Museum galleries with low light. The smell of ink on paper. Old restored furniture. The taste of single vodka. An empty apartment. A lonely child hugging a painting on the ground. Old scratchy hands. Memories of better times. An unrequited love. Loneliness and malchance. A bird singing in the middle of the night. The feeling that nothing will be alright ever again. The night breeze coming in through an open window. History and art.
I’ve gone through a lot of feelings reading this book, from love to hate, to sorrow, depression, euphoria and emptiness. I think that’s exactly how a great book has to make you feel. I have no words to describe how incredible and good Donna Tartt’s writing is. This woman has a gift and is using it to entertain us, I couldn’t be more grateful for that. The world needs more writers like her. Even though, her style reminded me of Kate Morton’s, with all those paragraphs to describe a single feeling, a memory, a character or a placement. And she has it all thought, it’s all so well threaded that it could be perfectly true, the characters and their stories compose a world perfectly created.
The best thing about this book is that you can even learn about a lot of things by reading it. From restoring old furniture to drugs consuming. I’d like to know if Donna Tartt went through all those experiences to know that much about these topics, it would be interesting to know if she learned how to restore old furniture, if she went from Las Vegas to New York City taking buses, if she consumed drugs to know how they react, how addicts make it to look clean and how they endure days without consuming, etc. Because it’s all as real as if she lived Theo’s life herself for a while.
Another thing Donna Tartt gets is the reader to love some characters from their first appearance, such as Andy or Hobie, and to hate others, like –no, I’ll let you discover them by yourselves. But at the same time, she plays with your feelings for some other characters, by playing with what they say or with their actions. I think that Donna Tartt reflects this philosophy in what Boris says at some point:
“What if your badness and mistakes are the very thing that set
our fate and bring us round to good?”
You might like or not Donna Tartt’s style –I personally love it– but we can all agree in the fact that this story is touching and, even if it brings different things to each reader, it makes you grow and see the world a bit different, with another eyes. Keeping in mind that everyone has a story and even if you will never know about it all, sometimes what we have to do is to close our mouths and listen to the other’s story, this way we can at least try to understand why that person has taken a path or another in their lives. I think that’s the main moral of The Goldfinch.
Finally, the advice I’d give you before reading this book wouldn’t be to grab a box of handkerchiefs, because it’s probable you won’t cry, but to straighten your seatbelts because you’re about to ride in a rollercoaster of feelings.
P.S.1: If you’re planning to read The Goldfinch because you’ve seen the movie adaption and you’re curious or you liked it, let me tell you that the book is a million times better.
P.S.2: If you’re planning to watch the movie adaption after reading the book, let me warn you that it lasts 2 hours and a half and it’s not worth the time, it’s a complete mess. They adapted the story as bad as they could. But at the end is your choice, so if you want to watch it then do it, and judge it yourself.
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