The Goldfinch: Reviews By 2015 Reading Challengers

[Jodi]

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

Please make sure to mark your spoilers by typing "[spoiler]" at the start and [/spoiler] at the end but replacing the []s with <>s.

[Paul Emily]

I read this book last month and loved it, possibly too much. This is what I wrote in my Readers' corner on it - I don't know if it's what I would write if I wrote actual reviews (partially due to lack of time/confidence/hope, this is something I haven't gotten around to yet and I'm not sure if I ever will), but I think it gets across some of what I thought about it.

Disclaimer: I kind of don't have any real sense of what I'm doing at all, really.

"Yeah, I loved it, and I don’t care what that says or may say about me. I’ll happily admit that not everyone’s going to like this book (and that is in no way a bad thing), and that if they dislike it they might dislike it for exactly some of the same reasons as I liked it. In my book though, Tartt has an incredible way with words and metaphors, apart from some rough passages the pacing is excellent (I’m still kinda surprised at how gripping I found it), and she’s just very good at letting characters talk and revealing themselves through their words. This book is like Tartt tried to compress the entire world into 860 pages, or at least a small section of it, and she dang near succeeds. I can definitely believe that it took her >10 years to write this, that she could have spent hours and days agonising over single paragraphs, attempting to work out the right cultural reference to use as garnish or the proper words and sentences to justify her somewhat ridiculous (admittedly) scheme. (view spoiler)[I mean, the book doesn’t justify itself fully until the last 60 pages, though I still feel like the journey was worth it. (hide spoiler)] So yeah, I loved it basically. I don’t know if I could read it again, but I’m not entirely sure how much that matters."

Rating: * * * * *

Edit: I also feel good about calling Tartt a wild eccentric genius whose work I absolutely do need more of in my life, if that means/adds anything.

[Winter, Group Reads]

Beautiful review that resembles the feeling I had after reading The Secret History so many years ago. She has something special in her writing and a way of pulling you in. I recommend The Secret History if you haven't read it!

[Paul Emily]

Thanks Winter! Personally I could never call what I wrote up there (or indeed anything I ever write) beautiful, but I appreciate the kind words nonetheless. :)

I think that must be it, a special something indeed. Not to say that nobody else has it, and I don't know if I could ever put my finger on it, but like I sort of alluded to up above though I can completely understand people thinking that this book is just so much verbiage and repetitive cruft and repeated sections, I personally never felt that way. If I were to compare it to anything I'd compare it to The Casual Vacancy, which managed to be weirdly compelling and engaging (kind of like The Goldfinch, which is what I'm getting at) even as not a whole lot was actually happening, and even if I ended up only quite liking it.

I haven't; this is actually the first of hers I've ever read! It'd be disingenuous to say I read it merely because it was there, but it's a part of the truth - my sister brought it home from somewhere sometime in the past year and left it hanging around when she moved back upcountry with the advice that it was merely ok-to-quite-good, and not too long ago I got in the mood to gather up some of the books I wanted or might want to read (for the first time or again) in the house that weren't necessarily mine and finally air them out. Hence The Goldfinch], though obviously I'd had some vague idea of what it was about and its, uh, its reputation. (It's also why I finally plan on reading Ulysses this year, along with The Merchant of Venice, Eat, Pray, Love, The Secret Life of Bees, The Name of the Wind and Americanah again, etc., but those are neither here nor there.)

But no, I think I added The Secret History and The Little Friend to my to-read list before I even finished The Goldfinch! I think I'll read Friend before History before (not sure when, mind), if only because Friend is in my library right now and I'd have to request History, even if as far as I'm aware Friend is considered her weird/bad book and History is considered her good one. (At a pinch I'd put The Goldfinch as being her controversial book as it happens.)

[Winter, Group Reads]

I think that is quite accurate. I tried to read The Little Friend to soon, with the exellency of History too fresh in my mind and ended up terribly disappointed. But I think I'm finally ready again this year and will do her complete works.

I can see why some might not like her style, yes..

The Name of the Wnd is great btw!

Good luck with Ulysses. Definetely saving that one a bit, finished Portrait of a Young Man and not eager to start another Joyce this year..

[Paul Emily]

I've read Name of the Wind before actually; sorry I didn't make that clearer. It was on a college friend's recommendation about two years back I think. I didn't actually like it that much, though I can more or less see why people like it and I really do think that technically at least Patrick Rothfuss is a very good writer. It's just that the pacing was that much too leisurely for me and I didn't find it as easy to engage with Kvothe as I would have hoped. I feel like it's due a reanalysis though which is why I'm planning on reading it again.

Yeah, Portrait is an odd little book all right. It's been a while since I read it, I remember it being good but very little else, and as a result I'm not really sure what to make of it anymore. I'd point you vaguely in the direction of Dubliners here - it's more down-to-earth and approachable than Portrait was at least - but when I reread it again it turned out my tastes must have changed along the way because now it's just a tad too plain for me :( (Not that it isn't still good, but it's not the piece of excellence I used to see it as when I was younger and more callow)

Ulysses is interesting so far; it's striking me as a very naturalish progression away from Dubliners and Portrait and before whatever Finnegans Wake is/ends up being. It's actually reminding me a fair bit of The Goldfinch, if The Goldfinch were more fragmented and denser and illusory and bewildering and impenetrable. Most of it is actually fairly reasonable to read (only 9% done with so far though) but when it gets into what I imagine is the stream of consciousness stuff it doesn't really make much sense at all. The thing is though, I get the sense that that's the point and/or that it doesn't really matter that it doesn't all make sense. I like it though! I'm not sure how much I like it, but I definitely like it. It doesn't really feel that much like it was written in the 1910s; in a sense it actually feels quite modern. It's pretty tedious admittedly, but it's not the kind of tedious that makes me want to give up and throw the book across the room. If I even were the type to throw books across the room. But no, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. :)

[Kara]

Sometimes I forget to write reviews--I get busy and don't make it a priority. And then this will happen. Now it's a year later, and I'm kicking my 2014 self for not writing my thoughts down on this one!

I gave it five stars. I loved it. The rest of my in-person book group did not love it. I can see their point, but I thought this was beautifully written, and I don't mind when my books aren't happy.

[Winter, Group Reads]

I don't mind that either Kara. Don't know if you have read Never Let Me Go, but my sister explained it afterwards as "crushing my heart a bit more" when I wanted to see the movie with her which is fairly accurate. I loved it though and so did she.

Paul: You give me hope that I will like it later, although it might be quite a bit later. It's one I need to psyke up a bit for and focuse.

[Ariel]

(view spoiler)[ The Harry Potter references, the Tell Tale Heart vibe present in both the plot's survivor's guilt and secrecy/"crime," Tartt's ability to write grief genuinely - especially from the view of the grieving child growing to affected and grieving adult, and the novel's intriguing themes make this quite a novel to dive into. I felt the influential tang and twist of Salinger and Capote throughout and agree wholeheartedly that it's Dickensian both in depth and plot similarities. The themes of art as beauty, art as immortality, and art as memorial definitely brought up some Wilde comparisons along the way. Including Theo's almost turning himself hauling up the [contextually similar from a psychological point, imo] image of lost Dorian stabbing our gray fiend to his demise.

I feel like this novel has weight and merit; it gives the reader something to chew on with the stumble and grind of emotional climaxes and leaves something of itself behind in the experience as the best books do. I haven't read The Little Friend yet but, having read this and The Secret History before it, I'm sure it will appear on my bookshelf at some point. (hide spoiler)]

[JoJo]

I liked it. I rated it 4 stars. It's a very long book though! I found it easy to read, and even when nothing much was really happening, it was still interesting to read.

[Cassandra]

I had to think for quite a while whether I wanted to rate this four or five stars. I went with four (when in doubt and all that), but it's definitely on the edge of five. I'm glad we read this for a group read!

This was a great story. The author created such memorable characters that are beautiful and flawed, and they are woven together in the story so tightly that they can't seem to go far without coming back to each other. She has an almost overly detailed writing style, which was a bit off-putting in the beginning, but quickly became an asset as the story got underway, making you feel like you are actually observing the scenes themselves rather than reading about them. It is pretty long, but I became so attached to the characters that I only cared about seeing what happened next. Some of the detail could have been pared down, which would have created a slightly tighter story, but in general I was really impressed by this book.

[Karen]

Beautiful writing, and a beautiful message at the end. Most of the book flew by and I couldn't put it down!

[Winter, Group Reads]

My review : (not a full review, didn't get to write it at once because of a wedding and I need to write it while it's fresh)


4,5 Stars

Had to adjust the score a little bit. In the end it hasn't stuck as much as a 5 star does for me, not touched my heartstrings quite enough. Unfortunately I didn't get to write a review at once and I forget to much details too fast to write a proper one now.

It is a great book. It is a five star book, only not quite for me. But the writing is exellent as expected from Donna Tartt. The Secret History sat with me for years, in fact it hasn't quite left me and I read it mamny years ago.

This one not quite as big impact, but still an outstanding effort! For those feeling a bit intimidated by the size, be comforted, it's not as heavy as it seems. Wordy, yes, but the pages fly buy still. In the end you will be pleased you finally read it.

[Cynthia]

I know I'm late on this but I just finished the book...

2 stars

Okay, where to start? First, I had a rough time getting started; the first pages were absolutely boring. Then, the explosion arrives and I'm like okay this is probably gonna be good. Then? 500 pages of darkness and sadness and loneliness...

To be quite honest, there were some huge plot twists and plenty of philosophical questions I'll probably think about in the next few days. But that book is way too dark for me: I'm part of those people who enjoy what's around me and try to see what's beautiful in the crappy things.

So yeah, too dark for me...

[Winter, Group Reads]

That happens sometimes. Hopefully you have some great summer reads lined up?:)

[Cindy]

I'm pretty late for the review, but I still want to write down some thoughts.

I wasn't sure if I want to rate the book 3 or 4 stars. In the end I rated it 4 stars because even though it took me ages (almost three months) to finish it I really liked it.

To be honest, I didn't like it at all in the beginning. It took me quite a while to get used to Donna Tartt's writing style and I found it was quite boring.
However, when Theo arrived at the Barbours I started to like it and when he was taken by his father, I had for a couple hundred pages a hard time putting it down.
I didn't always like Theo and I also didn't like the fact that he got away with everything he messed up.
Moreover, I didn't like Boris and I didn't get why Theo never stood up against him and why he let himself drag into all of this... However, rating the whole book I really liked the message in the end, and after having it finished after such a long time I will certainly miss it. After I got into Tartt's detailed writing style I really liked and embraced it.

I also want to read Tartt's other books, but now I need something that's less dark and pessimistic :).