The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Parts of this book were so stunningly vivid and compelling I could barely breathe, other parts seemed superfluous, too detailed, and rambling, and yet perhaps it was these secondary parts that made the parts I loved so intense. This book is the slowest-paced novel I've ever read that I found impossible to put down. The last few chapters had me in tears and I re-read several paragraphs over and over, they were so amazingly constructed. In fair warning, I must say the language took away some of the literary brilliance of the prose. I cannot handle multiple uses of the f-word, even if it fits the character's persona -- it seems lazy to me. But it didn't ruin the book for me, it just got old. That probably says more about me than it does this amazingly talented writer. Best line is probably this one: “Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?”



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