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The Little Friend

3.33 of 5 stars 3.33 · rating details · 11,746 ratings · 1,206 reviews

Twelve-year-old Harriet is doing her best to grow up, which is not easy as her mother is permanently on medication, her father has moved to another city, and her serene sister rarely notices anything. All of them are still suffering from the shocking and mysterious death of her bother Robin twelve years ago, and it seems to Harriet that the family may never recover. So, in...more

Paperback, 555 pages

Published 2003 by Bloomsbury (first published 2002)

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Jun 24, 2008 Leslie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book, quite honestly, infuriated me. The opening chapter is stellar and haunting -- so much so that I slogged through 500+ pages on its promise alone. Anyone beginning this novel will (rightly so) expect a Southern Gothic murder mystery. The premise (at least the one outlined on the dust jacket) has so much potential -- set in a sleepy backwater Mississippi town, it follows the "adventures" of an overly precocious girl from a fallen plantation family (think Scout Finch meets Nancy Drew) who...more

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May 29, 2008 tee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own

Currently reading this one and all I can think of is a passage from a writing-fiction manual that I read. The guy who wrote the article said that he once wrote a whole book and his publisher told him that it was good back-story, it was good for the AUTHOR to get to know his characters so when he wrote about them - they'd be 3D and real - but it wasn't necessary for the readers to know most of the stuff that was written. You can remove a lot of the bulk from that first draft, keep it to yourself,...more

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Jul 25, 2007 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: readers

I sort of want to scream when I read lukewarm reviews of this book. Admittedly, people may get the wrong idea when they read the back jacket, or the first few pages, and anticipate some sort of murder mystery thrill.
The death of Harriet's brother is merely background for her character. The skill with which Tartt explores the inner workings and thought processes of a virtually abandoned 12 year old girl whose older brother's murder has never been solved cannot be praised highly enough. Tartt seem...more

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Oct 20, 2008 Madeline rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ugh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Having read Tartt's previous book, The Secret History, and loved it so much I did everything except start a cult based on the characters, I expected to feel the same way about this. But I didn't.

Know why this book gets only one star?

YOU NEVER FIND OUT WHO KILLS ROBIN.

Let me just reiterate that: the mystery of who/what could have possibly been able to appear in someone's backyard, while the entire family is within hearing range and two kids are sitting on the back porch, and grab a nine year o...more

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Apr 10, 2008 Stacey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: southern gothic fans, fans of slow pacing, fans of character development

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is another novel I really enjoyed. I've read criticism that says that since it is set up as a mystery, it was disappointing since the ending really has no resolution. I looked at this book an entirely different way, seeing it as a rich character study of not only Harriet and her sister, mother, grandmother and lively great-aunts, but also of the Ratliff family, who are quite far off from the somewhat wealthy Cleve family. I thought it was quite obvious from the beginning that, as a mystery...more This is another novel I really enjoyed. I've read criticism that says that since it is set up as a mystery, it was disappointing since the ending really has no resolution. I looked at this book an entirely different way, seeing it as a rich character study of not only Harriet and her sister, mother, grandmother and lively great-aunts, but also of the Ratliff family, who are quite far off from the somewhat wealthy Cleve family. I thought it was quite obvious from the beginning that, as a mystery story, there would not be resolve. I didn't care, since I found the slow, purposeful pacing a wonderful way to set the story in the summer of a 1970s Mississippi town.

A huge part of what I liked about this book was the setting. As I said, both the slow pacing and the southern gothic aspect were a huge draw for me. It made it more of a reading "experience" rather than just reading. For me, this was truly a book that made me feel like I was transported (how corny) and experiencing something new. I wanted to savor it at times, like a rich dessert to be eaten slowly (I believe that ties in to the reading "experience" thing). The descriptions of the heat and the town made me long for hot summer afternoons spent drifting around my old pool at my old house. The setting made up another focal character, and I feel the mood and charm of this story (not to mention the charm of the characters) would have been lost had it been set somewhere other than the south or had been faster paced.

Another aspect I really appreciated was the closeness of the extended family. As someone with a very small immediate family (my mother and I) who has always been close with my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-aunts and the like, I could relate to the fact that the great-aunts were always around and were fully fleshed out and important characters. I also liked the character of Allison, the older sister. She wasn't very active and was mostly background, but she struck me as realistic and someone with whom I could relate. (Is "with whom" appropriate there? Would it be "to whom"? I don't know anything about this "whom" business.) Charlotte, the mother of Harriet and Allison (and Robin, obviously),was also portrayed as an annoyingly realistic mother who had never even partially recovered from the loss of her oldest child. I say she was annoying because she neglects the remaining children in a way I found... annoying.

I loved this book. It was everything I think a novel of this sort should be. I think the descriptions and character quirks will stay with me for a long time, and in a good way. Since I have a knack for reading author's works out of publishing order, I'll probably go back and soon read her debut novel, A Secret History, which was more popular with her fans and critics.(less)

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Oct 28, 2007 Lord Beardsley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: readers of third-rate knockoff Southern Gothic

Shelves: read2007

I gave this book three stars only because of the author's ability to use mood, setting, and descriptive in an incredibly amazing way. However, this book was the biggest cocktease ever. Chekhov once said that if a gun is laying on the table in the first scene it had better be fired by the last. I firmly believe this, but Ms. Tartt seems not to. Oh well. It just seems that if you begin a book with a nine-year-old boy hanging dead from a tree, and the entire plot is driven from this, something shou...more I gave this book three stars only because of the author's ability to use mood, setting, and descriptive in an incredibly amazing way. However, this book was the biggest cocktease ever. Chekhov once said that if a gun is laying on the table in the first scene it had better be fired by the last. I firmly believe this, but Ms. Tartt seems not to. Oh well. It just seems that if you begin a book with a nine-year-old boy hanging dead from a tree, and the entire plot is driven from this, something should happen in the 555 pages of (sometimes incredibly indulgent) exposition. You'd think. Yes, she was describing class distinction and how families can be destroyed and decay, bladdy blah. I'd recommend reading A Member of the Wedding if you want to see that instead. But if you start a suspense novel and then morph it into a long-winded descriptive about redneck meth-heads mixed in with a coming of age story in the deep south...no! Pick a plot, please!

Another thing I have a personal pet peeve of is Black Mammy Characters. You know, at one time in history...like in the Civil War...we were incredibly limited as a culture as viewing black people as, I don't know, human. This is the 21st Century however, and despite the fact that people actually think the tv show Weeds is funny, it wouldn't hurt to at least try to explore the revolutionary idea that black people are human and have a vocabulary that is not limited to speaking like Jim from Huckleberry Finn. I hate when *white* authors attempt to write black characters by using tired phonetic spelling that is just so fucking sadly offensive it makes me embarrassed for them. Now, I realize that the character of Ida didn't at all times rely on sad cliches...she just did most of the time. That whole part about her not really giving a shit about the kids was probably pretty accurate. But seriously, Hattie McDaniel died a long time ago and I'm really not sure they'll be able to find a Black Mammy stock actor to play Ida in the made-for-tv movie (on a side note, I think that Jenna Malone is too old for Harriet, but the mental casting the author did was really dead-on). Really, the bottom line is that the world needs another faux Southern Gothic quasi-racial drama like a hole in the head. The world doesn't need anymore Mammies...that's what that bottle of Aunt Jamima maple syrup is for. Just eat some damned pancakes, enjoy your racial superiority, and quit writing cliche Mammies...PLEASE!

This book could have been great, but instead it was incredibly mediocre. I still don't think she's a bad writer, she's actually quite talented and has a real knack for creating mood...but man, learn when to fire that damned gun Ms. Tartt!(less)

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Apr 29, 2007 Lauren Lastrapes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: The Universe

This is such a great novel. I read it a few years ago, I think it was in 2004, I don't really remember now, but I know it was before I separated from Fabio since during the separation process I only read books by Chris Bojalian and books that Lauren mailed me. She didn't mail me The Little Friend, but I'm sure it is she who recommended it. Just last night, I was talking with my friend Jenna about this book (which I convinced her to read, and which she is reading now) and we were cracking up over...more

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Mar 01, 2008 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 22, 2008 Patrick rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2003

Donna really screws the pooch on this one. She makes a very likeable character, a smart, precocious little girl in a small country town who makes enemies with a group of meth-heads while trying to solve the mystery of her 9-year-old brother's hanging when she was a baby, and turns it into a 576-page snoozefest. I eventually had to go to a library miles away and check out the audio version so I didn't have to waste my precious eyesight reading it. I read this one review where the person said they...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For two weeks, I breathed and slept this book. I was reminded of Joyce Carol Oates, We were the Mulvaney's--specifically due to character development. I remember being in awe for most of We Were the Mulvaney's--the characters, and there were many, were just...intensely developed. I read a lot, and these characters were the stuff of real life: diverse, with nicknames, private histories and nuances. This novel, in the tradition of Oates, managed the same feat. Carson McCullers is in there, too--wi...more For two weeks, I breathed and slept this book. I was reminded of Joyce Carol Oates, We were the Mulvaney's--specifically due to character development. I remember being in awe for most of We Were the Mulvaney's--the characters, and there were many, were just...intensely developed. I read a lot, and these characters were the stuff of real life: diverse, with nicknames, private histories and nuances. This novel, in the tradition of Oates, managed the same feat. Carson McCullers is in there, too--with the narrative switching back and forth between the lives of the people you follow.

I cannot give a more high reference for character development and local color, which Tartt uses like the Southern Woman writer she is--it's utterly outstanding. I could taste Alexandria and absolutely never grew bored of being there during my two week stay.

Sadly, once I got to the end, I realized that's what had kept me going--more so even, than the expectation of plot. It seems, Tartt SO gifted with character analysis and local color (and cross my heat, her first novel is a plot MANIFESTO!), I chugged through all six hundred plus pages of this book without looking back. Marked as a mystery, I did have an expectation for...disclosure. It never came. Instead, it's as if Tartt herself was fooled. I think she was sure the ending, that long-thread she'd been pulling, would finally stop--but it didn't. I almost can't even fault her--it's still SUCH a masterpiece, it is--I loved absolutely every second of it, every auntie, ever little tid-bit no other author would even THINK to include--but I would be lying if I didn't come clean--there is no ending to this book. It's like Tartt got to page 600 and thought, "hm, shoot, this is long, I need to wrap it up," and then forgot she'd started with this involved mystery. Instead she turns her focus to the leading character, and yeah, it's ironic as all get out, but it isn't the ending you want as a reader. You don't feel satisfied in the slightest. I stayed up till nearly four and thought, "really?"

Yet, I'm reluctant to say a word, because, quite frankly, I could never do it. Most writers, even the very most gifted, couldn't do it. Even with no real ending, this book, alone, trumps many of the most fantastically of plot driven novels I've yet to read. I really can't say enough good things about it, except that vital life line of "end" is absent. It is Southern Gothic/grotesque. It is a look into cultures most people won't realize existed, it is a stunner character called Harriet, called Allison, called Robin--on and on it goes, but there really is no ending, she just, got to the last page and said, "I forgot what I was going to say, oh well."

It's disappointing, but still, SO amazing. I could stream-line my self, I could buckle down and write each day and never get close to this--it was a joy to read, but she did over look the fundamental closing. I don't know what happened to Robin. I can analyze and look to all my brain's little cocoons for ideas and potential patterns and "above me" tricks, but the reality is, there not there. She just...didn't finish it.(less)

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Mar 17, 2009 Margaret B. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've finally finished this book after starting and stopping it for seven years. It was evocative in a 1970s-era Southern gothic way and really made you as the reader feel like you were living in this small Mississippi town along with the characters, however, it was so slow-moving as to almost be called boring. It's character-driven the first 75% of the book, and the last 25%, the plot finally kicks in, but at that point, it's almost too late. Tartt frustratingly never resolves the central myster...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in November 2003.

The Cleve family, at the centre of this novel, has been shaped by events about a decade before its beginning, when nine-year old Robin was brutally murdered during a Mother's Day family get-together. In all this time, no killer has been found. Robin's memory has been idolised, his mother has become depressive, and his younger sisters have been brought up by their grandmother and her sisters, and by the household servant. (Their father has mov...more Originally published on my blog here in November 2003.

The Cleve family, at the centre of this novel, has been shaped by events about a decade before its beginning, when nine-year old Robin was brutally murdered during a Mother's Day family get-together. In all this time, no killer has been found. Robin's memory has been idolised, his mother has become depressive, and his younger sisters have been brought up by their grandmother and her sisters, and by the household servant. (Their father has moved away and lives with his mistress.) The novel itself is the story of his youngest sister Harriet's twelfth year, when she determines to find out the truth about Robin's death, fired up by reading Sherlock Holmes and the adventure stories of Kipling and Stevenson.

The geographical setting of the novel, a small town in the American state of Mississippi, is very strong and atmospheric. The Cleves were once the wealthiest family in the region, but now their fortunes have faded after their big house (with the ill-omened seeming name Tribulation) burnt to the ground. They are still well enough off to keep servants, however, even if only one to each of the sisters' households. The town is divided between three very culturally different groups: the rich whites, the poor whites, and the blacks, the last group playing only small roles in The Little Friend (the Cleves' servants being among the least developed characters).

The chronological setting of the novel seems more undefined. At times, it seems to be chronicling events as far back as the twenties and thirties; other parts seem to be set in the fifties, and occasional references mean that it must be meant to be at least the mid-seventies. This is partly because Harriet and her sister are being brought up by a group of elderly women always looking back to the past - both to the time when Robin was alive and to the glory days of the Cleve family. The American deep south, particularly the poorer rural areas, was also a place which was a bit old-fashioned and conservative. There may also be other reasons why the timing seems indeterminate other than these ones to do with the setting; The Secret History, Tartt's first novel, also had something of an old-fashioned air to it, so she may well be someone who likes that ambiance; and here there may also be something of a desire to evoke some of the famous writers of the South, such as Faulkner and Lee.

The Secret History became one of the biggest success stories of nineties fiction immediately it was published, and its many fans will have been eagerly awaiting the followup for over a decade; Donna Tartt is an extremely un-prolific author. The big question that everybody who was interested would have had, then, was whether it was worth the wait.

When The Secret History came out, it seemed different, original and exciting in a new way. Looking back on it now (as a much more widely read individual), it doesn't seem so original (it could be described as "if John Fowles wrote an American campus novel..."), but that I remember it clearly without having reread it in the interim is a tribute to how well it was written. The Little Friend is just as well written, and is a very good picture of a weird family life as seen through the eyes of a child who doesn't really understand it or what makes it so strange. The detection part of the novel, though clearly a part a satire on books for children which have teenage detectives, doesn't really work and gives the impression that it's not one of the aspects of the story which interested the author (which is a contrast to The Secret History). The sense that Harriet and her friend Hely end up getting swept along by something much bigger than they expected is good, however. The Little Friend is much more mainstream than Tartt's debut, even though it has proved less popular. It is also less easy to think of obvious parallels to it (one, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, was published a year later). The Little Friend is a good novel, an interesting read, but it does not stand out in the way that The Secret History did. (less)

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Nov 10, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2002

I knew that Tartt's first book was a sort of murder mystery, and since there's a murder in the first ten pages of this one, I expected it to be a traditional whodunit in literary clothing. It is both less and more than that, slowing talking you out of your expectations and persuading you to accept its presentation.

The book has a disconcertingly languid mood, slow like molasses. Three of the seven chapters are mostly concerned with setting the scene; of those "The Blackbird" and "The Pool Hall" b...more I knew that Tartt's first book was a sort of murder mystery, and since there's a murder in the first ten pages of this one, I expected it to be a traditional whodunit in literary clothing. It is both less and more than that, slowing talking you out of your expectations and persuading you to accept its presentation.

The book has a disconcertingly languid mood, slow like molasses. Three of the seven chapters are mostly concerned with setting the scene; of those "The Blackbird" and "The Pool Hall" both felt draggy and too long. (I mention this only to hearten the reader, because you might, by the book's end, feel nostalgic for the setting; and because the action is worth the wait.) Two epigrams -- from Aquinas and Houdini! -- epitomize Harriet's ambivalence about the search for her brother Robin's murderer at the end of the book, rather than her fierce quest at its beginning. Ultimately the book concerns itself more with her changing methods and goals than with the actual outcome of the investigation. The reader who expects a pat ending or firm resolution will be disappointed.

The reader who is willing to ride along and appreciate the view, without worrying too much about the destination, will have a good time. Tartt describes the world from low to the ground, so that even with a third-person omniscient narrator, we see everything as twelve-year-old Harriet does. Unquestioning of her family's eccentricities, she has a stubborn conviction in her own suspicious perceptions of outsiders. All the ambivalence of adolescence is here: she sulks, throws off her great-aunts' embraces, then cries when she loses her one remembrance of the housekeeper who raised her. Attempts to teach her about puberty insult her dignity, and she prefers to learn about ancient Egypt or Scott's expedition. She seems to embody all the strength of girlhood.

Harriet's grandmother and three great-aunts -- Edie, Libby, Tat and Adelaide -- are a hilarious gaggle of Southern ladies who radiate gossip, Shalimar, affection, lace and baked goods. They reminded me instantly of every exasperating little old lady I have ever loved, and Harriet's relief, when she leaves her own chaotic home and enters one of theirs, is palpable. They also provide fascinating insight into how members of an old plantation family cheerfully but incompletely entered the post-Civil-Rights era. They, and the housekeeper Ida Rhew, are the emotional underpinning of Harriet's life and the novel.

Most of the funniest bits come from outside Harriet's family. Tartt gets details of accents and seemingly meaningless social interactions dead-on. There's a mortifying Baptist summer camp that Harriet is driven to

"Welcome, ladies," he crowed, leaning into Edie's rolled-down window. "Praise the Lard!" (350)

which is made even funnier by the fact that she only agreed to go in order to escape the long arm of the law. There is an entire family's worth of no-good trailer-dwelling Ratliffs -- who, in their essential irredeemable badness, reminded me of the Herdmans in the The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. (For excellent children's book references, see A.O. Scott's review.)

In short, I greatly enjoyed this book. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give it, though, is to confess that I can't wait to read it again and see what else I find; this is the kind of book where page 1 just naturally seems to follow page 555.(less)

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Oct 01, 2008 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"With Ida had vanished many comforts. Among them was sleep. Night after night, in dank Chickadee Wigwam, Harriet had lain awake in gritty sheets with tears in her eyes--for no one but Ida knew how to make the bed the way she liked it, and Harriet (in motels, sometimes even at Edie's house) lay open-eyed and miserable with homesickness late into the night, painfully aware of strange textures, unfamiliar smells (perfume, mothballs, detergents that Ida didn't use), but more than anything else of Id...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Kellie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-reads, fiction-literature

This book was not what I expected at all. The cover makes you think it’s about a young girl trying to figure out who killed her little brother. That is some of what the book is about, but there is so much more. Too much in my opinion. This was one of the longest books I ever had to get through. And for the first time in several years, I almost quit reading a book. It took till the middle of the book before it became remotely interesting to me. The story is about a family. A very dysfunctional fa...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: literary fiction fans

Shelves: literary-novels

This book was the July selection for the mystery book club I belong to at Barnes & Noble. For some strange reason, it seems the book is being marketed as a mystery, which is probably why many readers don't finish it or are disappointed when they do. Beef bourguignon may be great stuff, but it could be a let down if you were expecting pizza.

Unfortunately, it me took about 300 pages (about half the book) to figure out that I wasn't reading a mystery. After that, I stopped expecting anything fr...more

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Jun 05, 2007 Siria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-century, american-fiction

I didn't adore this as much as I did The Secret History; possibly because it just simply didn't have the page turning thrill that the last book had. That doesn't mean that it's not damn impressive though, and a book that I read quite slowly in order to savour it for as long as possible.

As ever, the characterisation is wonderful. Harriet and Hely, Charlotte and Ida Rhew, Farish and Gum, Edie and Eugene were all drawn wonderfully. Complex and never really likeable, they were all still very engagin...more

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May 29, 2007 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is Tartt's second book, and there are only two. I read this directly after I read her fantastic debut, "The Secret History". The first novel was published in 1992, and fans had to wait over ten years for this second effort.

This is a terrific book, and it inspired in me the same voracity as "The Secret History". However, this book is certainly more laborious, more troubled than Tartt's debut. It tells many, many stories, most specifically of 12-year old Harriet Dufresnes, who is trying to so...more

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Jan 05, 2008 Vanessa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, I debated whether or not to give this book three or four stars and then settled on three because I was disappointed with the last quarter of the book. She's a great writer with really fleshed-out, interesting characters. But I thought the book was going to go somewhere else and then it just didn't feel like it lived up to its potential. Tartt had generated all of this great tension leading up to the face-off between the two central characters and then when it came, it just didn't really wo...more

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Apr 13, 2007 Julz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller

I loved Secret History, but I was disappointed in this novel overall, especially after waiting so many years in between books!

There were some great chapters in this book, but overall it was too long and got too deep into that weird snake-charming stuff.

Like many novels which follow a great debut, it went over the top and ruined itself. It's almost like authors get scared by too much initial success and then try too hard. An example from a completely different genre would be the Helen Fielding's...more

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Jul 17, 2007 Holly Booms Walsh rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Southern Gothic fans, mystery fans

Shelves: audiobook, fiction

I was so excited to get this book on audio since I love Tartt's first novel. This book is equally charasmatic and strange as The Secret History, but it's both more broadly-appealing and more clumsily written. It could have used a sharp-eyed editor as the second half of the book gets less focused and harder to wade through all the subplots, and loses a lot of readers (according to the reviews here as well as my friends' comments). That said, it's a fine Southern Gothic tale and the female charact...more

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Nov 05, 2007 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading and loving the Secret History, I ran to the library when Donna Tartt's (long overdue) second effort was released. Though the beginning entices you with a gripping mystery, 575 tedious pages later the payoff for hanging in through the long-winded and overly descriptive body of this novel was a disappointing, unrealistic dead-end. The only thing I found interesting was the protagonist, a precocious child who is too smart for her own good. However impressive character development is,...more

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Apr 30, 2007 sara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't remember that much about it now, other than... oh wait, I shouldn't reveal. Anyway, me not remembering could be a sign of laclusterness (I like my new word!) or it could just be a result of my ways. Either way, this book was alright - a big disappointment after The Secret History. It could have fared a lot better if she had tied it up in the end. Her ending totally failed... actually there WASN'T one, which did not work. Sorry, Donna, it's hard to live up to the whole debuting genius boo...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Monique rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: just-good-general-easy-reading-fict

Deja vu..I know I read this book before but couldnt remember it so I read it again..good thing this book was cute and moved fast..So the plot, a family in grief over a child's death twelve years ago is the backstory and the main character Harriet, the dead boy's brother is adorable and smart and it is her goal to find out what happened to her brother..After researching, going through family and personal drama she thinks she uncovers the murderer (which is weird how she got to this conclusion whe...more

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May 17, 2013 Jane Mackie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The spunky girl child who does not conform to the world around her. Even before Scout Finch came along, she was a popular figure in children’s literature (Jo; Pippi; Anne; etc.) She is a widely beloved figure, and probably rightly so. Even though I never had much to do with Jo or Pippi or Anne, I love Scout Finch very much. (“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”) And perhaps girls are especially in need of role models whose charm resides in their d...more The spunky girl child who does not conform to the world around her. Even before Scout Finch came along, she was a popular figure in children’s literature (Jo; Pippi; Anne; etc.) She is a widely beloved figure, and probably rightly so. Even though I never had much to do with Jo or Pippi or Anne, I love Scout Finch very much. (“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”) And perhaps girls are especially in need of role models whose charm resides in their difference from those around them –the spunky heroine probably has the good taste not to drive around with a “Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History” bumper sticker, as she’s busy being herself instead.

The spunky girl at the center of this book, though, grated on me, and I think Tartt does masterful work in making Harriet both sympathetic and unlikable. Sympathetic, because her childhood does seem as dismal as anything Dickens could come up with; unlikable, because she is not a very good person. As a child, Harriet evinces a quality that I see often in adults: there are certain people who profess a great interest in social justice and are puzzling because they seem to hate everybody, not just oppressors but oppressed, except when the oppressed can be discussed in worried tones. I once overheard a very pregnant woman who had studied anthropology and professed to be greatly interested in cultures around the world say, “I just hope it isn’t a boy, because, well, you know,” and perhaps unfairly, whenever I encounter someone who works as a social worker or public interest lawyer who appears to hate everyone – an all-too-frequent occurrence – I think of her, because not only did she apparently have an issue with half of the world’s population, she also made her lack of interest in me and her dislike of her native U.S. clear (this latter because of how Americans are. I’m not sure what distinguished the other 300 million of us from her, precisely, but I’m sure it’s something very bad.).

This is something of a digression, because Harriet does not profess to like people, and she is admirable in certain ways. But bridling against racial injustice does little good if one has compassion only of an impersonal sort, and that only for the most abject victims of injustice. Tartt shows this nicely, especially in a wrenching scene where Harriet realizes how insensitively she has treated Ida, the housekeeper who has raised her and whom she loves deeply. Harriet has always been sensitive to the casual, generally unexamined racism of the people around her, and she has not been guilty of it, but she has been guilty in the way of self-regarding children who don’t understand the sacrifices and sensitivities of older people. She does the same to her own aunts, and at Sunday school she mocks her “prissy” classmates. This is where Tartt’s portrait is a little problematic. Harriet’s unwillingness to be like everybody else is a good thing insofar as moral courage is central to any fight against injustice, but her dismissal of everyone else around her and its attendant moral elitism is not the stuff of leadership. I think that Tartt handles most of this tension deftly, but Harriet’s conviction of her own superiority occasionally starts to smack of the “spunk for spunk’s sake” that bedevils too many would-be heroes and heroines who seem bratty instead.

Tartt doesn’t suffer from undue admiration of spunk, though, even if at times she seems to lose control over the narrative voice and fall into cutesy admiration of Harriet’s “tomboy” qualities. (Not a term Tartt actually uses, to her credit – the term is my own cheap and gendered shorthand.) Her worldview is more complicated, in part because of the chilling portraits of the novel’s villains. At a meth lab outside of town, a wizened matriarch and her grandsons made me feel afraid in a way I hadn’t since a few frightening encounters with undersupervised children during my own kidhood: that feeling that you have no idea what horrors might emerge. The scene is terrifying without being a crude parody of what impoverishment and crime look like.

There was much to like in this book, but I wish there had been just a little bit more plot resolution. Also, I was mildly confused by something that happened at the very end, if anyone’s willing to discuss offline I’d appreciate it!
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Mar 22, 2013 David Harris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. * Like Secret History, the ending was a bust, July 15, 2004 *

WARNING! This review assumes that you've either read the book or have decided to forego reading it.
If you don't want me to spoil the book for you, don't read this review. Thanks.

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
After 600+ pages of intricate character and plot development which, one felt, must surely lead to an extravagant conclusion, the novel suddenly grinds to a halt. Maybe that was the point. The crime that was unsolved for so many year...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Vicky Parkinson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This took me three goes. It had been on my shelf for years with the bookmark left in it about a 3rd of the way through and on rainy days I'd contemplate taking it down again and carrying on but I couldn't help feeling that I already knew the story and had a pretty rough idea of how it was going to pan out without actually having to wade through it. So after a second failed attempt to enjoy it, it was shelved again.

On another rainy day, months later I gave in and picked it up again.I have to admi...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Lisa Roney rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, general-fiction, southern

I was really disappointed in this book, partly, I think, because it has been so highly praised as literary crime fiction. It was easy enough to read, but there were several things that didn't work for me, even when they had a positive aspect:

* There's a lot of beautiful descriptive writing, and I am usually a fan of maximalist writing, but too much this was just flowery and in the way of the story. It felt like padding, as did many of the characters.

* The main character was a thirteen-year-old c...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Tina added it · review of another edition

Shelves: twenty-twelve

I read this book because I ABSOLUTELY LOVED The Secret History and I wanted to see what else Tartt could create. (Besides the fact that I had hopes of falling madly in love with another awesome read.) As you can see I gave this book 1 Star. Let me explain. While this book has a great plot (it has a few actually) it's more of a character driven book. Character driven books are hard for me, so it took me quite a while to read. There are a lot of details about the characters, their lifestyles, the...more I read this book because I ABSOLUTELY LOVED The Secret History and I wanted to see what else Tartt could create. (Besides the fact that I had hopes of falling madly in love with another awesome read.) As you can see I gave this book 1 Star. Let me explain. While this book has a great plot (it has a few actually) it's more of a character driven book. Character driven books are hard for me, so it took me quite a while to read. There are a lot of details about the characters, their lifestyles, the time period, etc. If you've read The Secret History you know how detailed an author Tartt really is. And while the lengthy detail made it harder for me to finish I really did enjoy being immersed in the great detail she created. Especially since I have ties in Memphis & am familiar with her descriptions. The real problem was the ending. Usually when I finish a book with a bad ending I feel the need to chunk the book across the room while screaming dramatically. This wasn't the case. I was so stunned by the abrupt ending I could only flip back and forth through the pages in total confusion, at a loss for words, and completely void of emotion. WHAT THE HELL..... What am I supposed to do now????? It took me a couple of months to read this.... and for what??? To be slapped in the face with a shit ending??? Oh, Donna... why, oh why would do that to me??? Below is one of my favorite passages from the book.... It's just a glimpse of Tartt's kickass talent.

"Later, when Harriet remembered that day, it would seem the exact, crystalline, scientific point where her life had swerved into misery. Never had she been happy or content, exactly, but she was quite unprepared for the strange darks that lay ahead of her. For the rest of her life, Harriet would remember with a wince that she hadn't been brave enough to stay for one last afternoon--the very last one!--to sit at the foot of Ida's chair with her head on Ida's knees. What might they have talked of? She would never know. It would pain her that she'd run off, cravenly, before Ida's last work-week was over; it would pain her that somehow, strangely, the whole misunderstanding had been her fault; it would pain her, terribly, that she hadn't told Ida goodbye. But, most of all, it would pain her that she'd been too proud to tell Ida that she loved her. In her anger, and her pride, she had failed to realize that she would never see Ida again. A whole new ugly kind of life was settling about Harriet, there in the dark hallway at the telephone-table; and though it felt new to her then, it would come to seem horribly familiar in the weeks ahead."(less)

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Nov 07, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 10 years between the secret history and this.... and only 1 year between me reading them.

Secret history was an instant and enjoyable masterpiece. This one, you have to work harder to love and you really do feel every one of its 555 pages - taking me a fortnight to complete.

The story is a Southern Gothic thriller containing many of the genres requirements - racism, symbolism, decay, noble families on the wain and white trash.

When Harriet is a two year old - her brother, Robin aged 6, is found han...more

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About Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt (born 23 December 1963) is an American writer who received critical acclaim for her two novels, The Secret History (1992) and The Little Friend (2002). Tartt was the 2003 winner of the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend.

The daughter of Don and Taylor Tartt, she was born in Greenwood, Mississippi but raised 32 miles away in Grenada, Mississippi. At age five, she wrote her fir...more

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Quotes from The Little Friend

“Even if it meant that she had failed, she was glad. And if what she'd wanted had been impossible from the start, still there was a certain lonely comfort in the fact that she'd known it was impossible and had gone ahead and done it anyway.” — 23 people liked it

“The possible, as it was presented in her Health textbook (a mathematical progression of dating, "career," marriage, and motherhood), did not interest Harriet. Of all the heroes on her list, the greatest of them all was Sherlock Holmes, and he wasn’t even a real person. Then there was Harry Houdini. He was the master of the impossible; more importantly, for Harriet, he was a master of escape. No prison in the world could hold him: he escaped from straitjackets, from locked trunks dropped in fast rivers and from coffins buried six feet underground.

And how had he done it? He wasn’t afraid. Saint Joan had galloped out with the angels on her side but Houdini had mastered fear on his own. No divine aid for him; he’d taught himself the hard way how to beat back panic, the horror of suffocation and drowning and dark. Handcuffed in a locked trunk in the bottom of a river, he squandered not a heartbeat on being afraid, never buckled to the terror of the chains and the dark and the icy water; if he became lightheaded, for even a moment, if he fumbled at the breathless labor before him– somersaulting along a river-bed, head over heels– he would never come up from the water alive.

A training program. This was Houdini’s secret.” — 7 people liked it

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