The Goldfinch in Reading with Style

Jan 04, 2014 Wendy rated it it was ok

Shelves: literary-fiction, 1001-books, doorstops, pulitzer

First, I just want to say I <3 all my GR friends! I know so many of you liked this. I read The Goldfinch and I can see the draw, but my cynical side got the best of me on this one.

First, an equation:

(Harry Potter quirkiness - magic) + (Trainspotting - consequences) + (Age of Innocence) + (an art heist) + (deluge of beautiful yet ultimately mind-numbing prose a la Edgar Sawtelle) = The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch is a celebration of excess, whether it's the drugs, or the *feels* & jerking around of em ...more

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Nov 21, 2015 Tien marked it as lost-interest · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

dnf :(

Have really enjoyed The Secret History so I thought I'd give this a go but been struggling to keep on listening to the audiobook for a week and I can't hack it anymore @65%

Maybe another time... ...more

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Apr 06, 2016 Bucket rated it liked it

Shelves: bildungsroman, life-and-death, parents-affecting-children, tragedy, reviewed, psychology, 1001-read-all-editions, literary, friendship, hella-sweet-book-club-read

This novel is sometimes slow, sometimes action-packed, and could have done with about 200 fewer pages. While the characters are vivid and flawed, usually a good recipe for success for me, I just didn't love this book.

One reason is that there were multiple places where Theo's thoughts or observations rang distinctly false, taking me right out of the story. For example, describing his therapist, at age thirteen:

"If I'd had to guess, I would have said he was newly married, with a baby -- he gave This novel is sometimes slow, sometimes action-packed, and could have done with about 200 fewer pages. While the characters are vivid and flawed, usually a good recipe for success for me, I just didn't love this book.

One reason is that there were multiple places where Theo's thoughts or observations rang distinctly false, taking me right out of the story. For example, describing his therapist, at age thirteen:

"If I'd had to guess, I would have said he was newly married, with a baby -- he gave off a glazed vibe of exhausted young fatherhood, like he might have to get up and change diapers in the night -- but who knew?"

This is absolutely not a believable observation for a thirteen-year-old to make, especially an only child without a normal father figure. Another example:

"I remembered all the times I'd stepped inside to find my mother sorting the mail, waiting for the elevator. Fresh from work, heels and briefcase, with the flowers I'd sent for her birthday."

His mother died when he was thirteen; how many times could he realistically have sent her flowers? It's hard to believe a thirteen-year-old did that, let alone that he did it when he was even younger.

The best moments were Theo's interactions with the painting, which were few because he keeps it hidden for most of the book. His thoughts in those moments, though, are the most real emotions he has:

"Quickly I slid it out, and almost immediately its glow enveloped me, something almost musical, an internal sweetness that was inexplicable beyond a deep, blood-rocking harmony of rightness, the way your heart beat slow and sure when you were with a person you felt safe with and loved. A power, a shine, came off it, a freshness like the morning light in my old bedroom in New York which was serene yet exhilarating, a light that rendered everything sharp-edged and yet more tender and lovely than it actually was, and lovelier still because it was part of the past, and irretrievable."

The painting is Theo's only remaining connection to his mother. Without giving anything away, I will say that I was a little disappointed in the ending. The ultimate lesson of the book (repeated multiple times by multiple characters to make sure the reader can't possibly miss it) is that good things can come from terrible, horrible things and that no matter your intentions, good or bad, the result can still be really good or really bad. This doesn't really interest me.

I'm more interested in Theo's final reaction to seeing the painting one last time:

"And I'm hoping there's some larger truth about suffering here, or at least my understanding of it -- although I've come to realize that the only truths that matter to me are the ones I don't, and can't, understand. What's mysterious, ambiguous, inexplicable. What doesn't fit into a story, what doesn't have a story. Glint of brightness on a barely-there chain. Patch of sunlight on a yellow wall. The loneliness that separates every living creature from every other living creature. Sorrow inseparable from joy."

Themes: tragedy, drugs, art, psychology, love, survival, destroyed childhood ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Emily Green rated it really liked it

Very healthy read at 771 pages. Slow going at times. Other reviews mention they did not like the length and Donna Tart could have taken out a lot of the superflous stuff. However, I love epic novels like these (The Son, Wally Lamb, Ken Follet...) so I don't mind the length. The protagonist, Theo Decker, is very unsympathetic at times. Mostly because he is very self-awared and makes the choices he makes so naturally at times I wanted to strangle him. Overall, I'd give 4/5 stars, if anything for j ...more

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