The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

What a rollercoaster...

I came across Donna Tartt while watching a BookTuber -- a YouTuber who makes book specific videos -- named BooksandLala.  She had read Donna's book “The Secret History” and raved about how fantastic it was.  When I pulled up all of Donna Tartt’s books, I noticed that “The Goldfinch” had just started filming in New York and is due for release in 2019.  I’m a sucker for book to film adaptations.  You know the book must be good if they want to make a movie out of it.  An extra bonus was my timing.  They already have most of the casting in place for the movie.  While reading about a new character, I would pull up the cast list pictures to help visualize what they might look like.

The book opens with Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old, and his mother preparing to have a conference at his New York prep school due to some behavioral issues.  On the way, they stop at an art museum to see one of his mother’s favorite art pieces, Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch.  While casually walking through the art gallery, Theo notices a red-headed girl and a grandfatherly figure with her.  He continually catches her eye but never works up the courage to talk to her.  As they prepare to leave the museum, a bomb explodes knocking him unconscious.  Theo comes to, covered in rubble and dust, and sees the grandfather of the red-head close to him. In the old man’s last moments, he hands Theo the ring he is wearing and seems to signal to The Goldfinch, which has been blown out of it’s frame, and tells him to take the ring to a specific location.  In his altered and concussed state, Theo grabs the painting and the dying man’s ring and exits the museum out a side door with no idea where his mother is.  He then returns to his apartment to wait for his mom, hoping that she will meet him there.  Sadly, she never comes home.  The rest of the book follows Theo as he battles grief, post-traumatic stress disorder, and hiding The Goldfinch painting. 

I decided to read this book on my e-reader versus the physical book.  I seem to be drawn towards larger 400+ page books, if you haven't noticed from the majority of my previous reads.  This one is no exception.  The e-reader had it listed as 515 pages.  It was reserved from my library, so I only had two weeks to finish it before I would need to renew it.  I buckled down and tried to fly through it.  Luckily, the plot was drama-filled enough to keep me entertained and kept me flipping quite easily.  I finished the book with mere hours to spare before a renewal was needed.  Mind you, I would stay up until 2AM many a night, but what book-lover doesn't do that to begin with?

Bathing in my glory of finishing the book, I glanced at a few other reviews to see if my thoughts fell into the general consensus.  I saw a lot of reviews saying that it was "too long" or that it dragged in sections.  I was confused as to how people believed that entire chunks of the book could have been edited out, when I saw that the physical book is actually 800+ pages...... You mean to tell me that I just flew through an 800 page book in 2 weeks?  I was baffled by the page difference between my e-reader and the physical copy.  It made me wonder if it would have been a more difficult read if I knew there were an extra 300 pages to get through.  It can be daunting looking at the size of a book or seeing the never-ending numbers flipping in the corner of the page.  Perhaps some people just lost interest due to the size alone and less their connection with the story line.

In conclusion, this book is a chore to take on.  I wouldn't consider it a casual beach read by any means.  But I think it will make a fabulous movie and is well worth the time spent.  The plot is thick with twists and turns and never lets the characters settle into comfort.  I'm very interested in Donna Tartt's other books now.

Rating: 5 out of 5
* Positives: Exciting plot; author's investment to research and attention to detail when writing about specific subjects (ex: art history, grief, substance abuse); and it is so well written!

* Negatives: Size of the book and the number of snacks consumed while reading this behemoth