The Goldfinch in Bookmarks Subscribers

Oct 13, 2013 Diane Prokop rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a sprawling door-stopper of a book that explores the themes of love and loss with stops along the way in NYC, Vegas and beyond backdropped by the fascinating inner-workings and dark underbelly of the art world. It's an incredible slam-dunk five-star thriller injected with more tragedy and comedy than a reader could ever desire. Don't be afraid of its length; you won't want it to ever end. ...more

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Mar 12, 2014 Elle rated it liked it

This book was in need of an editor. It also was excellent writing so I didn't mind that it was gratuitously long. The other fault was the characters did not mature from age 13 to in their 20's.I have heard this called a 'coming of age' story which doesn't match the fact that the characters didn't change. When at the beginning of the book the boy who is 13 years old has not changed or matured when he is in his 20s at the end of the book, it is hard to agree with it being a coming of age story.

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Jan 30, 2014 Doreen rated it it was ok

Shelves: personal-library

I finished this book with regret – regret that I had invested so much of my time reading this 771-page tome. It has received many rave reviews and was chosen as a Best Book of 2013 by the New York Times. Last week it was at the top of the best seller list in Maclean’s. I am obviously in the minority, but I found it wordy and pretentious.

Thirteen-year-old Theo Decker survives a bombing at an art museum, but his mother is killed. He escapes without anyone noticing him and takes with him The Goldfi I finished this book with regret – regret that I had invested so much of my time reading this 771-page tome. It has received many rave reviews and was chosen as a Best Book of 2013 by the New York Times. Last week it was at the top of the best seller list in Maclean’s. I am obviously in the minority, but I found it wordy and pretentious.

Thirteen-year-old Theo Decker survives a bombing at an art museum, but his mother is killed. He escapes without anyone noticing him and takes with him The Goldfinch, a painting by a 17th-century Dutch painter. He is provided a home by the family of a schoolmate before being taken to Las Vegas by his father, a man whose personality is dominated by the addiction gene. Later he moves in with Hobie, the business partner of a man who spoke his dying words to Theo after the museum explosion and who (Theo believes) told him to take the painting with him. As he drifts into adulthood, he keeps the painting despite experiencing tremendous guilt about having it in his possession. Eventually he is drawn into the criminal underworld which uses stolen masterpieces as currency.

I was expecting the novel to examine the power of art on our lives, and I was not disappointed in this regard. There are several discussions of the impact of art. Hobie tells Theo, “’And isn’t the whole point of things – beautiful things – that they connect you to some larger beauty’” (757)? Hobie insists that a painting can change “’the way you see, and think, and feel’” (758). For Theo, The Goldfinch is a thing of beauty but it also connects him to his mother who loved the painting. At one point, he says that “The painting had made me feel less mortal, less ordinary” (559). At the end, he summarizes that “Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair. But the painting has also taught me that we can speak to each other across time” (771).

Theo, the narrator, is not a likeable person. At the beginning one would have to be totally heartless not to sympathize with a child who loses a parent he desperately loves after having been abandoned by a selfish, unfaithful father. The Barbour family takes him in and provides him with a home, but it is a temporary arrangement and Mrs. Barbour is not the maternal type. When Theo’s father reappears, he proves to be anything but a model parent. It becomes difficult to sympathize however, as Theo continues to make one poor decision after another, well into adulthood. Even when provided with a stable home and support and affection, Theo comes across as an ingrate as he behaves in ways that put all that in jeopardy. One could make a plausible argument that Theo suffers from post-traumatic stress, but from the very beginning he wallows in self-pity and behaves in ways that are self-destructive and hurtful to others; for example, after his father left, Theo engaged in petty criminality even though the staff at his school was very supportive and even though he understood the consequences for him and the hurt his beloved mother would experience.

Then, in the end, he makes an appraisal of his role in preserving art; arguing that love follows art through time, he decides that he played a “bright, immutable part in that Immortality.” And he concludes with a lofty statement: “And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally from hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next” (771). His mother once said to him that “’anything we manage to save from history is a miracle’” (28) and he implies that he has helped perform a miracle?! Oh please!

As a teen in Las Vegas, Theo meets Boris who has a tremendous impact on Theo’s life. I found Boris unbelievable. He is fluent in multiple languages and reads Dostoevsky even though he is drunk or high most of the time? Hobie is another unbelievable character; in his case, he is just too good to be true. When Theo finally admits to Hobie of an illegal scheme that could have dire consequences for both him and Hobie, Hobie isn’t angry; instead, he blames himself: “’I’m as much to blame for this as you’” (497). When he later learns of Theo’s further criminality, he says, “’It does all swing around strangely sometimes, doesn’t it? . . . How funny time is. How many tricks and surprises’” (753).

The plotting is very slow and occasionally stretches credibility. The description of the explosion’s aftermath made me wonder if Theo would ever find his way out of the museum. And when he does, he manages to get out without anyone seeing him? The drinking and drug use sessions in Las Vegas go on and on. The descriptions of the effects of drugs become tedious in their repetitiveness. The extensive tangents are unnecessary; for example, if I were interested in furniture restoration, I’d consult non-fiction books written by an expert in the field. Horst, “a bad junkie” (572) goes on for pages about the technical skill of various artists. And the number of coincidences is problematic. Boris, for instance, makes an appearance just when he is expected to do so. There are so many coincidences that it seems the author feels she has to justify them: “’Who was it said that coincidence was just God’s way of remaining anonymous’” (758). Characters are always exchanging meaningful glances: “A glance was exchanged – the heft of which I recognized instantly” (531) and “They looked at each other and some unspoken something seemed to pass between them” (570). The scenes in Amsterdam, those outside Theo’s hotel room, are perfect for an action film but are not in the same genre as the rest of the novel.

Much has been made of the style of the book. There is no doubt that the author is intelligent and educated, but at times I sensed some pretension. The number of literary and artistic allusions is impressive. German, Russian, Polish, French and Dutch phrases are used. But is a sentence of over 200 words really necessary (715)?

There were several times when I considered abandoning the book; however, I kept hoping I would encounter something that would change my largely negative opinion and that somehow the book, unlike the tethered goldfinch in the painting, would be able to soar. It did not. At one point, Theo describes the finch in the painting as “fluttering briefly, forced always to land in the same hopeless place” (306). The book does the same.

Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
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Dec 17, 2013 Debbie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-osky

Am I missing something? I am seeing so many 5 stars reviews of this book but I just can't agree. If Goodreads allowed for ½ stars, I would probably go 3 1/2 because the writing is beautiful. BUT...with that said...reading this was laborious. The plot was very contrived, the characters a little unbelievable. I kept wanting to give up but when you are 500 pages, the thought is "It has to get better." Unfortunately, I didn't feel that it was worth the 700 plus pages. ...more

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Jan 02, 2014 Ginni rated it really liked it

Great read, but long and intense. I loved the characters, although they were quite flawed. The middle of the story got pretty depressing for me, but I soldiered on because I really did want to know what would happen. I think this is a sign of a worthy book; despite low points you just want to keep going. I'm glad I did. It was well worth it. ...more

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Aug 12, 2014 Terri Fish rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Although I enjoyed Donna Tartt's writing style and much of the story engaged my interest, I still ended up being disappointed. Like "A Secret History", the ending was not to my liking. The middle section, set in Las Vegas, dragged on and on. I felt like I got the idea fairly quickly and didn't need hundreds of pages to follow Theo's descent in life and to get a read on what Boris was all about.
Hence, I personally cannot give "The Goldfinch" but three stars. Obviously the (Pulitzer) literati see ...more

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Nov 19, 2013 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013-read, tofb-2014, 2014-woman-s-prize, pulitzer

I really enjoyed The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - for the first 500 pages. It was not that the last 200 pages were bad, but by the time I got to them I was ready for the story to end. Part of this may be my own fault as I started the book over Thanksgiving vacation and was able to read the first 400 pages voraciously. The last 300+ took me the entire month of December with all of the holiday bustle.

The Goldfinch is a coming of age story about Theo Deckker who comes to possess a famous priceless p ...more

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Nov 22, 2013 Chanda2426 rated it it was amazing

WOW!! The Goldfinch surpasses the hype! Tartt is truly an amazingly gifted storyteller! Tis better to wait 10 years for a novel of this magnitude than churn one out every few months. I was, and am, captivated by her work. A true gem!! Perhaps the greatest book I have ever read! Everything else pales in comparison!!

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Sep 06, 2013 Sue rated it it was amazing

I've had some time to think, and 5 stars it is. Donna Tartt is the whole package. She is an absolute word-master, an amazing storyteller and her breadth and depth of knowledge about practically everything: objects, facts, history, drugs, art, geography, language and, perhaps most importantly - human nature - on every level of the socio-economic spectrum, astounds. I can't wait to read her next one in 2022! ...more

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