Week Two
Thursday 19th Febuary
Book :
The Goldfinch
Author :
Donna Tartt
Quote ;
‘Like the best of Dickens …., the novel turns on mere happenstance — in this case, a heavy rainstorm in New York City. Theo Decker, our adolescent narrator, has been suspended from his school. He and his well-loved mother (“Everything came alive in her company; she cast a charmed theatrical light”) set off for a “conference” with school officials but duck into the Metropolitan Museum of Art to get out of the weather. There is a terrorist bombing, and many people are killed.’ - Stephen King
Why you should read this :
As my family know, I like to read thrillers and The Goldfinch is a thriller involving the fictional theft and disappearance of the Fabritius painting The Goldfinch. However it is much more than the run of the mill ‘who done it?’
The book paints a picture of America in the post-September 11 era with a plot involving an orphan - his moral and sentimental education whilst growing up within two dysfunctional families. There is a mysterious and very likeable benefactor who teaches him about fine art and antiques but is also inextricably linked to where the novel began – with the portrait that the traumatised boy takes in terror in the immediate aftermath of the bombing that kills his mother. The book maps the ‘hero’ circumnavigating the consequences of his childhood actions, his unrequited love for another orphan, his dubious friendship with a Russian youth, a misguided engagement and the drugs he subsequently becomes dependent upon to eventually begin to right some of the havoc as he emerges from his twenties! There are some unlikely moments and one feels in parts that Tartt allowed the book to run on too long but the book concludes with a suspenseful flourish and it is truly a great read!
Where you should read this :
On the beach, on a sun longer when you have a couple of days to get stuck in – it is not a short story!
- Punch Maughan