Reading 1001 discussion
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The Goldfinch
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Q1 2021 Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
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1. How did you experience the book? Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to "get into it"? Based on comments in my review, I was hooked from the beginning since the book starts out with a bang. How did you feel reading it—amused, sad, disturbed, confused, bored...? I think I probably felt all those emotions. I felt sad for Theo, disturbed by his dad and bored at times due to the length of the book.
2. Describe the main characters—personality traits, motivations, and inner qualities. My favorite was Boris.
• Why do characters do what they do? Survival
• Are their actions justified? Yes and No.
• Describe the dynamics between characters (in a
marriage, family, or friendship). I remember Boris telling Theo that he should be more grateful about his father, flawed as he was, because he did love Theo in his own way and it could be so much worse. Boris was beaten by his father.
• How has the past shaped their lives? Boris had a complicated back story.
• Do you admire or disapprove of them? I admired Boris despite his flaws.
• Do they remind you of people you know? No
3. Are the main characters dynamic—changing or maturing by the end of the book? Do they learn about themselves, how the world works and their role in it?Theo and Boris mature and change throughout the book as it starts with them as youngsters.
4. Discuss the plot:
• Is it engaging—do you find the story interesting? Yes
• Is this a plot-driven book—a fast-paced page-turner? I think this book is about the journey. I did wonder about the painting throughout the story.
• Does the plot unfold slowly with a focus on character? Yes
• Were you surprised by complications, twists & turns? Yes
• Did you find the plot predictable, even formulaic? No
5. Talk about the book's structure.
• Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories?
• Does the time-line move forward chronologically? Overall, the story moves forward from teenager to adult.
• Does time shift back & forth from past to present? Yes
• Is there a single viewpoint or shifting viewpoints? Shifting viewpoints.
• Why might the author have chosen to tell the story
the way he or she did? Keep us on our toes.
• What difference does the structure make in the way
you read or understand the book? My opinions evolved about the characters throughout the story.
6. What main ideas—themes—does the author explore? (Consider the title, often a clue to a theme.) Does the author use symbols to reinforce the main ideas? (See our free LitCourses on both Symbol and Theme.)
7. What passages strike you as insightful, even profound? Perhaps a bit of dialog that's funny or poignant or that encapsulates a character? Maybe there's a particular comment that states the book's thematic concerns?
8. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it? I think I remember the story coming together at the end. I liked the return of Boris and his outlook on life.
9. If you could ask the author a question, what would you ask? Have you read other books by the same author? If so how does this book compare. If not, does this book inspire you to read others? I have also read The Secret History by the author. I liked the Goldfinch better as the characters were easier to root for. The ones in The Secret History were all despicable. I do look forward to another Donna Tartt book.
10. Has this novel changed you—broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new or been exposed to different ideas about people or a certain part of the world? Yes
11. Donna Tartt has said that the Goldfinch painting was the "guiding spirit" of the book. How so—what do you think she meant? What—or what all—does the painting represent in the novel? I think the painting meant many things. Theo clung to it as it was a remembrance of his mother.
I actually did make it to the Netherlands in 2018 but I didn't get to see the painting, a reason to go back:) I also watched the movie which I quite enjoyed.
I loved The Secret History and was disappointed with The Little Friend. The Goldfinch has had a lot of good publicity so I am looking forward to reading it.
I just got The Goldfinch from the library, so I'm starting it tonight. I read The Secret History last year. It was ok. After reading the synopsis on The Goldfinch I have to wonder why Tartt chose young men as her main characters in both this and The Secret History(which was very male-oriented).
I read The Goldfinch when it was first published and many of my reading friends recommended it as a 5 star book. However, I did not enjoy reading the book. It is clearly very well written with an interesting plot structure and well developed characters but I just found myself not wanting to go back in and learn anything more about the characters or their lives. I found Theo to be ugly and I just did not want to spend time with him. So although I found the opening to be great and I did appreciate Boris, overall it was a slog for me. After reading The Secret History, I was wondering if it was just my mood at the time, because, although I found The Secret History to be flawed, it clearly told of great writing skills on the part of the author. Yet, I still have no desire to go back and reread it.
And there you have it
The Goldfinch just arrived in the mail today. I haven't read anything by Tartt, but I think I have The Secret History tucked away somewhere on my Kindle. I have wanted to read them both for a while, but I must admit it looks a bit daunting. As big books go, I feel more enthusiastic about starting the annual read. (Maybe because it is on my Kindle so I can't see how massive it is... lol) I am almost done with the BotM and the January TBR challenge book, so I should be able to at least get started on both big books this month. (I am currently reading Infinite Jest as well, so I sort of have my doorstopper quota full just with that.)
I had started listening to The Goldfinch on audio a few weeks ago, but could not really get interested. I might have persisted if I'd known it was going to come up here as a selection. I'll probably try it again sometime, but I'm not really eager.I have to travel occasionally for my work, so I generally have an audio book I'm listening to over the course of six months or so. I was disappointed the The Goldfinch left me cold, but I'd also found an unabridged recording of Alan Moore's Jerusalem, which is very strange and very interesting, so not a complete loss.
Leni, are you reading Infinite Jest with others? I can not imagine getting through that brilliant monster without help. Bryan, sounds like you and I had the same reaction to The Goldfinch. Looking forward to hearing more about Jerusalem.
Gail, I'm using the website Infinite Summer. They did a 10 pages per day thing, June through August, several years ago. There are spoiler free forum discussions there for every step of the way. I actually started it in June, but had to put it on hold halfway through. I've picked it up again now. But I don't access the website on a daily basis anymore. It became too absorbing and I got bogged down. And the book flows easier once you get a few hundred pages in and get used to things. But it's nice to have all that info there for when I forget who a character is or what is going on. lol
Leni - Sounds like a great way to read it. Have fun!
Thanks, Gail. Only 300 pages to go now, and I'm starting to feel like I might really miss the idiosyncratic and dysfunctional characters when I'm done.
I know what you mean. I went into withdrawal after finishing, but the good news for me was that I followed one of my fellow readers to this 1001 group!!
I read this a couple of years ago and liked it, although I did find it flawed in a number of ways. It was a 3.5 for me. I didn't like it nearly as much as The Secret History. I read it prior to seeing the movie, which I didn't end up liking at all.
1. I was instantly drawn into the story, but read intermittently to begin with. As the story progressed I invested more time at each sitting. It is a book which evokes many emotions: it was clever, erudite, crass, repulsive, lyrical and it sometimes made me cry.2. The main character is Theo. He is a young boy who has a really close relationship with his mother and a problematic memory of his alcoholic father who has abandoned them. He is growing up in Upper East Side New York, attends a tony prep school, and is living a culturally enriched life if not a financially rich one. His thoughts, motivations and dreams are pitch perfect. After a period of time living with the emotionally stunted but wealthy Barbour family after his mother dies, he is whisked off to Las Vegas by his feckless father and his girlfriend. Here the sun is relentless the winds high and Theo learns the attraction of getting high himself as he lives practically unsupervised and bonds with another boy, similarly motherless and living with an abusive father. The language changes as Theo becomes an utter stoner. His friend, Boris, has had an unusual upbringing in a variety of places and his idiosyncratic language is different, but again pitch perfect. Neither Theo nor Boris can be approved of, but their lifestyle is understandable, and authentically described.
3. Theo runs away back to New York, studies enough to get by, learns about antiques and becomes a successful man about town. His drug use, however, spirals almost out of control. Boris turns up again and his character has developed in an extraordinary way.
4. The plot is, on reflection, far fetched, but it is engrossing and unpredictable and teases the reader to continue, despite the book's daunting length. There is a satisfying explanation of why Welty told Theo to take the painting in the first place, and a powerful explanation of Theo's motivations at the conclusion.
5. Theo's flash backs are integral to the story. Both teenage boys have had traumatic experiences and are dab hands at finding chemical self medication. The opening sequence remains at the back of the reader's mind throughout the story, and the way it returns to this episode at the end is satisfying. The whole story is told through Theo's lens, and he is constantly adding to the heft of the story as he remembers, voluntarily or not, what has happened in the past.
6. The Goldfinch of the title is a famous painting. It symbolises beauty, acquisitiveness, transience, ambiguity and the brevity of life. For Theo it represents overwhelming guilt.
7. Passages that stuck in my mind. In the context of lost paintings: "Maybe the one has to be lost for the others to be found. 'I think this goes more to the idea of 'relentless irony' than 'divine providence'. 'Yes - but why give it a name? Can't they both be the same thing?"
Theo reflecting: "Only here's what I really, really want someone to explain to me. What if one happens to be possessed of a heart that can't be trusted -? What if the heart, for its own unfathomable reasons, leads one wilfully and in a cloud of unspeakable radiance away from health, domesticity, civic responsibility and strong social connections and all the blandly-held common virtues and instead straight towards a beautiful flare of ruin, self-immolation, disaster?"
And later: "and as terrible as this is, I get it. We can't choose what we want and don't want and that is the hard, lonely truth."
and lastly: "As much as I'd like to believe that there is a truth beyond illlusion, I've come to believe that there's no truth beyond illusion. Because, between 'reality' on one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic".
8. I found the end, when Theo is addressing 'the non-existent reader' very satisfying. It explains the motivation for Theo having recounted his story.
9. I did think the description of meeting beauty as "an individual heart-shock" very apt. It describes exactly how I felt when I first saw the Taj Mahal. I would like to ask Donna Tartt if she felt that when first seeing The Goldfinch.
This is my second Donna Tartt's book. I read Secret History and didn’t like much. This one I found more interesting.1. How did you experience the book? Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to
"get into it"? How did you feel reading it—amused,
sad, disturbed, confused, bored...?
The plot of the story I did like the best. I was at times interested what is to happen. Still, it is a long book and at some points I got bored even with the plot itself. Also, at some points I was expecting something to happen, but it didn’t, or it already happened. It seems to me that I missed this building of tension within the plot itself.
2. Describe the main characters—personality traits, motivations, and inner qualities.
• Why do characters do what they do?
• Are their actions justified?
• Describe the dynamics between characters (in a
marriage, family, or friendship).
• How has the past shaped their lives?
• Do you admire or disapprove of them?
• Do they remind you of people you know?
Theo is the main character. He is a boy who after surviving terrorist attack loses his mother. His actions and thoughts are very much affected by these tragic events and his whole young adult life is about surviving that loss. He has a love/hate relationship with his father, his father’s girlfriend, even his best friend Boris. Boris is a problematic kid, but I think his character was not a successful one – he is so black and white version of the Russian boy, living in the US, whose father beats him and neglects him that I hated all parts involving him.
3. Are the main characters dynamic—changing or maturing by the end of the book? Do they learn about themselves, how the world works and their role in it?
I guess that the main theme is about a young male who is maturing by the end. But in many points, he fails to change and learn something important of himself. For example, leaving his grief and fear behind does not seem to happen. I disliked the very ending of the story itself, which I guess was supposed to explain this evolution.
4. Discuss the plot:
• Is it engaging—do you find the story interesting?
At some points yes, very much. At other points I didn’t care very much. Like when story shift to the Netherlands. I was ambivalent what would happen in the end.
• Is this a plot-driven book—a fast-paced page-turner?
For me, yes. It was a lot about plot. Nothing much else.
• Did you find the plot predictable, even formulaic?
Sometimes I was very much surprised to find where the plot was going. It wasn’t imaginative at all. I expected a lot more, something to be surprised at. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The ending was such a disappointment for me.
5. Talk about the book's structure.
• Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories?
• Does the time-line move forward chronologically?
Usually, the story follows a continuous time-line, except a couple of intro pages. Sometimes, you fill this story with additional details afterwards. But it didn’t matter much for me even to find this little plots and twist afterwards.
6. What main ideas—themes—does the author explore? (Consider the title, often a clue to a theme.) Does the author use symbols to reinforce the main ideas? (See our free LitCourses on both Symbol and Theme.)
Obviously, the bird is symbolic to the story. I consider it to be a symbol of freedom, which, in this particular case of the Goldfinch painting, with a little string around bird’s leg was not the case. The painting, and the bird remind me of solitude and isolation, not of freedom at all.
8. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it?
I guess I was a kind of disappointed at the end. But couldn’t tell you where I would lead the story.
10. Has this novel changed you—broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new or been exposed to different ideas about people or a certain part of the world?
I enjoyed very much looking at the Goldfinch painting. I learnt something of its history. I guess that was something I was attracted to from the beginning. But I hoped for something more of this artistic aspect of the story, which I didn’t find in it. Whole idea behind the plot of hiding the painting in the pillowcase for years was such an absurd idea.
11. Donna Tartt has said that the Goldfinch painting was the "guiding spirit" of the book. How so—what do you think she meant? What—or what all—does the painting represent in the novel?
The painting was to enforce artistic twist of this story. The story itself is not the one concerning art, but rather something else, including: terrorism, growing up, coping with personal traumatic experiences etc. But I guess that the story would be weaker if Theo brought home some other object – for example sword, or cup or even painting with another theme. The Goldfinch is a painting with its own history which was incorporated within this of Tartt, and it made it more appealing and mysterious. I think that it brought out the themes of isolation and inaccessibility, loneliness the most. That part I appreciated the most.
My overall rating: 3 stars.
Mod
I read The Secret History some time ago, and I quite liked it. Considering she won the Pulitzer with The Goldfinch in 2014, this should be at least a decent read.
1. How did you experience the book? Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to
"get into it"? How did you feel reading it—amused,
sad, disturbed, confused, bored...?
The first 30-odd pages culminate in a bang that sets the table for the rest of the novel. However, just like The Secret History, the plot and the characters are meticulously developed, at times perhaps a bit too much, as you feel that the parts of the story drag on. For example, the number of drug/alcohol adventures by Theo and Boris while in Vegas could have been curtailed a bit, it became a bit repetitive in the end. So, the novel is a fairly calm river until the 600th page, where things start to take a different and unexpected turn when Boris reappears in Theo’s life.
2. Describe the main characters—personality traits, motivations, and inner qualities.
• Why do characters do what they do?
• Are their actions justified?
• Describe the dynamics between characters (in a
marriage, family, or friendship).
• How has the past shaped their lives?
• Do you admire or disapprove of them?
• Do they remind you of people you know?
As the story is related by Theo, he is obviously the main character. His friend Boris would have to be a close second. Both of them have a history of broken families and alcoholic dads; when they meet in Vegas, they get on very quickly and spiral down a daily lifestyle of alcohol, drugs and general mischief. They’re not kids you would generally be attracted to or admiring, but Tartt’s writing ends up making them a lot more sympathetic than their truant nature.
3. Are the main characters dynamic—changing or maturing by the end of the book? Do they learn about themselves, how the world works and their role in it?
In a way, there is a bit of “coming of age” in this story, as Boris and especially Theo have matured to a degree throughout the story. Nevertheless, they are both still inhabited by some sort of nihilistic nature and you can almost feel that they remain in some sort of survival mode where no plans for their future are really made
4. Discuss the plot:
• Is it engaging—do you find the story interesting?
As mentioned above, there are some very slow moments and others with more action.
• Is this a plot-driven book—a fast-paced page-turner?
The story is retold very linearly, but the plot has been woven all around, with just enough twists to maintain the interest.
• Did you find the plot predictable, even formulaic?
I would not say entirely predictable, nor formulaic, though the very ending is somewhat a predictable “good” ending.
5. Talk about the book's structure.
• Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories?
• Does the time-line move forward chronologically?
• Does time shift back & forth from past to present?
• Is there a single viewpoint or shifting viewpoints?
• Why might the author have chosen to tell the story
the way he or she did?
• What difference does the structure make in the way
you read or understand the book?
Apart from the introduction, the story is chronological with very few temporal side-steps. It is told by Theo, and I think it was the right to limit the storytelling to his point of view; it allowed several yet-to-be-known elements of the plot to unravel as the story goes along.
6. What main ideas—themes—does the author explore? (Consider the title, often a clue to a theme.) Does the author use symbols to reinforce the main ideas?
The painting provides keys to the main themes alluded to in the novel, especially in the soliloquy from Theo to a non-existent reader in the last 14 pages: the mysteries of art, love and life; the symbolism of the goldfinch depicted in the painting, tied to its perch, devoid of freedom, yet with a defiant look in its eyes.
7. What passages strike you as insightful, even profound? Perhaps a bit of dialog that's funny or poignant or that encapsulates a character? Maybe there's a particular comment that states the book's thematic concerns?
I haven’t picked or focused on a passage, but I have to say that most of the drug-related experiences depicted by Theo (both the good and the bad) are particularly vivid, to the point where you wonder how much of a subject matter expert Donna Tartt is (there were similar passages in The Secret History). Maybe we should ask Bret Easton Ellis what they were up to when they studied together at Bennington.
8. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it?
I think the ending was satisfying, not entirely good, but not entirely bad either.
10. Has this novel changed you—broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new or been exposed to different ideas about people or a certain part of the world?
Even though I was already attentive in deciphering the themes and messages of paintings, this novel will push me to be even more attentive when I visit museums in the future.
1. I was drawn into the story immediately. I found the whole thing riveting, but I also felt very uncomfortable reading it. You know from the start that something bad has happened and this is the story of how it happened. And then that story is told starting with a terrorist attack and the death of a parent. All the neglect and abuse and bad life choices, combined with the PTSD and anxiety issues of the narrator made me feel low-key anxious throughout.2. The characters are very much the product of childhood events and of highly flawed parents. I wanted to shake practically every single adult in there. Maybe not Hobie. While he was hardly flawless, he rose to the occasion with more ability than anyone else in the story.
Boris reminded me of a boy I knew in school. He was bright and exciting, and full of plans, but also of anger and rebellion. At 14 he had a slightly older girlfriend who wore a big ring that left an imprint on people's faces whenever she got into a fight. At 15 he had pretty much dropped out of school and just sat at home drinking with his mother. At 20 he was shooting up regularly. Ten years after that I ran into his sister who told me he was on methadone and doing much better. I hope he is doing well now.
At first I thought Boris was bad for Theo. That Theo should have gone with Andy's plan of getting himself off to college on a scholarship as early as possible, and that he was sabotaging himself by being with Boris. Only when Boris, much later, talked about Theo being a suicidal blackout drunk did I realise (even if Boris was possibly putting a spin on things) that their relationship really was mutual. They were two messed up and neglected kids who self-medicated and took care of each other to the best of their stunted abilities.
Theo makes some really bad choices. He's not the only one. Theo's father and Boris make bad choices out of an optimism that if they just seize opportunities things will work out. Hobie, Pippa, and the Barbours try to make problems go away by ignoring them or actively avoiding them. Theo makes bad choices because he is at times easy to suggest things to. He'll act on impulse, or to please. And then he obsesses and agonises and gets really neurotic about it afterwards, which makes him paralysed with indecision.
3. The characters grow into themselves, but they don't really change. Theo seems to change, or at least come to terms with himself at the end. There is the possibility of change there.
4. The plot was somewhat predictable, especially the twist with the taped up painting. That was signalled fairly heavily and came as no surprise. But it felt more inevitable than predictable.
Given the size of the book and the Pulitzer prize, I expected the book to be less accessible but it was actually quite the page turner. It is a good combination of plot and character driven.
5. The intro and outro, so to speak, were before and after narrative. Because of the intro I was feeling rather pessimistic about the way it would turn out. Although, as I approached the point where the narrative would meet up with the introduction I was starting to feel a bit more hopeful. I had learnt by then that Theo has a tendency to fall into dramatic despair and that just maybe things wouldn't be as bad as they seemed. Having Theo tell the story was an excellent choice, as it left some things vague or to be revealed later, and his PTSD gave the whole story an anxious and oppressed feeling.
6. Themes: Freedom, responsibility, fate vs chance, can good come from evil and vice versa. The development of Self. Passion, possession, reasons to live, the things that affect us deeply.
8. I was so relieved by the ending! I spent most of the book convinced that it would all go to hell. Like, even more to pieces than it already had. Instead we got the main issue resolved in the best possible way, and an open but hopeful view to the future.
10. I have never really considered the lighting in art. And I am now a bit fascinated by the process of restoring antique furniture.
11. The Goldfinch, and the feelings/reactions characters in the story have to it, embodies several of the themes of the book. It is also the thing that everything else revolves around. To Theo it is both love and guilt, companionship and isolation, it is both to live and to die for.
• Birth—December 23, 1963
• Where—Greenwood, Mississippi, USA
• Education—B.A., Bennington College
• Awards—WH Smith Literary Award
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Donna Tartt is an American writer and author of the novels The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2002), and The Goldfinch (2013). She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend in 2003.
Early life
Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, and raised in the nearby town of Grenada.
Enrolling in the University of Mississippi in 1981, her writing caught the attention of Willie Morris while she was a freshman. Following a recommendation from Morris, Barry Hannah, then an Ole Miss Writer-in-Residence, admitted eighteen-year-old Tartt into his graduate short story course. "She was deeply literary," says Hannah. "Just a rare genius, really. A literary star."
Following the suggestion of Morris and others, she transferred to Bennington College in 1982, where she was friends with fellow students Bret Easton Ellis, Jill Eisenstadt, and Jonathan Lethem, and studying classics with Claude Fredericks. She dated Ellis for a while after sharing works in progress, her own The Secret History and Ellis's Less Than Zero.
Summary: Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthralling force and acuity.
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's 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. (From the publisher.)
Prequestion: have you read other books by Donna Tartt. Are you looking forward to reading The Goldfinch or are you not feeling it?
1. How did you experience the book? Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to
"get into it"? How did you feel reading it—amused,
sad, disturbed, confused, bored...?
2. Describe the main characters—personality traits, motivations, and inner qualities.
• Why do characters do what they do?
• Are their actions justified?
• Describe the dynamics between characters (in a
marriage, family, or friendship).
• How has the past shaped their lives?
• Do you admire or disapprove of them?
• Do they remind you of people you know?
3. Are the main characters dynamic—changing or maturing by the end of the book? Do they learn about themselves, how the world works and their role in it?
4. Discuss the plot:
• Is it engaging—do you find the story interesting?
• Is this a plot-driven book—a fast-paced page-turner?
• Does the plot unfold slowly with a focus on character?
• Were you surprised by complications, twists & turns?
• Did you find the plot predictable, even formulaic?
5. Talk about the book's structure.
• Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories?
• Does the time-line move forward chronologically?
• Does time shift back & forth from past to present?
• Is there a single viewpoint or shifting viewpoints?
• Why might the author have chosen to tell the story
the way he or she did?
• What difference does the structure make in the way
you read or understand the book?
6. What main ideas—themes—does the author explore? (Consider the title, often a clue to a theme.) Does the author use symbols to reinforce the main ideas? (See our free LitCourses on both Symbol and Theme.)
7. What passages strike you as insightful, even profound? Perhaps a bit of dialog that's funny or poignant or that encapsulates a character? Maybe there's a particular comment that states the book's thematic concerns?
8. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it?
9. If you could ask the author a question, what would you ask? Have you read other books by the same author? If so how does this book compare. If not, does this book inspire you to read others?
10. Has this novel changed you—broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new or been exposed to different ideas about people or a certain part of the world?
11. Donna Tartt has said that the Goldfinch painting was the "guiding spirit" of the book. How so—what do you think she meant? What—or what all—does the painting represent in the novel?
(Questions by LitLovers.