The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch 

by Donna Tartt

Rating: 4 Star

Donna Tartt was working on The Goldfinch for over a decade and this time invested into the novel really comes through during the reading. The long writing process explains the 800+ pages too, this definitely isn't a 'quick' or indeed 'light' read.

As soon as you start the novel, you you immediately feel both the complexity and depth of the world that she creates through Theodore Decker's eyes. The characters, locations, and even dialects of the main protagonists are all very richly described.




The novel starts with Theo as a young child involved in a very tragic event that changes the course of his life forever. We then follow him through several decades as he struggles to cope with the events from that day.

Despite his traumatic childhood and the constant reminders of the tragedy, Theo has several incredible adventures during his life taking in locations such as New York, Las Vegas, and Amsterdam.

Even though I didn't really warm to him as a character, he is described so well by Tartt that I really wanted to see how everything works out in the end.

Tartt really demands your time and attention on this novel and many reviews have commented that this work is simply too long. Whilst I agree that some of the sections slowed down the overall pace of the novel, and the long discussions on art history were difficult to finish, on reflection I don't think you could simply remove them without detracting from the overall works.

I rated this novel as 4 out of 5 stars.