The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, is a remarkable story which follows young Theo Decker across the country and through drugged-out hazes and terrifying incidents. The settings are large, significant places: New York City, Las Vegas, swaths of Europe. But it wasn't always this way for Theo. The only thing that has derailed his relatively normal life is the day he and his mother pay an impromptu visit to the art museum. His beautiful, charming mother loses her life there in a multi-bomb terrorist attack and Theo stumbles away almost without realizing he's done something that will change his life forever. As his shell shock subsides and his precarious position in the world becomes obvious, he also finds himself burdened with a terrible secret.

The scope is Dickensian (there, I said it, although it's already been said by so many other reviewers) and the plot is twisty and expansive at the same time. But this is a story largely made up of the minutiae of life. Meals are eaten, cigarettes are smoked, and people discuss their fears, families, and foibles. Tartt has that Stieg Larsson talent of making it genuinely interesting to read about someone fixing their lunch.

All this is to say that The Goldfinch is a large, serious work that somehow is a huge pleasure to read. Those small, seemingly insignificant details are what make Tartt's book so unexpectedly pleasing. Theo is an intelligent, likable kid. And it's painful to watch him deal with his mother's death. It's disappointing when he becomes a juvenile delinquent in response to the loss of the life he's known. The reader is made to feel all the lost emotions someone in his circumstances are bound to experience. Time and time again he makes bad decisions or narrowly escapes the fallout from a foolish choice. But during my reading I never brought myself to hate Theo or be angry or frustrated with him when he's made such a mess of his life. He's such a realistic character that you feel as if you know what it is like to be him, not just know him. In this way, Tartt makes him sympathetic rather than annoying.

Theo isn't the lone standout character among a sea of colorless personalities. I would like to list for you the characters in this book that I don't believe I will ever forget, but the list would probably get a bit tiresome. Some are delightful, some are selfish, and others are so bizarre yet well drawn that you can easily imagine having met them once or twice.

The book has received some scathing reviews. Critics have called it childish and accused Tartt of helping dumb down adult readers. But her writing is beautiful. And for all the flaws reviewers have pointed out in the story and its too-neatly-tied-up ending, I would rather read 100 pages of Donna Tartt describing an excellent meal and a walk in Central Park that read 10 pages of John Steinbeck. Guess that makes me dumb.