“We don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.”
Brief Description:
A 13-year-old boy, Theo Decker, survives a deadly bombing that kills his mother at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As he walks out of the museum, he grabs a a small Dutch painting of a yellow goldfinch that has somehow remain unscathed in the bombing.
This painting—combined with the loss of his mother—will change the trajectory of his life forever.
Good to Know:
Setting: New York City to Arizona to Amsterdam
Genre: Literary Fiction / Coming-of-age
Page Count: 771 *nervous laughter*
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
The Goldfinch is a 5-course meal.
You can’t sit down and whizz through it with a warm cup of tea. You’ve got to chew on it. Digest it. It’s a novel that takes time.
In many ways, The Goldfinch was one of the most beautiful novels I’ve ever read. Tartt’s attention to detail—and her ability to articulate this detail on the blank page—is like none other. I drank up her prose like a fine Cabernet. I welcomed every detail about every character because I ached to know them as intimately as possible.
But I’m not in the business of lying to you…sometimes, the details felt extraneous. A how am i ever going to finish this book overwhelming. As is the nature of such dense, and for lack of a better word, literary literature.
But once I was done, all of the hype made sense. It’s undeniably clear why it won the Pulitzer Prize, and why one of my former classmates named her cat after this book.
We follow Theo throughout his life (literally—this novel spans a huge amount of time), where we are introduced to all the people who make up his little universe:
The Barbours, a wealthy family living on Park Avenue who become fundamental to the story
Theo’s narcissistic, alcoholic, abusive father and his eccentric drug addict of a girlfriend, Xandra
Popchik, the dog that somehow undergoes his own personal character arc
Sweet Pippa, warm as sunshine
Wise and empathetic Hobie
The dying man in the museum who sets the entire story into motion
And Boris, of course, equal parts hero and villain
We get Theo’s worst choices, biggest mistakes, and greatest hits. It’s a story enveloped in Tartt’s multi-layered, madly impressive metaphors, haunting language, and complex characters, where she weaves a beautiful and bittersweet portrait of realization and the complexity of human relationship.
Even when I wasn’t reading this story, I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about the corrupted innocence of Theo, or his train-wreck of a father, or the bittersweet role of Andy, or the strange, adjoining relationship between Theo and Boris. It was one of those novels where, once I finished reading it, I simply sat on my bed and tried to accept the fact that it was over.
In my opinion, that’s the sign of successful literature.
If it lingers and sticks and you can’t keep the smell off you for days, then job well done.
To read…
if you like literary fiction
if you enjoy classic novels
if you want a book that challenges you
if you’re ready to seethe with either inspiration or jealousy at Donna Tartt’s gorgeous prose
…or not to read?
if you’re looking for a feel-good, easy-to-read, put-me-to-sleep-nighttime-routine kind of thing
But as always, remember the good rule of thumb in life & in literature…don’t be afraid to try new things. And here, fellow reader, is where we part ways.
Happy Reading!
What books are you curious to hear more about? Reply back and let me know so I can get to work.
G