch. And I will try Special Topics. Thanks for the tip.