Book Review: The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

GoodReads Synopsis:

It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a novel of shocking narrative energy and power. It combines unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and breathtaking suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is a beautiful, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

My Thoughts:

Oh my, where to begin? First of all, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to read this! It was long! Donna Tartt writes kinda like Stephen King in the sense that sometimes they go off on tangents or ridiculous details, and you get annoyed thinking; "come on! Get on with the story already!" (If you read a lot of King books, you know what I mean! I love me some King novels, but seriously!) If there were an abridged version of the book, I feel like I would have loved it more, not wasted so much time and still wouldn't have missed anything!

Don't get me wrong, I loved the book! It was very beautifully written. It just dragged on for too long. It felt like it had a Dicken's Great Expectations kind of feel to it. I loved how it made me think of such a wonderful classic. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads.  

Have you read it?

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!