Author: Donna Tartt
Genre: Fiction
Blurb: It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
Me: I finally did it, y'all. I read the book of 2014 six years later in self-isolation, but as someone who never thought they'd get around to it, I'm pretty happy! I was excited to see some of the hype for myself but unfortunately, I think I might understand why I avoided reading it for so long.
The Ups: Tartt is an amazing writer; I have no doubts about that. After being completely blown away by The Secret History, I was excited to see that she still had beautiful descriptions and an amazing ability to describe intimate settings. The book travels from penthouses and antique shops in New York to suburban desert houses in Vegas - each place was so vivid in my mind. I particularly enjoyed the attention to physical beauty that seemed to run through the whole book; as a book about art, it seemed fitting that there was so much attention on art in the language.
I really enjoyed all the discussion of what art can do by the end of the novel - it was so fascinating to think that somehow one painting had dictated the entire life of a boy to a man. Even when it was stolen or wasn't in his possession, even the thought of it could empower his existence. I think what Tartt was trying to say about the place art occupies between reality and divinity was stunning.
I also appreciated that for a book with a male protagonist and a constant (rather shallow) love interest, the book did not succumb to traditional masculine stereotypes that would usually turn me off. Nothing was overly sexualized and desire was not always fulfilled - a much more realistic take on life than I've sometimes seen from other writers.
The Downs: As much as I thought the final message about art was cool, there is absolutely no way that I thought it justified everything that happened throughout the book's 700 page journey. I caught myself about three-quarters of the way through the book wondering when it would start to really pick up and get to the real story; I think about half of the story revolving around Theo's life could have been cut.
I also thought the insights were not very well-founded or complex, and they weren't presented in any stylistic, mind-blowing way. It was like a story full of pretty two-dimensional characters and a bit over-sensationalized plot ended, and then Tartt tacked on a moral that we should all take away from the book. It wasn't weaved into the story where the revelation and the story itself were inseparable, rather it felt like a feeble attempt to make a "deep meaning" out of a pretty winding and tiring book. There's a part at the very end where Tartt gets our interest by saying we absolutely need to hear this and then essentially says, "Life is short." I don't think I needed this story in particular to really remind me of that.
After having read it, it strikes me that none of the characters were really powerful enough for me to connect and remember them now. I felt like the large cast of characters was interesting, but I didn't sympathize or really even understand Theo enough to begin to connect to the others. There wasn't really a moral or emotional complexity- he seemed mostly to be bored with everything and didn't feel particularly bad about the things he did.
Overall, disappointing. Hoping her next one is more reflective of what she can do.
Rating: 2 kisses!
I’ve seen so much hype about this book. I’m sorry it was such a bummer! It doesn’t really seem like my cup of tea, but all the hype did almost convince me to read it.
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