The Secret History in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Dec 12, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was ok

Shelves: ultimate-reading-list, popular-fiction, crime, fiction, literary-fiction, novels, contemporary, mystery, before-i-die

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunney had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. That's the first line of the novel, and by the end of the second page we learn that it was murder, and at least four people were involved including the first person narrator--Richard Papen--and his friend Henry. We know that at the outset, so the mystery and suspense here is psychological rather than a puzzle piece. Well, mostly, because we soon learn that R The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunney had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. That's the first line of the novel, and by the end of the second page we learn that it was murder, and at least four people were involved including the first person narrator--Richard Papen--and his friend Henry. We know that at the outset, so the mystery and suspense here is psychological rather than a puzzle piece. Well, mostly, because we soon learn that Richard, Bunney and Henry, along with three others are students of an eccentric but charismatic classics professor, Julian Morrow, who exerts complete control over their course of study at a small, elite Vermont college. So the question is, was the professor involved, and why was Bunney murdered?

We soon learn what a grip Morrow has on his students, and there was plenty there to quickly make me wonder if we could find the motive in what and how he taught. I thought this story might be akin to Hitchcock's Rope or Doestoevsky's Crime and Punishment where ideas themselves propel towards murder. Richard tells us "the classical mind is narrow, unhesitating, relentless" and the class is fond of the aphorism "beauty is terror" and toasting "live forever." But after being teased with those themes it's never satisfyingly connected up. This is no Crime and Punishment or Name of the Rose.

We also soon learn that both Richard and Bunney are outliers in this group in different ways. Richard is a scholarship student whose father owns a gas station, the others are scions of wealthy families. The privileged students seem rather obnoxious caricatures of trust fund babies. Richard is a wannabe. His favorite novel is The Great Gatsby and he tells the group his father is "in oil." And Bunney? Well, he's the only one in the class who really isn't a scholar--in his way even more an oddity in this group. I quickly grew to dislike Bunney. I slowly was growing to rather like the others, and then on page 171 we get the reveal and ever after I learn their seeming snobbery and shallowness covers--well, a callous elitism and pretentiousness. And what precipitated the murder seems cliche and silly at the same time. By the time I got to the end of Book One halfway through the book, I just couldn't care less about these characters.

One odd thing is how muddled are the details of the setting. At one point Richard's boss Dr. Roland talks about having a ten-year-old car made in 1998--which would put the murder in 2008. Except this is a world seemingly without internet, cell phones, CDs, ATMs or personal computers and where people are still using typewriters.

Now, I don't agree with those passionate detractors among reviewers that call the book awful. If you want a rant from me, mention The DaVinci Code or the Twilight "saga" to me. I thought this book was well-written and the characters well-drawn, but I can't understand the passion some readers have for the book and why it would wind up on a snob-appeal list like 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. Just because Greek classics are name-dropped left and right? My main emotion at the end was disappointment I'd invested all those hours in reading it. ...more

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Jan 09, 2014 Sheida rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

I can't form coherent thoughts about this book right now. I feel like I just read a very important book with extremely fascinating characters and I'd give it a 5/5 if it wasnt for the fact that I was slightly underwhelmed by the first "reveal" and the story about how it all happened. ...more

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