**spoiler alert** I'm vacillating between a 3 and a 4. I'm settling on a 4. But still considering a 3 since I'm slowly convincing myself that it's a 4**spoiler alert** I'm vacillating between a 3 and a 4. I'm settling on a 4. But still considering a 3 since I'm slowly convincing myself that it's a 4 after some thought. So.....FOUR it is.
Considering that.....this is a book that needs some time to soak into the crevices after finishing it. I'm sure my thoughts will change after a few days...or a week....let alone months later. Considering I finished it early this morning I'm in the early soaking phase. THAT SAID....
I love the characters! My 2 favorites were Theo and Boris. Donna Tartt has a way with character development that stems from the inside out. I felt as if I was seeing the world from the eyes of Theo as a 13 year old coming of age. His understanding was my understanding. This is one of the things I've had to let sink in. Initially speaking, I wanted to say that the plot left lots to be desired....but no. From the eyes of a 13 year-old boy....the plot is perfect. I wanted more info about the cause of the bombing, the circumstances surrounding the why's and the who's and the what's but that's my mature adult mind speaking. A 13 year-old boy who just lost his mother and survived the same attack that took her life would just be SURVIVING the next minute, then the next hour and then the next day....WITHOUT HER...knowing he has now lost the ONLY anchor he has to a normal and protected childhood. Tartt effectively brings the reader into Theo's mind....his loss, his injury, his fears...his tragedy. Brilliant....
Secondary characters are effectively weaved into the story without interruption of thought.....Welty, Pippa, the Goldfinch in the art itself....brief (at times) appearances but so, so important in the forming of the future of Theo. Extending to Andy and the Barbours, to Platt and Kitsey. Life and survival for Theo begins to weave a tangled story beginning in NY as the Barbours take him in and learn to (finally) love and accept him as a member of their family only to be relieved of that responsibility by the appearance of Theo's father...and so begins the darkness.
Theo's story then takes him on a change of scenery to Las Vegas with his depraved father and on to a new friend he finds in Boris. Boris....another of my favorite characters. Again my mind wants to logically know more about why the author doesn't answer my adult questions of why she doesn't tell us more of why it seems that the boys are not being followed by or reported to CPS for their rampant drug abuse or truancy from school. Why aren't teachers noticing their poor diet, their disheveled clothing and bruises from physical abuse, let alone drug abuse? Once again, I am reminded of the story from a child's point of view. From Theo's life in Las Vegas and then return to New York, he is a kid blowing in the wind, every day brings another fight for survival until he arrives at Hobie's doorstep and matures to a man.
Up to this point....this book could be a children's story. Albeit inappropriate for children indeed with the language and drug abuse but still....told from the point of view of a child.
This is the point where I have to constantly remind myself that it IS the point of view of a CHILD. Why? Because Donna Tartt's writing is like a vegetable soup of descriptions and emotions and heart-strings that can leave you feeling like you are seeing and experiencing and smelling and touching the story as you are reading it. Painting a picture....with layers, and pain, and experience and angst...like the painting of The Goldfinch itself. Brilliant, beautiful and thoughtful writing. I can smell the wet streets of New York, hear the hustle, bustle of the moving crowds and feel the sanctuary of Hobie's house and shop, the smell and feel of the sick-room Pippa's bedroom has changed into now that she's being cared for by Hobie. I felt heavy with the dry, sun-baked atmosphere of Las Vegas with cloudless skies and stuffy, big houses. The tastes and sounds of drug abuse and unwashed, unloved children's clothing and bodies. And while Tartt is writing your senses alive, she is tugging on your heart-strings and emotions with her use of language.
Until Theo matures to an adult under the tutelage of Hobie, my adult questions remain unanswered. At this point, Tartt's writing and use of words and language doesn't change, the CHARACTER matures and we begin to see the grown Theo thinking and rationalizing into the adult he has become. My questions are answered by his own written thought processes and my reading of the book becomes rushed and frenzied. I want to know how it's going to end, what's next....
This transition is seamless and brilliant. A beautiful thing I didn't notice until the finish. In a sense, I grew up with Theo in my reading of his story. Things start to come together full circle, I'm experiencing a-ha moments and stretches into the story that don't allow me to put the book down without much reluctance and regret. With that seamless splitting comes another dark chapter of the life of Theo and this will take us on another trip to Amsterdam. Having lived in Amsterdam for a little over a year, I was instantly transported back to that experience and the author's attention to authenticity. Bravo. From the church bells trilling in the distance to the cobbled streets, the bicycles, the water in the canals and the taste of food I was amazed by her attention to detail.
Some have compared writing in The Goldfinch to the writing of Charles Dickens. I believe this will be a book more appreciated for it's writing in the not so distant future, than by it's attention basking in the glow of it's Pulitzer Prize. It's one that needs to be carefully thought out and processed upon completion...because of it's artful layers. Like many revered artists of the past, during the years of their most productive and popular work.....they were not recognized, shunned or treated like crazy recluses. Tartt has been taking some hits from well respected reviewers as not deserving the Pulitzer Prize for The Goldfinch. I don't believe The Goldfinch found and seduced the Pulitzer Prize....I believe the Pulitzer Prize intelligently chose this book as the winner seeing the potential future of readers and reviewers EXPERIENCING this book. It's a book to be read, and then read again and then hidden for a few years to be read again. A book that can have different meaning depending on the season it's read, the age of the reader and even so trivial as whether the lights are on or not. Every time you go back to it you see something new.........LEARN something new about yourself......
The parallels are not lost on me between the life experiences of Theo and the artist Carel Fabritius. Fabritius died young....in an explosion of the Delft gunpowder magazine which destroyed one fourth of the city, along with his studio and many of his paintings. Fabritius was a student of Rembrandt and was one of the only of his students to develop a style of his own. Rembrandt is known for his use of a dark background and the use of lighting and spotlight to bring forth his subject. Fabritius' paintings feature delicately lit subjects against light colored, textured backgrounds. This use of a light background in his painting The Goldfinch first draws your eye to a happy, very detailed painting of a bird...until you see the delicate chain around its right leg....not there by accident as it's attached to a ring imprisoning it to the perch it's sitting on. Then you notice the eye...the happy Goldfinch becomes decrepit, pathetic and trapped.
My only negative thoughts on this book are slowly dissipating as time goes on and my thoughts return to hash and rehash what I just read. The layers are peeling away and now I can see what I didn't notice before. SO....my initial 3 becomes a 4 and as time goes on I feel that's the right number. Not a book for just anyone....but I have no regrets for reading it. I will certainly pick it up again in the future to peel back another layer. ...more
5 stars from me...considering the topic, I still need some time to digest before I write my review. Right now I feel like the author and I are kindred5 stars from me...considering the topic, I still need some time to digest before I write my review. Right now I feel like the author and I are kindred spirits....more to come....just need to sit and think for a bit....and live in my past....for a bit.......more
LOVED THIS BOOK. I love books that are written for teens with a STRONG female personality...and males that seem REAL and not contrived "perfect" dudesLOVED THIS BOOK. I love books that are written for teens with a STRONG female personality...and males that seem REAL and not contrived "perfect" dudes. Tris is THAT girl....and Tobias is THAT guy. Can't wait to read the next book in this series. I'll definitely recommend this to young adult readers...especially the young women I know. I have a soft spot for everything Chicago...so that fact that this was set in a dystopian Chicago was a BONUS for me!!! LOVED IT!...more
LOVED reading this again! I believe the last time I heard this story was out loud in 5th or 6th grade. SO much easier to read once you get the lingo dLOVED reading this again! I believe the last time I heard this story was out loud in 5th or 6th grade. SO much easier to read once you get the lingo down and the lilt of the sentences. Mark Twain is a superb story teller. I loved how he spins the tale of Tom Sawyer through Tom's naughty and mischievous mind. Spot on for the age and the situations. I'm so glad I re-read this and I can't wait until the kids are reading it too....AWESOME! ...more
WOW....now that I'm done...If I had to choose between the two...(The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) I'd Pick Tom SawWOW....now that I'm done...If I had to choose between the two...(The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) I'd Pick Tom Sawyer...for no particular reason other than I liked the changes of scenery. Huckleberry Finn was a WONDERFUL read but the shenanigans on the river got a little old. One thing to note...as an adult reading this my first impression was completely different than mine reading it as a kid. I was more observant of the underlying presence of abuse on Huck by his violent, alcoholic father. For that reason...the beginning of the book was hard to swallow. Poor kid. ...more
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