jenkepesh 's review for:

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

4.0

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Although I admire Donna Tartt's writing, I don't warm to her books. This book is definitely a compelling read, and I don't feel as though I wasted my time reading it. When I think about what I dislike in the two I've read, (The Goldfinch, The Secret History), I find that the theme of the unmoored child/young adult is too grim. In both, most of the characters are often drunk, coked-up, pilled-up, and generally approaching every aspect of life from a remove. They are joyless. In The Goldfinch, there is a sidekick who tears through life like a child pulling wrapping paper off of all the packages, and self-destructive (and others-destructive) as he is, he feels his life. Whenever he shows up, chaos blows in hard. But so does life, and helpless love. In my opinion he is relegated more to the roles of deus ex machina and philosophical mouthpiece than he deserves to be. Because Tartt's written two good, if (from my perspective) problematical books, I'll probably read The Little Friend as well.