When a book is widely discussed, been on the best-seller list for more than 32 weeks, and received the Pulitzer, a reader probably has certain expectations. When you throw in the fact that the book is almost 800 pages in length, reading “The Goldfinch” might even be intimidating.
Several people I know had read Donna Tartt’s novel and most had reported that they couldn’t put it down. With that in mind, I began reading. After one hundred pages and facing seven hundred more, I began to wonder whether I was going to be one of the few people who didn’t like it. But once I got into the rhythm of the narration and the plot, I became engrossed in the world of Theo Decker. Many critics have compared Theo’s trials and tribulations with those of characters in a Dickens novel. That said, you don’t have to be a Dickens scholar to understand and get caught up in Theo’s life.
Tartt’s is a great writer. Her sentences flow effortlessly Many paragraphs are one page in length and plot development is slow and goes on for many, many pages. Moving from Amsterdam, to New York to Las Vegas and back, the settings are major characters in the story. Her chapters set in Las Vegas were dark and devoid of hope. Events unfolding in wintry Amsterdam create feelings of desperation and hopelessness. And yet in the end, the bad guys get what is coming to them, and the good guys sort of triumph.
Of all the characters that were important to the story, it is Boris that I will remember. He is constantly reinventing himself out of the need to survive. Toward the end of the novel, Boris becomes for me a comic figure with his Russian accent and his wheeling and dealing. Everything will be fine he says over and over. And in the end, it is.
Criticism has been voiced that although “The Goldfinch” is well-written and deals with important themes, it does not deserve a place in the canon of literature that merits the Pulitzer. Whether or not that is true, at this point in time just hop on to “The Goldfinch” wagon and enjoy the ride.