The Goldfinch in What's the Name of That Book???

Mar 22, 2013 karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: from-publisher-or-author

okay. so i read it. and i don't want to be all gloaty-gus for those of you who still have to wait three whole months to get your hands on a copy, but i will say, in brief, that it is worth waiting for. it is worth waiting three months for, as you knew it would be, but i don't know if i can wait another eleven years for another book.

because she's still got it. it is beautifully written. it is everything you hoped it would be: characters as complicated and nuanced as real people. situations alter ...more

660 likes · Like · see review

Aug 04, 2020 Philip rated it it was amazing

Shelves: concord-book-clubs, pulitzer, audio

An absolute gem of a book.

Sometimes audio hurts a work, sometimes it enhances it. The audio version of this book was superb. The accents of the characters... I mean, Boris - who has like... an Eastern European/Ukranian/Australian accent? Звичайно! Я це чую! (Zvychayno! YA tse chuyu!) Or Xandra's gravelly, but not off-putting voice? Really well done.

I went in cold, and was expecting something a little bit more... idk... Jodi Piccoult. But it wasn't. Not at all. (And that's not a diss, I'm a big J ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 28, 2014 martha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, 5-star-favs, year-2014

Aaaaahhhh, this was so long! Aaahhh, this was so good!

If the world allowed such things, I'd probably give this a 4.5; there were definitely parts I didn't enjoy and parts I found debilitatingly stressful, but I'm rounding up for how completely engrossing it was. (And isn't that almost all anyone really wants in a book? It is for me.)

First, a note of appreciation for the immense range in settings and characters and tone -- so incredibly disparate, maybe moreso than any other book I can think of, Aaaaahhhh, this was so long! Aaahhh, this was so good!

If the world allowed such things, I'd probably give this a 4.5; there were definitely parts I didn't enjoy and parts I found debilitatingly stressful, but I'm rounding up for how completely engrossing it was. (And isn't that almost all anyone really wants in a book? It is for me.)

First, a note of appreciation for the immense range in settings and characters and tone -- so incredibly disparate, maybe moreso than any other book I can think of, yet ultimately this feels as cohesive and real as an actual life. The way it stayed with details, let scenes of even very mundane life expand in real time contributed to that feeling of realism.

This seems like a digression but it's not: one thing I never expected about getting an ereader was how it would transform me into a highlighter/underliner/marginalia-er. I never have been, since I've spent my life in the world of library books, or textbooks I'd have to sell back. And even in cases when I could, it's not like I'd stop reading in the general course of things, to find a pen and make a mark. With the Kindle, though, I can pause and underline any gorgeous turn of phrase or crazy good paragraph and I do now, all. the. time.

This is the kind of book that's made for that. Except it's not the kind of book where style overwhelms plot; no matter what else you can say about it, this book keeps moving forward, is almost compulsively readable in that sense.

And in a way, really -- here's where my pretentious English major side is gonna come out -- it's like when the book talks about how you can see a painting two ways at the same time. As Theo puts it: "It's there in the light-rinsed atmosphere, the brush strokes he permits us to see, up close, for exactly what they are--hand worked flashes of pigment, the very passage of the bristles visible--and then, at a distance, the miracle, or the joke as Horst called it, although really it's both, the slide of transubstantiation where paint is paint and yet also feather and bone."

And that's how this book is put together, too. You can see the brush strokes, the handiwork that goes into the really excellent writing and at the same time appreciate the whole story as something that seems real and inhabitable, without the writing coming between you and it at all.

Also I can't wait to go back and look at what I marked. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 11, 2013 Melissa Rochelle rated it liked it

Shelves: library, read-2013, coming-of-age

I never thought, I'm going to abandon this book, but I certainly felt like skimming over a lot of it. I loved the beginning of this book. So much that I didn't want it to end. Then we went to Vegas and I started to grow a little tired of this book. Then we were back in New York, all is well, but then we were in Europe.

The characters are interesting, the story is good, the writing is dense. Apparently it's Dickensian, but I've never read Charles Dickens (except for maybe The Christmas Carol), so ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2014 Melinda Worfolk rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, women-authors, 2010-2014, adapted-for-movie-or-tv, lgbtq-plus

I loved it. I liked Tartt's first novel, The Secret History, but this one surpassed my expectations! It's enormous in scope and very ambitious and I think it works. There's not a lot that can be said about it without spoilers, so all I will say is that I thought the storylines and characters were fascinating, and the writing was very beautiful. It just pulled me along and it was the first book in a while where I just wanted to keep reading and reading to find out what happened.

I liked the prota ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 28, 2015 Liz rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-on-tape, bookclub

I'm actually shocked I liked this as much as I did but something about it kept me wanting to listen. Highly recommend the audio version even though it's 32 hours! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 29, 2013 Jessie rated it it was amazing

This book wrecked me. It's impossible to write coherently about it. I didn't think she could ever top The Secret History, but this is her masterwork. And did anyone else get a weird, Catcher In The Rye vibe? Like a super drugged up, modern Holden Caulfield? Maybe it's just me.
I was filled with both profound sadness and vast joy as I read this book. I'm babbling. Donna Tartt is God, possibly? ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 28, 2014 Michelle rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-book

Ups and downs of loving and hating this book. At times, it was magical, funny, witty. At other times... Tedious. Toward the end... Definitely tedious.

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2014 Marigold rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dickensian, literary-fiction, fiction-2010-2020, nyc, five-stars, states-nevada, pulitzer-prize

Edit: This is the first time I've actually tracked a "re-read" in Goodreads - I don't re-read that much, so usually I just ignore anything I re-read and don't add it. But I wanted to add this because I read this very deliberately as my last book of 2020, and I'm so glad I did. It's the perfect book with which to end this shitty, unbelievable, but important year. I loved this book as much the second time as I did the first.

My definition of a "Good Read" includes good writing, interesting charact Edit: This is the first time I've actually tracked a "re-read" in Goodreads - I don't re-read that much, so usually I just ignore anything I re-read and don't add it. But I wanted to add this because I read this very deliberately as my last book of 2020, and I'm so glad I did. It's the perfect book with which to end this shitty, unbelievable, but important year. I loved this book as much the second time as I did the first.

My definition of a "Good Read" includes good writing, interesting characters, a good story, and a book that takes me on a journey of some kind. The Goldfinch fulfills all those criteria beautifully. It's long. It's somewhat harrowing from time to time. Within the larger picture - which is an exploration of love, grief, what family consists of, friendship, place-based identity, obsession, anxiety, and the redemptive power of art and beauty - the book is an homage to writing and art itself. From its detail to its philosophy, from its Dickensian orphans to its noir-movie sequence in Amsterdam, it reflects pieces of art & brings them back to us in a different form.

I can't say that I loved Theo (the main character) all the time; he's damaged, smart, secretive, introverted and takes way too many substances. If I knew someone like Theo in real life I'd probably avoid him! But as a character in a novel, I cared about him, & I kept rooting for him throughout the book. Is Theo the goldfinch? Like the bird in the painting, he's held captive, in his case by his own life that he can't forget or escape from. But he goes on, a little disheveled & a little brave & a little crazy. In general the characters in The Goldfinch are very true to themselves. Their good and bad qualities make sense within the characterization, so there are no jarring notes where you think, "oh, that person would never have done that." Every character is fully realized & multi-dimensional. You can see them in your head, you can hear their voices, you know what they do & why they do it. You feel like they're real people. I will never forget Boris, Hobie, Theo's father, Xandra, or Mrs. Barbour. Even Andy, Platt & Kitsey, who are side characters, have lives that pop out of the page. Every character speaks their own language. I've seen some criticism of language used in this book, & other reviewers have said that characters don't talk like modern people. While that may be somewhat true, for me it speaks to Tartt's ability to draw the character through their voice and language. Theo does not use the same words as Boris or Hobie; a young & very intelligent young man of modern times does not use the same words as a Russian Australian-raised young man with little schooling, or the same words as an older, somewhat sheltered old-school New York City antique restoration expert.

Things I want to say about The Goldfinch that are not spoilers - OK this one is an extremely, extremely minor spoiler that may make things easier for readers like me - there's a dog, & the dog does not die. (Yeah, I had to read ahead to make sure.)

I've added this to my "Dickensian" shelf, & I see in other reviews that the parallels between The Goldfinch & some of Dickens' works have been noticed before. While the setting & time period are modern, the journey of Theo is reminiscent of Pip in Great Expectations or even David Copperfield. There are also some sly references to Harry Potter throughout!

A final note about another genius thing that Tartt does in The Goldfinch. She creates settings you can smell, taste and feel. New York City and Las Vegas and Amsterdam are like additional characters in the book, & the descriptions of specific places & weather & the "feel" of the city are absolutely perfect.

Having trekked across the world with Theo, I was exhausted after so many pages & so much real pain, but I didn't want it to end. I really almost felt like going back to the beginning & starting over. This is a brilliant achievement - don't miss it. ...more

Like · see review