bethany725 Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 (edited) To Read The Shadow of the Wind -Carlos Ruiz ZafonPride and Prejudice -Jane AustenThe Goldfinch -Donna TarttThe Secret History -Donna TarttAnd the Mountains Echoed -Khaled HosseineLongbourn -JoBaker Eleanor & Park -Rainbow Rowell Read The Goldfinch -Donna Tartt (3/5) Rating Scale: 1-5 (5 being highest) Edited January 28, 2014 by bethany725 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted January 28, 2014 Author Share Posted January 28, 2014 Review for "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt: I ran hot and cold with this one... The writing was beautiful, and really brought the characters to life. I can almost SEE Boris in front of me, and I can hear his voice EXACTLY when I read the passages spoken by this Ukrainian misfit. Same for Andy... Through Theo's descriptions, I can just see him poking his glasses up on his nose, and hear him wheezing and sniffling due to his apparent need to live in a bubble. There were days when I couldn't put this book down due to being so drawn in, and then, on the flip side, there were days when the prose made me want to do anything BUT keep reading this story. It's heavy-handedly beautiful, as opposed to beautifully heavy-handed.The story is compelling, especially through Theo's time in NYC towards the beginning. However, soon after, his time in Vegas seemed to stretch on forever, and unnecessarily so. The compulsion picked up again upon his initial return to NYC, and then through the latter part of NYC and into Amsterdam, I was frustrated again at just how long things were dragged on. The horse... He was dead.As for the last 30 pages, I was about fed up and I couldn't help but resort to skimming... The ending felt incredibly self-indulgent to me. There are actually some wonderful Theo-learned lessons delivered during the last (15-page) stream of consciousness, but they're so far buried within the rambling that one must really FOCUS to pull them out, and after 755 pages of running hot and cold, focus wasn't my strong point at the time.Overall lessons for me: The power of the human spirit's will to survive, despite life being downright sad sometimes. One bad decision leads to another, sometimes as quickly as a sweater unraveling. And "We can't choose who we are and what we want." (I actually pulled out one of Theo's life lessons in those last 15 pages.) It's one of those books where you both love and hate so many of the characters, and you feel both so hopeful and hopeless simultaneously about life, and despite some quirks along the way, any author who can make me feel that is someone I'm likely to try again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Great review Beth, 'The Goldfinch' is on my wishlist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Be sure to shoot me a message when you track it down and start reading it... I'll be curious to hear your thoughts, Weave! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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