The Goldfinch- Donna Tartt

I read Donna Tartt's first novel The Secret History when I was fourteen or fifteen. It was among the first 'grown up' books I read and I adored it. Sure, I didn't always understand exactly what was going on, especially the Ancient Greek stuff. But it was great- a cast of mysterious characters, a gripping story and such elegant prose. I didn't know books could be beautiful.

Now I'm twenty-six, reading The Goldfinch, transported back to that astonishment I felt as a teen. Tartt is a master. The first 150 pages of The Goldfinch are some of the best pages I've ever read. Funny, horrifying, tragic, relentless. I don't understand her magic, how she forms such perfect sentences.

I suppose you can't keep that up for 860 pages. Before I read The Goldfinch I'd heard that the first half was amazing and the second half wasn't. It's true. The book starts as something like a literary fairytale and shapeshifts into a crime thriller. It was a bit of a letdown for me seeing as I loved the first half so intensely.

Here's the blurb:

Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and an absent father, miraculously survives a catastrophe that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Theo is tormented by longing for his mother and down the years he clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld.

Theo is a great character. The character could easily be a perfect, tragic child but we see that he is flawed right from the start- lazy and fairly badly behaved. So often child characters are idealised/one dimensional- it's all so patronising. Tartt takes Theo seriously, he's real. This makes the terrible things that happen to him so much worse. Theo's grief influences all of his actions and relationships and stains everything he touches throughout his life. It's just too sad. There are rays of light along the way but on the whole it does come close to being an all out misery fest. It avoids that with its humour though. 

As I said, the second half is just too much of a crime caper for my taste. But still, but still... I'm in awe of Donna Tartt. And she's so cool too- have you seen her? 

On the whole, The Goldfinch was a joy and I'd recommend it to everybody. 4.5