The first thing to say about this is it's long. It's easily one of the three longest books I've read since I started this blog however many years ago it was. It feels like the longest though by a clear distance and has taken me 3 weeks to complete.
Theo Decker is 13 when he's caught up in an explosion in a museum in New York. Two results from the explosion are the death of his mother and his theft of a priceless small painting called the Goldfinch.
This theft underpins much of his existence from then on, eventually entangling him with a European crime ring and risking his life.
His childhood is spent shuttling between friends and the remains of his family. The rich friends who take him in immediately after the explosion introduce him to a life of riches and privilege, a life he's forced to leave behind when his deadbeat dad whisks him across the country.
I finished this yesterday and it hasn't quite settled in yet. It is certainly well written and held my interest effortlessly while I had this house brick of a book But, when I put it down, I struggled to motivate myself to pick it up again on occasion for reasons I can't quite work out.
Tartt created some compelling characters. The supporting cast mostly felt very real and sympathetic- Hobie in particular feels like a real person. One offstage death quite upset me so Tartt was doing her job right. The character of Theo is less convincing though. He undergoes a few character reversals when needed to progress the plot. He also does very little of his own volition to move the plot along. Most of the major events and resolutions to his many problems come through the supporting characters' actions rather than anything Theo does for himself.
There are odd threads from the start of the book left hanging. The dying man in the museum who is responsible for him taking the picture asks him to warn Hobie about something- but this is never followed up on. Hobie tells Theo about a pair of con artists in great detail (including physical description), but then fails to recognise the one he described in a long one to one conversation.
Tarrtt's prose is occasionally gorgeous. She's undoubtedly a very talented writer, but I don't think I loved this book. It's a very good book indeed. Some of the insights she gives into art and the human condition are spot on but there are flaws as I've mentioned above. I'm definitely glad I read it, and will certainly be checking out others from her back catalogue. All in all, a bit of a curates egg. The other two very long books I've read since I started this were pageturners and I read them in under 2 weeks. I can't say this ever had that type of energy.
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