The Goldfinch in Around the World in 80 Books

May 08, 2014 Kathleen Valentine rated it it was amazing

Let me start by saying that I loved Tartt's first novel, The Secret History. I read it over 20 years ago and have re-read at least parts of it many times since. When her second book, The Little Friend, was published I bought and started it but never finished. I don't know why—maybe because I never felt the magic I felt from The Secret History. So when The Goldfinch was published I bought it but then kept putting off reading it—I wanted to love it as much as I loved her first book and I was afrai Let me start by saying that I loved Tartt's first novel, The Secret History. I read it over 20 years ago and have re-read at least parts of it many times since. When her second book, The Little Friend, was published I bought and started it but never finished. I don't know why—maybe because I never felt the magic I felt from The Secret History. So when The Goldfinch was published I bought it but then kept putting off reading it—I wanted to love it as much as I loved her first book and I was afraid I wouldn't. But I did.

First of all, let me say this is absolutely not a book for everyone. It is long and filled with intellectual ramblings that are bound to turn some people off—just like they turned me on. One of the things I most loved about The Secret History was its intelligence. It assumed right from the beginning that the reader knew about things like how language shapes culture and the unavoidable presence of archetypes in our lives. Its characters were young, mostly affluent and privileged, and yet also damaged. The Goldfinch continues this tradition and enhances it. There are a lot of side trips into art, philosophy, literature, and I loved every one of them.

The story, briefly, is that Theo Decker, a twelve year old boy living in New York City with his mother, has gotten into trouble at his private school and his mother has to take a day off from work to see the headmaster. Because they are early, she decides to take a quick tour of a new show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, while there, terrorists set off a bomb (in the museum—that alone will give you nightmares), killing many people including Theo's mother. Theo, while making his escape—unaware that his mother is dead—stops to comfort a dying man and his young ward, Pippa, and, at the old man's urging, salvages the painting The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritus. Theo goes home to wait for his mother but when he learns she is not coming home, he forgets all about the painting and, by the time he remembers it, his life has changed dramatically.

From this point on Theo's life is a series of misadventures, many of them out of his control, most of them not very happy and not the least of which is his guilt for being the cause of his mother's deat. In many ways Theo reminded me of Richard Papen, the narrator of The Secret History. He is an intelligent young man but weak and damaged by life and who resorts to drugs and alcohol to cope. Yet, despite that, he remains sufficiently functional to create a life for himself that, while misguided at times, is filled with astonishing beauty. I have to admit I felt a bit of a thrill when Theo described things—most especially his longing for Pippa—in words that were nearly the same as Richard's longing for Camilla.

Tartt has a marvelous ability to present familiar settings giving them a dark, gothic ominousness. Her New York City—both the Village and the Upper East Side—are rainy, cold, dreary and ever so slightly terrifying—despite the lavish apartments and affluent residents. Her Las Vegas is not a glittery, fun-filled playland but a wasteland of barren subdivisions being reclaimed by the desert. Her Amsterdam is downright mesmerizing.

The book is 700 pages long and there were a few times I found myself skimming just because I was eager to see what would happen next. It is a book of horrible people (Theo's father and his crazy girlfriend, Xandra) and wonderful people (Hobie and Theo's mother) and people who have been so battered around by life that they've lost any sense of a moral compass (Boris.) Yet all of them are so real you almost feel you know them.

I loved this book and I can certainly understand why it won the Pulitzer—it is intelligent and wise and filled with warnings about where it is much too easy for a life to go once that first wrong wrong turn is taken. I will admit I did not love any of the characters as much as I loved Henry Winter—though Hobie came close. The final chapter, Theo's ruminations on the painting he inadvertently stole so many years ago, is one I will read again, and probably again. For me that makes it a treasure. ...more

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Feb 05, 2019 Preeti rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Got me hooked from the very beginning. A beautifully written book, parts of which left me awestruck. Some lines that I found remarkable:

"Between ‘reality’ on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there’s a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic.”

“I felt the strangeness of the city pressing in all around me, smells of ...more

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Jan 06, 2014 Alisa rated it it was amazing

I'm going to go all out with a five star rating, even though there were a few times throughout this very long novel
I wanted to throw it against the wall (except I was reading it on my sister-in-law's Kindle, so not a good idea!).
This is a big novel, epic in length, with big ideas on life, loss, death, art, fate, etc. It is beautifully written. That said,
I can't help but sympathize a bit with the negative reviewers who cried out for an editor. The Goldfinch is definitely
bloated in parts.
The revi ...more

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Sep 13, 2020 AmyAmy rated it really liked it

Shelves: finished-reading, favorites

ONLINE DISCUSSION:
Does anyone want to join in on a casual and friend discussion of 'The Goldfinch'? All are invited, as long as you've read the book.
Date: Dec 6 2020 (Sunday)
Time: 12:00 noon (New York time)
Zoom Link: {https://us04web.zoom.us/j/4468831729}
PASSWORD: redsun
Meeting ID: 446 883 1729

REVIEW:
I just finished reading this book two hours ago. I have not read any of the reviews here yet.

I give this book four and a half stars. Why not five? It got a little too wordy. It needed some edit ...more

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Mar 06, 2014 Meghan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, good-reads, fab-fiction-by-women, mystery-and-thriller, us-new-york-nyc, east-coast, great-characters, illness-and-aging, children-as-protagonists, west-coast

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 30, 2017 Melaniedk rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

Love this book! The book tells the story of a 13 year old boy whose mom dies in an explosion in a museum in NYC. The boy survives and steals a painting from this museum. The plot centers around this boy and the painting. Written as a classic but at the same time in touch with today's world (Las Vegas, drug use, gangs). ...more

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Sep 28, 2014 Georgia Carvalho rated it it was amazing

I really liked the underlying story and her prose was beautiful. However, at times she dragged scenes on forever, without getting to the point, so much so, I could forget what the point was -- very much like being inside the teenage mind.

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