THE GOLDFINCH
The set-up for THE GOLDFINCH involves a museum explosion, some sort of homegrown terrorism, in which fourteen-year-old Theo Decker’s mother is killed. Ironically, when Theo comes to (he’s also knocked out) he pulls an old man from the rubble who gives him a ring and directs him toward a painting on the wall that he wants Theo to take.
The painting is THE GOLDFINCH a famous work by Fabritius, a student of Rembrandt’s. We don’t know for sure if the painting was ever stolen, but it is an actual painting you can look at in a Dutch museum. The irony is that Fabritius was killed in an explosion himself that destroyed most of his paintings. Tartt gives us a little lesson on why the painting is so valuable. The bird is chained to its perch, but its feathers look real, except for a brush stroke along the side of one wing, which Fabritius purposefully adds to show the viewer his technique as an artist rather than a photographer.
Decker bounces from New York to Las Vegas and back to New York, where he finally uses the ring to get in touch with the old man’s partner, Hobie, who’s a master craftsman who uses bits and pieces of old classic furniture to make it look new, but he’s a lousy salesman and that’s where Theo comes in. He sells the furniture as if Hobie’s “creations” were actual valuable antiques.
Back in Vegas Theo met Boris, whose accent was hard to pin down; it was part Russian and part Australian. Boris’s father was a miner and had been all over the world and so had Boris. They take a lot of drugs and skip school more than they go. Another character who figures predominately is Pippa, the dying old man’s ward, whom Theo falls in love with. He’s not sure whether she loves him back, and that’s part of what little plot there is. Will Pippa and Theo ever get together? Theo's father, a failed actor, is significant for a while; he had left Theo and his mother in the lurch, but after the bombing he’s suddenly interested in Theo, and that’s how Theo lands in Las Vegas.
The painting plays a role throughout the book; it’s lost and found and lost again. The most painful part of the book is when Theo is stuck in a hotel room in Amsterdam without a passport to leave the country. What we have here is a “talking head”, what writers call a character alone on the stage, essentially talking to himself. If it hadn’t been like page 700, I would have quit reading. The word “whiner” wouldn’t be too severe a description of the boy Boris calls “Potter” because of his round glasses.
Then there’s the relationship between Boris and Theo. The reader should be wondering if Boris is “playing” Theo. He’s already crossed him once. This thread could have added some suspense to the plot, but Tartt has already foreshadowed where that relationship is at the end of the book. Theo tells us when he meets Boris in Las Vegas. There also isn’t much of a character arc for Theo. Although he’s trying to make amends for his shady dealings, he’s the same miserable introvert at the end of the book that he was in Vegas, and we don’t see a whole lot of hope for him.
The painting is THE GOLDFINCH a famous work by Fabritius, a student of Rembrandt’s. We don’t know for sure if the painting was ever stolen, but it is an actual painting you can look at in a Dutch museum. The irony is that Fabritius was killed in an explosion himself that destroyed most of his paintings. Tartt gives us a little lesson on why the painting is so valuable. The bird is chained to its perch, but its feathers look real, except for a brush stroke along the side of one wing, which Fabritius purposefully adds to show the viewer his technique as an artist rather than a photographer.
Decker bounces from New York to Las Vegas and back to New York, where he finally uses the ring to get in touch with the old man’s partner, Hobie, who’s a master craftsman who uses bits and pieces of old classic furniture to make it look new, but he’s a lousy salesman and that’s where Theo comes in. He sells the furniture as if Hobie’s “creations” were actual valuable antiques.
Back in Vegas Theo met Boris, whose accent was hard to pin down; it was part Russian and part Australian. Boris’s father was a miner and had been all over the world and so had Boris. They take a lot of drugs and skip school more than they go. Another character who figures predominately is Pippa, the dying old man’s ward, whom Theo falls in love with. He’s not sure whether she loves him back, and that’s part of what little plot there is. Will Pippa and Theo ever get together? Theo's father, a failed actor, is significant for a while; he had left Theo and his mother in the lurch, but after the bombing he’s suddenly interested in Theo, and that’s how Theo lands in Las Vegas.
The painting plays a role throughout the book; it’s lost and found and lost again. The most painful part of the book is when Theo is stuck in a hotel room in Amsterdam without a passport to leave the country. What we have here is a “talking head”, what writers call a character alone on the stage, essentially talking to himself. If it hadn’t been like page 700, I would have quit reading. The word “whiner” wouldn’t be too severe a description of the boy Boris calls “Potter” because of his round glasses.
Then there’s the relationship between Boris and Theo. The reader should be wondering if Boris is “playing” Theo. He’s already crossed him once. This thread could have added some suspense to the plot, but Tartt has already foreshadowed where that relationship is at the end of the book. Theo tells us when he meets Boris in Las Vegas. There also isn’t much of a character arc for Theo. Although he’s trying to make amends for his shady dealings, he’s the same miserable introvert at the end of the book that he was in Vegas, and we don’t see a whole lot of hope for him.
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