Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Goldfinch

One of my guilty pleasures is reading about the monstrous activities of wealthy characters. As such, I adored Tartt's 'The Secret History'. Unfortuantely, I cannot say the same for 'The Goldfinch'. I was expecting dark academia, history, priviledge of art. Instead I got a bore. The book is long, and it feels long. The excruciating detail does not add anything substantial to the story and borders on hypergraphia with inconsequential tangents galore. At many points, it just plain bored me.

I was most interested in the art world, art theft, and dodgy dealings underworld of antiques, and yet the book frustratingly spends little time there. All glossy descriptions and no substance of narrative. Why it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction I don't know. The book attempts at some grandiose reflection of life, juxtaposing beauty and purpose and the transcendent universiality of experience through time (through the painting and Hobie), against chance or a higher 'pattern' (through gambling, drugs, and Boris). The last 3 chapters or so are just incoherent rambling of Theo trying to justify his life through these reflections. I am not convinced that Tartt successfully justifies/condones his choices or criticises them. A series of bad events happen to an unsympathetic character, maybe if the story was cut down it would have held my interest. It started strong with an interesting premise, then meandered its way through Theo's chaotic life, never truly addressing the consequences to himself or others. Altogether, very disappointing. The famous painting itself however, is exquisite.

Bits that did resonate with me:

I identified with being in a family that's not your own/familiar (The Barbours, class divides), and the description of Theo's Dad/Xandra (in relation to my own Dad)
Walden - "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation". Examining city life vs country life e.g. car dependency
Boris, anti-capitalist
Boris - "None of us ever find enough kindness in this world do we"
The Goldfinch painting itself, in particular the bird's torturous chain. The description on pg 342 "fluttering briefly, forced always to land in the same hopeless place."

Content Warnings

frp123'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

4.25

I adored this book: at first I struggled with the book - picking it up and putting it down constantly, however I quickly became invested in Theodore’s story and wondered what he was to do about the painting. I throughly enjoyed the childhood years spent with Boris and the insight this later gave to his adult character. I truly felt connected to the painting as Theodore did and I worried about what he would do. The relationship

(or lack there of) with pippa and how it developed over time showed me diffrent facets of Theodore’s personality. The way he spoke about her and the actions he performed in order to remain in her favour highlighted Theodore’s instability as well as allowing the reader to understand why he was feeling this way. This prompted me to wonder about the attachments we make through traumatic experiences and the continued affect these attachments can have on us. I thought his independence and the criminal actions he chose to perform with his new found freedom showed us that although we want to like and support the main character (as we wanted when he was a child suffering from the terrible los of a parent) there were aspects of his personality so inherently unlikable and wrong that we struggled to come to terms with them. His relationship with Kitsy in perticualr showed how Theodore had’nt grown. It clearly showed how desperate he was for family and how (like with Hobbie and Piappa) he was willing to do whatever it took to keep his life the way he thought it should be.

I picked up this book due to my enjoyment of ‘The secret History’ another work by Donna Tartt and was not disappointed. The writing style though academic in fashion was understandable and consistent - watching the life of Theodore through his trials and the passing of time allowed me to understand the actions he took as well as the consequences of those actions.

Content Warnings

maac's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

honestly took me so long and did in fact drive me into a reading slump but it was a really good and interesting book i think donna tartts novels are always quite dense and you have to pay attention a lot to grasp what’s going on and i haven’t been able to even be present irl so ……. but i did enjoy this a lot!! also the ending was probably one of the most beautifully written things i’ve read in a while :,)

Content Warnings

emmakvc's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

maddalenacesco's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

kid steals and then feels bad about it for over 800 pages.

Content Warnings

lhodgson26's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

4.0

This book was very intense and full of trauma following Theo's story. From the tragic death of his mother in the explosion to finding rest bite with the Barbours to being uprooted by his Father across to Las Vegas and befriending Boris. The relationship between Boris and Theo was a complex one and not very healthy not least with all the drugs and the alcohol. But following the death of his Father and when he went to live with Holbie he had some security again. However at the point we fast forward the years everything changes again and he has become a fraud, addicted to drugs to help quieten his deamons and we learn Andy and his Dad had died. The book then focuses more on the paintings and the Goldfinch when Boris reappears and we delve deeper into the world. This book covered so much and a lot of difficult subjects well such as the way grief is protrayed and how friendships can determine the cause of your life. The book was a heavy one which will take some time to process but it was one to remember.

Content Warnings

bookshelbs's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

laurataylor's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

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