From the Bookshelf of Suomalainen lukupiiri…

Jumalat juhlivat öisin

Donna Tartt,

Eva Siikarla (Translator)

Start date: January 16, 2017

Finish date: February 15, 2017

Discussion: TBR-kirjat

Why we're reading this: TBR-listopian ykkönen, tammikuu 2017
[close] TBR-listopian ykkönen, tammikuu 2017

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What Members Thought

Dec 18, 2013 Jukka Särkijärvi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, idle-rich-and-stupid, student-life, dark-academia

Had I read The Secret History when I was the age of its narrator, 20, it would probably have been one of those life-changing books that affect the course of one's life. As things happened, I came to it at rather late a date for such shifts in perception, and instead got perhaps the most enjoyable novel I have read all year and a new favourite.

Incidentally, here there be spoilers.

I knew early on I would love the book. First of all, there is the prose. Donna Tartt's English is a beautiful, flowing Had I read The Secret History when I was the age of its narrator, 20, it would probably have been one of those life-changing books that affect the course of one's life. As things happened, I came to it at rather late a date for such shifts in perception, and instead got perhaps the most enjoyable novel I have read all year and a new favourite.

Incidentally, here there be spoilers.

I knew early on I would love the book. First of all, there is the prose. Donna Tartt's English is a beautiful, flowing thing that is very enjoyable to read. The narration adds to this with its pleasantly meandering style that takes its time getting anywhere. It rather reminds me of Neal Stephenson, though where Stephenson has the mind of an engineer and the digressions to match, Tartt is from the humanities side of the fence. She's my people, and it shows.

There is early on a scene where the narrator makes new friends by his knowledge of the Ancient Greek locative case. As a former lecturer of mine would have put it, this made my little philological heart go pitter-pat. This was also the point where I fell in love with the novel. The constant references to the classics and the untranslated Greek, Latin and French snippets serve to remind that the characters are actually studying something and not merely getting drunk at the university, which is an unfortunate omission of many such novels. One of my favourite moments in the novel is a conversation between the narrator and a fellow student, in Greek, translated into awkward and formal text, with explanations of concepts that do not translate. This may be something only language geeks get, but I thought that was a beautiful scene.

It is easy to relate to the primary cast of characters. With all their psychological problems and substance abuse issues, they are familiar to me, as are most of their troubles. The novel deftly captures the feeling of moving away from home to a new, strange place where you know nobody and get thrown together with a hundred of your peers in a similar predicament. Some of those peers, especially in fields such as languages and history, will be somewhat eccentric.

Ah, yes. There is also that murder thing. The Secret History is a mystery novel, though the victim and perpetor are revealed on the very first page and the tension comes from finding out the events that lead to that point. It is quite character-driven, and ties with another major theme of the novel, which is friendship. The plot and all its complications ultimately spring from the complex social dynamics of an circle of eccentric friends and the interplay of their sometimes quite extreme personalities, as well as the remarkable stupidity that even intelligent people often fall prey to despite knowing better. Their motivations and actions are human.

All in all, The Secret History is a remarkably well-crafted novel, exemplary in its language and especially its depiction of milieu and characters. While no novel is perfect and I feel that the ending lagged a bit, my primary complaint is that at 629 pages, it felt too short. ...more

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May 14, 2013 Heidi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, klassikot, paksu

Tämä on niin kehuttu kirja, että siihen tarttuminen oli vaikeaa. Odotukset olivat väkisinkin taivaissa, ja niiden täyttyminen todella epätodennäköistä. Niin siinä sitten kävikin: sitä odotti kirjan olevan todella ravisuttavan mahtava, ja se olikin ihan ok.
Ensinnäkin tarina tuntui usein junnaavan paikallaan. Ilmeisesti tarkoitus oli saada lukija tuntemaan samaa pitkittynyttä piinaa, kuin päähenkilö, joten sen voi kai ymmärtää. Loppua kohden päähenkilöt alkoivat toimia yhä kummallisemmin ja heidä ...more

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Dec 25, 2011 Fizzycola rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really, really liked this book! My son gave it to me for Christmas. He said he read the first page and just knew it was a book for me. It was! How come I've never heard of it before?

It's one of the few truly intellectual and intelligent crime books I've read, and I've read a few of them. Simply mesmerizing! ...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Hanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtiq, favorites, fiction, mystery, adult, books-i-own, read-before-gr, non-fiction, crime, american-literature

Kerran luettu, nyt odottamassa toista kierrosta. Liittyy niin voimakkaasti erittäin merkittävään ajankohtaan elämässäni, että kuuluu ehdottomiin suosikkeihin.

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