A review by megletkeman
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

5.0

This was a book that I downloaded because it was available on Libby and then didn’t start reading it for a good few re-loan cycles because I was apprehensive about the length. At nearly 800 dense pages, this book is a tome.

But as soon as I started reading this, it was always in my thoughts. I got to the point where I had been reading it before bed for over a month and was honestly starting to feel anxious about finishing it, but weirdly never because I wasn’t enjoying it, it just seemed to be consuming my thoughts? This was a book I read in little pieces all the time - in the minutes before class started or while waiting in the lobby for an appointment. Not once did I actually consider not finishing it.

So now that I’m done, I’m sad about it! Theo, Boris, Hobie...even Xandra…these characters were just written so damn well. I wouldn’t necessarily say I enjoyed watching them make all the decisions that they did, but if everyone did what we wanted them to do all the time, that would be boring and also wrong. Which is actually what Tartt is trying to show us. And while the plot is on the edge of feasible, it’s fiction for a reason. To demonstrate that “coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,” no part of this book - the painting, the plot, the obstacles - is coincidence.

I loved this book and I didn’t realize it until it was done. How typical. I also think I’ll save myself the pain and not watch the movie.