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A review by beaconatnight
Der kleine Freund by Donna Tartt
5.0
Reading the reviews on here, it's easy to get a very wrong impression of the book. Sure, the marketing may suggest The Little Friend is some kind of murder mystery, and you'll quickly realize that it's not. But it's not a long series of mostly unrelated vignettes, either.
Instead you should trust how Donna Tartt herself describes the novel: it's "a frightening, scary book about children coming into contact with the world of adults in a frightening way" (I'm quoting Wikipedia here). That sounds very accurate to me. I don't understand how so many people talk as if too many dull sideshows distracted from the actual story. The little episodes about people (relatives and strangers), places, and history vividly depict social surroundings that are not downright horrifying, but that are increasingly confining and that from the very beginning reveal the dark potential for tragedy.
For our young protagonist, Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, this is literally true. She was only a baby when her brother was killed by hanging at the age of nine. It may seem fully unintelligible how something like this can happen. It's not too big of a spoiler that in over 700 pages we never get a conclusive answer as to who did it. But the more we learn about the social realities of Mississippi at the time the better we appreciate the climate where something like this would be possible.
Twelve year old Harriet is more concerned with the question of down-to-earth responsibility. From very early on she is dead set on who did murder her brother. From here the whole plot – and again, there is a real plot! – is based on an unfounded accusation. It's brilliantly meta, as this is a theme often nonchalantly addressed within conversations without any determinate political message.
All this may sound very heady and may support the claims of people who say that it's a novel that was very difficult to get into or that was exhaustive to read. Again, it's not! For me it was very much a page-turner full of childhood adventure and exploration, erratic criminals, and hilariously whimsical characters.
I sometimes hear people say that they think of book characters as being real (Stephen King says that in his introduction to The Stand, for instance). To be honest, I very very rarely feel that. Maybe I'm reading too much science fiction and fantasy, but in my fiction individuals are mostly defined by a bunch of stereotypical traits necessary to serve the plot. It wouldn't be difficult to describe who Harriet, her best friend Hely, her grandmother Edi, her sister Allison, or her aunt Libby Allison are. The main villains, Danny and Farish Ratliff, are almost frighteningly real. Yet, what makes them special is that they remain to some degree unpredictable despite their vividly defined personalities.
And the writing, among the best I've read... well, since Gene Wolfe, but I cannot remember the last time I felt so enticed by prose. It's so incredibly nuanced without weighing you down, and it's so amazingly on point. The highly adventures fourth chapter is a great example. Here, Harriet and Hely somehow end up in the house of Eugene, an ex-con-turned-preacher who is part of this good-for-nothing family of drug-dealers and thugs. As they sneak around they discover what is a whole stack of... deadly snakes?! In the chapter's climax the writing style changes to convey the terror and tension when the two are separated and the violently erratic Farish arrives on the scene.
At every point the story is about the emotional repercussions of the world we find so comprehensively portrayed. It's genuinely funny at times, especially in the very recognizable portrayal of how it was to be a child. Especially Hely is just hilarious, he's so much like we were when we were boys, right? He's a bit of an idiot and in the end he's self-centered and certainly not the most loyal. But of course, that's perhaps again what it's like to be a child.
It may not surprise that overall it's a very melancholic story. People don't often talk about Robin's death, but one way or another their lives are mostly about coping with the horror of what happened. Naturally, the tragic event very much determined who they are. Episodes that happen later in the book – as when the housekeeper Ida is fired (in everything but words) or when Aunt Libby dies – are incredibly sad to read. Not only because of the actual events, but in the heart-crushing way it's described how the events unfold. I cannot say books often make me cry, but these moments genuinely made me tear up.
The Little Friend is easily among the best books I've ever read. It's the kind of perfectly told story that makes you re-evaluate what makes a good piece of fiction.
Rating: 5/5
Instead you should trust how Donna Tartt herself describes the novel: it's "a frightening, scary book about children coming into contact with the world of adults in a frightening way" (I'm quoting Wikipedia here). That sounds very accurate to me. I don't understand how so many people talk as if too many dull sideshows distracted from the actual story. The little episodes about people (relatives and strangers), places, and history vividly depict social surroundings that are not downright horrifying, but that are increasingly confining and that from the very beginning reveal the dark potential for tragedy.
For our young protagonist, Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, this is literally true. She was only a baby when her brother was killed by hanging at the age of nine. It may seem fully unintelligible how something like this can happen. It's not too big of a spoiler that in over 700 pages we never get a conclusive answer as to who did it. But the more we learn about the social realities of Mississippi at the time the better we appreciate the climate where something like this would be possible.
Twelve year old Harriet is more concerned with the question of down-to-earth responsibility. From very early on she is dead set on who did murder her brother. From here the whole plot – and again, there is a real plot! – is based on an unfounded accusation. It's brilliantly meta, as this is a theme often nonchalantly addressed within conversations without any determinate political message.
All this may sound very heady and may support the claims of people who say that it's a novel that was very difficult to get into or that was exhaustive to read. Again, it's not! For me it was very much a page-turner full of childhood adventure and exploration, erratic criminals, and hilariously whimsical characters.
I sometimes hear people say that they think of book characters as being real (Stephen King says that in his introduction to The Stand, for instance). To be honest, I very very rarely feel that. Maybe I'm reading too much science fiction and fantasy, but in my fiction individuals are mostly defined by a bunch of stereotypical traits necessary to serve the plot. It wouldn't be difficult to describe who Harriet, her best friend Hely, her grandmother Edi, her sister Allison, or her aunt Libby Allison are. The main villains, Danny and Farish Ratliff, are almost frighteningly real. Yet, what makes them special is that they remain to some degree unpredictable despite their vividly defined personalities.
And the writing, among the best I've read... well, since Gene Wolfe, but I cannot remember the last time I felt so enticed by prose. It's so incredibly nuanced without weighing you down, and it's so amazingly on point. The highly adventures fourth chapter is a great example. Here, Harriet and Hely somehow end up in the house of Eugene, an ex-con-turned-preacher who is part of this good-for-nothing family of drug-dealers and thugs. As they sneak around they discover what is a whole stack of... deadly snakes?! In the chapter's climax the writing style changes to convey the terror and tension when the two are separated and the violently erratic Farish arrives on the scene.
At every point the story is about the emotional repercussions of the world we find so comprehensively portrayed. It's genuinely funny at times, especially in the very recognizable portrayal of how it was to be a child. Especially Hely is just hilarious, he's so much like we were when we were boys, right? He's a bit of an idiot and in the end he's self-centered and certainly not the most loyal. But of course, that's perhaps again what it's like to be a child.
It may not surprise that overall it's a very melancholic story. People don't often talk about Robin's death, but one way or another their lives are mostly about coping with the horror of what happened. Naturally, the tragic event very much determined who they are. Episodes that happen later in the book – as when the housekeeper Ida is fired (in everything but words) or when Aunt Libby dies – are incredibly sad to read. Not only because of the actual events, but in the heart-crushing way it's described how the events unfold. I cannot say books often make me cry, but these moments genuinely made me tear up.
The Little Friend is easily among the best books I've ever read. It's the kind of perfectly told story that makes you re-evaluate what makes a good piece of fiction.
Rating: 5/5