The Little Friend - October Informal Buddy Read

[Lea]

Please join us in reading The Little Friend, a book by Donna Tartt, who is also known for writing The Secret History and The Goldfinch.

The book is set in Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet - unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson--sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss.

[Patricia]

Looking forward to this one!

[Lea]

I've already started, and I thought it starts with a bang. I am intrigued.

[Lea]

I expect I'll be having nightmares of snakes for a long time.

[Lea]

My verdict on this book: I love Donna Tartt's writing style but I don't care for the topics she writes about or the way she ends her books. I love the journey, but don't care for the destination. If that makes any sense. :-) 2.5 stars.

Hope to discuss this more soon.

My order of Donna Tartt books:

1. The Secret History
2. The Little Friend
3. The Goldfinch

[Patricia]

Sorry you didn't like this one any better! I'm just getting started. Needed to finish a book for a book club first. (Always something). I really liked The Goldfinch & I know you didn't, so I still have high hopes. Of course, the subject matter (death of a child) is a little off-putting to me, but she's a writer I will read whatever she writes at this point. Obviously, with only three books, that's not too hard!

[Alissa]

Yeah... lots about snakes....

[Lea]

Patricia wrote: "Sorry you didn't like this one any better! I'm just getting started. Needed to finish a book for a book club first. (Always something). I really liked The Goldfinch & I know you didn't, so I still have high hopes. Of course, the subject matter (death of a child) is a little off-putting to me, but she's a writer I will read whatever she writes at this point. Obviously, with only three books, that's not too hard!"

Yes, absolutely, I have high hopes for you. And once you get to the ending, we can talk more. :-)

I've concluded that I love the journey, her writing style is incredible. And I would read the books again. I haven't rated anything below 3 stars...

But...I've also concluded that I end up sounding more negative than other authors because the endings are not satisfying to me.

It's like I'm enjoying a long drive, but when I get to the destination, I start to wonder why I came here.

Good luck, and I hope you like your destination. I have high hopes for your enjoyment.

Tartt seems to take about 10 years to write a book, so I'm hoping that the next one will come out soon...and I'll probably read it too...

[Patricia]

I'm only halfway through & need to read a book for a book club, so I know I won't finish in October. I'm still reading though! I was reading some last night, but was in the middle of "all the snakes" and decided that wasn't what I wanted to read before going to sleep. I do love Harriet and that even though her parents have both checked out, she still has the grandmother & great aunts to visit. I enjoy a book with interesting characters and this one has plenty.

[Lea]

Yes! I love all of the characterization in this book! Tartt really makes the most of her descriptions. I can just visualize all of the people.

[Lea]

Lots of chat about the ending which I will put under a spoiler tag in the highly unlikely event that someone random enters this thread and starts to read our posts before reading the book. (view spoiler)[ I didn't like the open ending, which was a surprise, because ordinarily I do like books with open endings. Gone with the Wind has one of my favorite endings. But in this instance, I did not feel like Harriet had grown enough as a character to make her growth the central point of the story. I didn't like how she treated Hely and saw many comparisons between Robin's Little Friend (Danny) and Harriet's Little Friend (Hely). I did feel sorry for Danny, and sad that he got punished for killing his brother whereas the person responsible for Robin's death was never brought to justice. I'm glad Hely found something else he enjoyed and I hope that Harriet can as well. (hide spoiler)]

[Patricia]

You're right--I should have added spoiler, so I just deleted my comment. I was just thinking, it was only the three of us & I was the last to finish, but, of course, any who are interested in the book might take a look.
I think both Harriet & Heley treated each other in selfish ways, but they were kids & I didn't see a particular unbalance. (Kind of the way I felt about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow). Though I though at some point, Robin's death would be explained, that was never the point of the book. Only how it affected his family's lives and particularly with Harriet. I looked at some of the other reviews here on goodreads & several didn't like the ending or felt it hadn't been tied up neatly enough, but I kind of liked it.