Post by nondescript spice on Jun 27, 2014 23:37:09 GMT -5
the goldfinch - donna tartt
i understand ms. tartt won the pulitzer prize for fiction for this book. it's a hefty read - 700 something pages, i think. very well written - she's a great writer. but i think three or four hundred pages could have easily been cut out and it still would have been a compelling story. it drove me kind of nuts the few weeks i read it - the story would really get moving, but then it would stall and go on and ON, on these long narratives. not a speck of dust was overlooked in description. basically, the story is this: young theo goes to an art museum one day in new york city with his mother. a terrorist sets a bomb off that kills a few people, theo's mother included. in his shock, he leaves the scene with a priceless painting, the goldfinch. he's carted around for a few years but manages to keep the painting with him a secret, trying to figure out what to do with it. it was his mother's favorite painting, so he sort of wants to keep it, but he's afraid if he tries to return it, he will be arrested. it leads him into a career of buying and selling art, and further into the shady world of art theft. it has a few memorable characters - i preferred his euro trash criminal friend, boris, to theo, myself. it lost me a few times when it would go off into la la land, but i stuck with it. i might try reading it again sometime. maybe not.
right now i'm reading insomnia, by stephen king. i never got around to reading it. whew, it's a monster. i'm just getting started, so not much has happened yet. i know this one has gotten good reviews, so i'll trust mr. king to get it rolling soon.
i understand ms. tartt won the pulitzer prize for fiction for this book. it's a hefty read - 700 something pages, i think. very well written - she's a great writer. but i think three or four hundred pages could have easily been cut out and it still would have been a compelling story. it drove me kind of nuts the few weeks i read it - the story would really get moving, but then it would stall and go on and ON, on these long narratives. not a speck of dust was overlooked in description. basically, the story is this: young theo goes to an art museum one day in new york city with his mother. a terrorist sets a bomb off that kills a few people, theo's mother included. in his shock, he leaves the scene with a priceless painting, the goldfinch. he's carted around for a few years but manages to keep the painting with him a secret, trying to figure out what to do with it. it was his mother's favorite painting, so he sort of wants to keep it, but he's afraid if he tries to return it, he will be arrested. it leads him into a career of buying and selling art, and further into the shady world of art theft. it has a few memorable characters - i preferred his euro trash criminal friend, boris, to theo, myself. it lost me a few times when it would go off into la la land, but i stuck with it. i might try reading it again sometime. maybe not.
right now i'm reading insomnia, by stephen king. i never got around to reading it. whew, it's a monster. i'm just getting started, so not much has happened yet. i know this one has gotten good reviews, so i'll trust mr. king to get it rolling soon.