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kylibrarianjen's reviews
317 reviews
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
5.0
So many feelings about this book. I love the characters, but I also kind of hate them a little bit. I loved being swept up in the Theo's world of art and antiques, but found his criminal underworld dealings to be at times both thrilling edge of your seat kind of stuff and also so anxiety provoking that I had to skim pages quickly just to make sure that the people I loved got out of the scene alive.I'm getting ahead of myself here, but the book elicited such a jumble of emotions and thoughts that it's almost hard to pinpoint whether or not I actually "liked" it, though I absolutely loved it.
The plot is this, 13 year old Theo Decker and his mother pop into the Met one rainy day on their way to a conference at Theo's school (he has been suspended for some minor boyhood violation of school rules, but it's apparent that he has started to run with a bad crowd.) While at the museum a bomb goes off and Theo's mother is killed. Dazed and concussed, Theo stumbles around and meets a dying old man. Theo stays with him until the man dies, but as the man is dying he points to a painting lying among the rubble, "The Goldfinch". It had been one of his mother's favorites and without really thinking he grabs it before finding his way out of the building. What follows next is Theo's life as an orphan (his deadbeat dad shows up at one point, but make no mistake, Theo is definitely on his own here.)The book follows Theo's life over the next decade as the painting (and the question of what to do with it) weaves in and out of the narrative.
At times the book moves quickly, while other periods drag along with seemingly no action. I felt this might have been intentional on Tartt's part, a long adolescent summer can seem to last forever and Tartt wants us to understand how Theo feels at that exact moment in his life. What Tartt does better than most is give us complete and fully formed characters that we are able to both love and hate at the same time. No one is purely good and no one is purely bad. Even Theo's awful father has a few redeeming qualities. There were times that I got so annoyed with Theo, so put off by his teenaged bad decisions and failure to thrive that I felt truly angry with him. Other characters, like Theo's best friend Boris (who I think is arguably the most interesting character in the book)have a way of absolutely breaking your heart. In short, Tartt provokes feelings from the reader that are more akin to the way you feel about a troubled family member than a character in a book. I haven't felt this connected to a cast of characters in a long time.
That said, there are things about the book that I found frustrating. I still can't wrap my head around the plot twists in the last third (partially because I read it so fast, but partially because there so many fast turns that it's hard to hang on). I can't decide if the ending was ingenious or a total copout and by the last few pages I wanted to see more growth in Theo. The last 10 pages or so are mostly an ongoing monologue from Theo where he contemplates life and art. There's some beautiful prose here, but it leaves you feeling a little melancholy. You know Theo is a changed man, but how changed? Is he a better person now? Or just a different person? It's frustrating, but I have to give it to Donna Tartt, it's also very real. We don't always get the completely happy ending, sometimes it's just an ending. That Theo's turned out ok is a relief for the reader, but ultimately you want more for him. You've grown so attached to Theo and his gang that you want complete and redemption, but that is unrealistic. There is no neat little bow tying up all the loose ends. More than anything this book reminded me of "Great Expectations". And just as Dickens has us wondering what will happen to Pip as we walks off into the sunset, so too we're left wondering what will become of Theo.
The plot is this, 13 year old Theo Decker and his mother pop into the Met one rainy day on their way to a conference at Theo's school (he has been suspended for some minor boyhood violation of school rules, but it's apparent that he has started to run with a bad crowd.) While at the museum a bomb goes off and Theo's mother is killed. Dazed and concussed, Theo stumbles around and meets a dying old man. Theo stays with him until the man dies, but as the man is dying he points to a painting lying among the rubble, "The Goldfinch". It had been one of his mother's favorites and without really thinking he grabs it before finding his way out of the building. What follows next is Theo's life as an orphan (his deadbeat dad shows up at one point, but make no mistake, Theo is definitely on his own here.)The book follows Theo's life over the next decade as the painting (and the question of what to do with it) weaves in and out of the narrative.
At times the book moves quickly, while other periods drag along with seemingly no action. I felt this might have been intentional on Tartt's part, a long adolescent summer can seem to last forever and Tartt wants us to understand how Theo feels at that exact moment in his life. What Tartt does better than most is give us complete and fully formed characters that we are able to both love and hate at the same time. No one is purely good and no one is purely bad. Even Theo's awful father has a few redeeming qualities. There were times that I got so annoyed with Theo, so put off by his teenaged bad decisions and failure to thrive that I felt truly angry with him. Other characters, like Theo's best friend Boris (who I think is arguably the most interesting character in the book)have a way of absolutely breaking your heart. In short, Tartt provokes feelings from the reader that are more akin to the way you feel about a troubled family member than a character in a book. I haven't felt this connected to a cast of characters in a long time.
That said, there are things about the book that I found frustrating. I still can't wrap my head around the plot twists in the last third (partially because I read it so fast, but partially because there so many fast turns that it's hard to hang on). I can't decide if the ending was ingenious or a total copout and by the last few pages I wanted to see more growth in Theo. The last 10 pages or so are mostly an ongoing monologue from Theo where he contemplates life and art. There's some beautiful prose here, but it leaves you feeling a little melancholy. You know Theo is a changed man, but how changed? Is he a better person now? Or just a different person? It's frustrating, but I have to give it to Donna Tartt, it's also very real. We don't always get the completely happy ending, sometimes it's just an ending. That Theo's turned out ok is a relief for the reader, but ultimately you want more for him. You've grown so attached to Theo and his gang that you want complete and redemption, but that is unrealistic. There is no neat little bow tying up all the loose ends. More than anything this book reminded me of "Great Expectations". And just as Dickens has us wondering what will happen to Pip as we walks off into the sunset, so too we're left wondering what will become of Theo.