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

May 14, 2016 El rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, big-effing-books, peer-pressure, wanderlust, artsy-fartsy

I've been wanting to read this for a long while. Donna Tartt is one of those writers that I really adore, but she puts out one book every 300 years or so. I first read The Secret History I think in my late teens or so. I read The Little Friend in my twenties. And now I read The Goldfinch before the end of my thirties. (I mean, I still had a couple years to go, but still. Work with me here.) I appreciate that Tartt takes her sweet-ass time between books because I feel she wants to write the book I've been wanting to read this for a long while. Donna Tartt is one of those writers that I really adore, but she puts out one book every 300 years or so. I first read The Secret History I think in my late teens or so. I read The Little Friend in my twenties. And now I read The Goldfinch before the end of my thirties. (I mean, I still had a couple years to go, but still. Work with me here.) I appreciate that Tartt takes her sweet-ass time between books because I feel she wants to write the book she wants to write, and not what some publisher wants, or some other gross person who just wants to make money off of her. Maybe I'm completely wrong and she has people breathing down her neck all of the time, but that goes against my fantasy, so I will disregard that possibility.

But I also put off reading The Goldfinch for a long while because while most people I know on Goodreads have rated it very highly, some other readers whose opinions I trust do not feel as positive towards the book. And I got anxious about it. What if I didn't like it too? Would I be turned off from reading Tartt forever and ever? Probably not because I didn't like The Little Friend as much as The Secret History, and yet I still looked forward to reading The Goldfinch. But again - the worry!

I sat down with my 700+ hardcover copy of this book over a weekend and I read about half of it pretty much in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. It's not that the book has no faults, because it does. It is contrived in parts, bloated for many parts. But Tartt excels as writing believable characters - or if not believable, at least interesting. That can be a challenge, especially for such a behemoth as this book. But she sucked me in, she made me care about young Theo Decker, and I continued caring for him throughout the expanse of the story. I cared about the other characters as well, and my heart sort of broke for many of them because holy shit, a lot of bad shit happens to a lot of people in this book. The book is practically saturated with the tears and blood that comes from all of the characters' experiences.

It's not wholly hopeless, though. That's another thing about Tartt. It seems like nothing will really work out for anyone, but it does, though never in the way you would expect it. It does not end with the relationship I think most readers were pulling for throughout, and that's a bummer, but that's also how life fucking works. Other relationships, again, seemed contrived, but whatever. It was so readable, I barely cared that much.

The story lost a little steam for me towards the end. Theo is older, everyone is older, I didn't care so much for a lot of the events. The story doesn't always know what it wants to be, but instead sort of pokes at everything. There's an underlying mystery throughout, just a light thread that isn't always noticeable, and then all of a sudden all of that sort of explodes in our faces. I didn't enjoy that so much, but only because I wanted to focus on other things and found myself frustrated that Tartt wasn't allowing me to read about what I wanted to read, rather than what she wanted to tell me. That's so selfish, yes, but also a testament to Tartt as a writer that I cared enough to want to see the story play out in a very specific way.

It's hard for me to say if others will enjoy this book. I don't love it because it won the Pulitzer or whatever, I'm not one for award-winning novels (though am pleased whenever I actually like a book that won a prestigious award), and the size will turn off some readers. I liked it because of the atmosphere throughout. There is so much atmosphere here. So much.

Whatever, if you don't want to read the book, I'm sure they'll make a movie of it soon enough. ...more

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Nov 26, 2013 Punk rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

Fiction. Theo Decker walks into an art museum with his mother; his life is forever changed.

Let's get this out of the way: I did not enjoy this book. It won a Pulitzer! Somehow! Yet I suspect the prize committee was smoking something that day, or perhaps it was the Thursday before a long weekend and they were in a rush, or maybe they read the first sixty pages and it checked all their boxes and they didn't bother to go any further, because it just...the book has some issues? That I would not expe ...more

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Oct 10, 2016 Chrissie rated it it was amazing

Depressing but beautiful. Donna Tartt's characters are amazing. Her prose isn't half bad either. ...more

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Dec 04, 2013 steen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

A breath-taking book with narrative that dances and whizzes past you. The early part of Theo's life, the "before," seems so unrelated to the later years of his life, of Xandra and Boris, drugs and booze, reckless and criminal behavior. The sprawling streams of consciousness flit around action and plot, which became a little tedious at times.

All in all, not a bad read but I'm not quite certain it struck a chord with me as it has with so many others. ...more

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May 19, 2014 Allison rated it liked it

This book had many moments of greatness, but I can see a Disney adaptation where the characters are played by cartoon mice. The stereotypes are in place. The incessant descriptions of the characters' mannerisms were unnecessary and eventually drove me out of my mind. ...more

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