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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
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
I bought this in hard cover, shortly after it was released in 2013. I picked it up many times over the years, intimidated by its heft and breadth. I started it on Christmas, 2020, at exactly the right time. Theo, Boris, Hobie, Audrey, Welty and Pippa will live in the library of my heart as long as it beats.
Depressing but beautiful. Donna Tartt's characters are amazing. Her prose isn't half bad either.
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Singular, read it immediately
Along with so many other people posting on Goodreads, there were times when I absolutely loved this book - - - and then there were other times when I found the detailed descriptions of some relatively minor event excruciating.
The main protagonist Theo runs the gamut from likeable to awful - - from a young man that you feel enormous empathy for to an adult that you want to shake at times. Yet, his character is REAL - - just as the characters of Boris and Hobie and Andy and Mrs. Barbour are incre ...more
The main protagonist Theo runs the gamut from likeable to awful - - from a young man that you feel enormous empathy for to an adult that you want to shake at times. Yet, his character is REAL - - just as the characters of Boris and Hobie and Andy and Mrs. Barbour are incre ...more
I'm still digesting this. My most prominent thought is that there'd be no book without Boris.
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I hated the Mildred Pierce flashback frame that opens the book. The plot was silly. There's a bit too much padding around some of the sentences. And the pathos!
But there is something about Tartt's imagination, her characters' longings, and her prose style that's just magnetic. Theo is a lost soul and it's often really difficult to wittiness his life. But there's something about his strife you can identify with and that pulls you in.
So despite its flaws , it was a truly enthralling read. ...more
But there is something about Tartt's imagination, her characters' longings, and her prose style that's just magnetic. Theo is a lost soul and it's often really difficult to wittiness his life. But there's something about his strife you can identify with and that pulls you in.
So despite its flaws , it was a truly enthralling read. ...more
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.
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Jan 02, 2014
Chicklit
marked it as to-read
Jan 18, 2014
Gary
marked it as to-read
Nov 04, 2016
Zack
marked it as to-read
Sep 05, 2019
Caroline
added it
