A review by documentno_is
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The divinity of object 

 

The beauty in a painting is personal- it whispers from across the room hey you! Yeah, you. The keeping for and caring for object, builds its divinity and meaning. Tartt really showing her catholicism here, and I did enjoy the thematic significance if wish she hadn’t been so didactic about it in the end. 

 

Predetermination. 

 

Has god already written our sins or are they ours to make? Can we achieve salvation even through our wrongs. Why must we suffer and what is the meaning of”of all this” asks Theo time and time again. 

 

Trauma 

 

Coping and healing after immense tragedy, the damage becomes written in your bones. A thematic footnote in this piece but Tartt does spend most of the novel showcasing it. 

 

Love 

 

Is love our salvation?

I think for Theo it was in some ways, even if he didn’t get a clear cut finale in this regard. I like how it was left open in form- what is the purpose of love in terms of the humans in our life? Boris was someone he loved, and now still who carries on in some toxic importance in his life. His different kind of love for his parents, and then his later guardians of Hobie and Mrs. Barbour. Then of course Pippa and Kitsey- Pippa who has his heart but cannot even save herself and Kitsey who is so stable and assured but whose true love belongs to his old friend.

Duality in tragedy once again, but it builds who Theo is and builds the reader’s sympathy for him. 

 

Inaction 

 

Theo is a character who things happen to, who seems in most cases an unwilling participant to the story of his own life. I’ve read other novels where inaction becomes this great character flaw but in many ways Theo’s inaction saves him from darker paths. His inaction is not his Achilles heal nor is it some exhaled component of his self its just- characterization. 

 

Conclusion 

 

Tartt has built an incredible summation of the life of a person- in all its messy complications. Every character in this novel is dynamic and the plot structure is masterful. This novel really solidified Tartt’s role as my favorite living author. I think overall The Secret History spoke to me a little more- it had a certain literary quality that this one never quite captures in favor of a more typical “action” style mystery. Still- an incredible read and one I’ll be thinking of for days.