The Sad Little Bird Locked in Eternity and the Great Literary Work That Scares Young Readers
Book Review: The Goldfinch
- Author: Donna Tartt
- 771 pages, Hardcover
- First published: September 23, 2013
After my second encounter with Donna Tartt’s work, I find myself asking once again: What did I just read? Am I intrigued, in love, disappointed, depressed, or once more delighted by how a seemingly unoriginal story can impress you like a work of art? Reading this book is a must if you’re into art, because, like a painting, it may remain misunderstood or underappreciated by some.
It’s naive and wrong to think that this is just a story about a boy’s struggle with the hand fate has dealt him—loss of a parent, a toxic environment, a friend who leads him down the path of addiction, unrequited love, and generally bad luck.
This novel offers much more across its 771 pages. Donna Tartt is meticulous in her blend of realism and absurdism, and it’s hard to find a reader who won’t see themselves in a situation from one of her books or recognize a character trait of the protagonist. Almost certainly, there’s someone in your life who is reflected in this story. I won’t delve into the atmosphere—you’re always there, whether on the streets of New York, in the desert of Las Vegas, or amid the ghosts of Amsterdam. Tartt excels at transporting you to these places and making you feel everything.
Despite the injustices Theo faces as he grows up, not everything is bleak or lost. There are people and situations that bring a touch of color to the gray city filled with unhappy souls. And then comes that moment when we see it—the hope, the kindness, the light. The protagonist sees it too; the mind perceives it, but the heart… Which is stronger?
“What should we do if we have fallen into a heart that is not to be trusted?”
My Review of The Goldfinch
Like a classic work—or by an author undoubtedly influenced by the classics—the novel ends with the protagonist’s emotional and philosophical reflections on life, death, and the meaning of it all. And like many classics, the reader may nod in agreement while still wishing it weren’t so. We want to believe this is just a dark view of things, not reality. Everyone will naturally see it differently, through the prism of their own experiences.
“… how is it possible that I can see so clearly that everything I love, everything I hold on to, is an illusion, and yet—for me at least—that magic is the only thing worth living for?”
If you’re intimidated by the length of The Goldfinch, you might want to try The Secret History – my first encounter with Tartt. It’s not much shorter, but I assure you, it reads in one breath.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love – and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph – a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.
