My Book Shelves (3): 'The Goldfinch,' by Donna Tartt [21 Oct 2022]

 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt *****

 Thirty years have passed since Donna Tartt’s jaw-dropping debut, ‘The Secret History,’ in which a seductively erudite group of Latin scholars at an ivy league university conspire to conceal a murder. The novel was smartly marketed in Britain (and possibly elsewhere) by wrapping it in a paper sleeve you would have to rip away before opening the book, strongly suggesting that secrets lay within that should not be allowed to escape. But the novel was even better than its marketing. It was a book so measured in its construction, so skilfully assembled and so beautifully written, it was destined from day one to become a modern classic. Which it duly became.  

And so we waited for another Donna Tartt novel. We had to wait ten years. When ‘The Little Friend,’ launched in 2002 it was almost an anti-climax. Yes, it was good. It was very good. But was it good enough? I notice that ‘The Secret History,’ earns 4.16 stars on Goodreads.com (it deserves better but, hey, Goodreads is famously brutal) while ‘The Little Friend’ only scores 3.47. That is perhaps a fair reflection of the disappointment.

Eleven years went by. In 2013 we were rewarded for our patience, and our reward was ‘The Goldfinch.’

 'The Goldfinch.' *****

I suppose for completeness I should say that ‘The Goldfinch’ scores 3.93 on Goodreads. I would give it five stars. But it is a demanding read – and the 11% of readers who hated it (and whose ratings bring down the total) probably struggled to get through its 770 pages. For me, it is an almost perfect book. I calculated once that Donna Tartt’s writing pace seems to be around 70 words a day. I’m not suggesting that she sits down and bashes out seventy words and then takes the rest of the day off. No writer works like that. But I am suggesting that she crafts her words with a kind of absolute precision, as if she was a jeweller working on a ruby rather than a painter working on a house. You get the sense that every word has been examined and every sentence weighed so you can tap them like a wine glass and hear them hum.

I like life stories in fiction. (See My Book List no 2 on John Irving). It is wonderful to watch a character develop from innocence into adulthood, a journey always laden with narrative potential. Tartt gives us the coming of age of Theo Decker who loses his mother in a terrorist bombing at a New York gallery, but who remarkably ends up rescuing and concealing a painting from the ruins. The painting is “The Goldfinch” by Carel Fabritius. We follow Theo’s life from here, to a soulless estate outside Las Vegas, to New York society, to the underworld of Amsterdam. It’s a love story. It’s a tale of personal loss and self-destruction. It’s a story of redemption. Of a sort. Perhaps it is a little too long (see also John Irving). Perhaps the ending is a little too Hollywood. But it feels right nonetheless. I loved it.    

And once you finish reading, I suggest we pencil 2025 into the calendar to start looking for the next Donna Tartt novel. I hope.

Please check out my website for more information on my books. https://www.johnironmonger.com 

'The Secret History.' *****

'The Little Friend.' ****