Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - The Goldfinch

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

40 reviews

lvr105's review against another edition

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I found this book very compelling before the time jump - afterwards, I found myself frustrated with Theo’s character and less invested in the story. The prose is beautiful, but the plot tends to either drag on or rush through important moments.

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poubelleboi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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stumbling's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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tobeeornottobee's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i've seen a lot of negative reviews about this book. about how it's boring, hard to get through, uniteresting. i think if your only critique of a book is that it's boring, it's not really a critique. it's a heavy book, it was written in the early 2000's and deals with a lot of trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms. going in i thought this was a book i would have to drag myself through. i didn't find that to be true in the least. its dysfunctional and unreliable, a direct reflection of the narrator. the book takes us through a lifetime spent severely depressed and filled high with anxiety. i think if it was shorter, less wordy, it would have been so much more impersonal. it wouldn't have settled in my chest the same way. (also the characters. obviously, we're seeing it through theo's eyes so everything is tinted with his thoughts and feelings. i think boris and theo's dynamic is really important. i think andy deserved better. i think theo is a repressed gay man. i think these people were real and tangible.) take care with the topics and triggers in this book. but if it is something you think you'll enjoy, don't be deterred by negative reviews.

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reebsforspace's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

The talent Tartt has is undoubtedly evident. Constructing expansive storylines, offering lush prose, there's not much else a reader can ask for. 800 pages and I enjoyed my time with Theo, watching him in adolescence to adult hood, conspiring with him and his painting. All this though, but then what? Why not the critical acclaim? The Pulitzer prize rating?
Well, as I felt Tartt's Secret History lose its novelty, this too began to go lukewarm. The gripping, haunting descriptions of the beginning regressed, only resurfacing towards the very end of the novel. Noting the Las Vegas scenes weren't a drag for me as they seem to be for many, I came across events, I read them all the same but where was I? Surely not captivated, sitting right next to Theo as he was on the bus, as he sat in Amsterdam with his white lines, as he contemplated his options. No, I was reading, but I wasn't in the thick of it, experiencing some heavy handed anxiety, some philosophical crisis, separating the good from the bad when oh! What do they mean really? Who are we if not both? Adopting nihilism but remember, in the end, that little, fluttering, beast of hope. No, no lapse in judgment, no angst worthy teenage dream.
Here is Tartt pouring out melodrama, an out cry, bursting with emotion, of art! art! love it, live in it, it's yours, yours, yours. I always struck myself as an individual who appreciated the creative form, but even so some aspects I found a stretch. How did this connection-? And really? Are we sure this was obtainable? A brick of a novel and still, here I am, without a bruise. Maybe a little scabbed. But so it goes.

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leahsbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was absolutely incredible, although I’ve been putting it off for quite a while because to be honest, it is a huge brick of a book. Unlike a book where I read it and get sucked into the story, this is more of an experience that feels like I’m actually IN the story, at a level of intensity that I’ve rarely found in books.

The writing is so descriptive, even if it is a bit overly wordy at times. Donna Tartt has a way with words that makes me feel as though I was right there with Theo as he went through everything, but they were explained in a way that I’ve never quite seen before. Even when the descriptions were the most off-the-wall, I was able to clearly picture everything:

“His gold-rimmed aviators were tinted purple at the top; he was wearing a white sports jacket over a red cowboy shirt with pearl snaps, and black jeans, but the main thing I noticed was his hair: part toupee, part transplanted or sprayed-on, with a texture like fiberglass insulation and a dark brown-color like shoe polish in the tin.”

Seeing Theo grow up under the heavy burden of grief was heartbreaking. Grief isn’t an easy thing to deal with, but to have your entire world turned upside down at the age of 13? He didn’t just lose his mother, but his home, his stability, his support, and basically his whole world. It was painful to see him struggle with his own grief and how to express it:

“Certainly I wasn’t howling aloud or punching my fist through windows or doing any of the things I imagined people might do who felt as I did. But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illuminated in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.”

The events of one single day affected the entire course of Theo’s life. I couldn’t help but read this whole book without wondering how differently his life would have been if things had occurred differently on that one day. It was no easy thing to be inside Theo’s head for the duration of this book. He was self-pitying, overanalytical, self-sabotaging, and maudlin. But at the same time, I just wanted to take him under my wing and hug him. It’s rare that I can empathize so deeply with such a damaged character.

“My moods were a slingshot; after being locked-down and anesthetized for years my heart was zinging and slamming itself around like a bee under a glass, everything bright, sharp, confusing, wrong — but it was a clean pain as opposed to the dull misery that had plagued me for years under the drugs like a rotten tooth, the sick dirty ache of something spoiled.”

While I tend to strongly prefer plot-driven stories, this character-driven story was one that I just couldn’t put down. It was like I had an uncontrollable need to find out what was going to happen next to Theo, and figure out what the ultimate outcome was for him. The painting was an intriguing side note, but the characters were really what held my attention. There was just something about Boris (especially), and Hobie that kept drawing me in, and wanting to find out what happened to them as well.

This book was a serious investment of time, mental energy, and emotions, but it was absolutely worth it. I can’t help but wonder if Donna Tartt’s other works are as engrossing as this one. I guess I’ll have to check them out.

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