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The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for…
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The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) (original 2013; edition 2015)

by Donna Tartt (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
14,786797370 (3.94)1 / 785
"The author of the classic bestsellers The Secret History and The Little Friend returns with a brilliant, highly anticipated new novel. A young boy in New York City, Theo Decker, miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friend's family and struggles to make sense of his new life. In the years that follow, he becomes entranced by one of the few things that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the art underworld. Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America, and a drama of almost unbearable acuity and power. It is a story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the enormous power of art"--… (more)
Member:Foghorn-Leghorn
Title:The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Authors:Donna Tartt (Author)
Info:Back Bay Books (2015), 771 pages
Collections:4 star & over, Your library
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013)

Recently added bykhloweigh, mjannicelli88, hat34, Artur-Bobinski, jbrownleo, private library, RuthInman123, Rini55, ariellaw
Legacy LibrariesCian O hAnnrachainn
  1. 203
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    The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (JuliaMaria)
  3. 11
    The World to Come by Dara Horn (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Paintings are at the heart of these hefty novels, both of which combine the antics of a heist novel with ruminations on literature, history, and loss. Memorable characters and rich details add to the enjoyment of both books.
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    vwinsloe: A book about trauma, guilt and complicated grief. The effect of secrets and drugs on lives and families.
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    Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic (niquetteb)
    niquetteb: The detailed writing styles are similar.
  6. 00
    Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (pbirch01)
    pbirch01: Both have protagonists that use rare artworks to get what they want and execute their plan over many years
  7. 11
    The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (shaunie)
    shaunie: The Dutch House is in some ways a slimmed down, more enjoyable Goldfinch.
  8. 01
    You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon (sipthereader)
    sipthereader: Loss of a young parent; leading a deceptive life
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 Girlybooks: The Goldfinch SPOILERS ALLOWED80 unread / 80Deleted, August 2014

» See also 785 mentions

English (754)  Dutch (8)  Spanish (8)  French (7)  Italian (6)  German (3)  Swedish (2)  Danish (1)  Catalan (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (791)
Showing 1-5 of 754 (next | show all)
I loved this book! I think it was a wonderful and tragic story of a boy suffering through life and experiencing love and loss and friendship and struggling without guidance from a loving, caring and capable parental figure. I laughed, I cringed at the terrible decisions, my heart broke for the characters at times and the ending was perfectly realistic.
Unfortunately I do not feel the same about the movie...but the book was well worth the 700 plus pages! ( )
  jbrownleo | Mar 27, 2024 |
Donna Tartt, a writer of prodigious talent, again takes a decade to write a novel north of six hundred pages; of course its ambitious. Opening with a scenario reminiscent of 9/11, its two main themes would seem to be the emotional damage inflicted on survivors (here, Theo, a boy of 13 at the time of the bombing) and the role of art, of beauty, in the world (here represented primarily in the painting The Goldfinch by Fabritius).

Certainly Tartt develops these themes with great skill. Yet as a reader I feel some frustration from the fact that there is a third theme, that of the powerfully bonded adolescent friendship and its later evolution, that I wish had received more of Tartt's attention and development.
Such was my mistaken first impression of the only friend I made when I was in Vegas, and - as it turned out - one of the great friends of my life.
His name was Boris. Somehow we found ourselves standing together in the crowd that was waiting for the bus after school that day.
"Hah. Harry Potter," he said, as he looked me over.
"Fuck you," I said listlessly."
Boris is the Polish/Ukrainian son of a violently alcoholic single father. He and Theo, both emotionally damaged and largely on their own, survive together on the desert, and deserted, outskirts of Vegas, in a miasma of vodka, cocaine and scrounged/stolen food. Their relationship sometimes seems to spin outside the bounds of the merely platonic. When Theo's negligent father is killed, he runs away back to New York where he lived with his mother prior to the terrorist act that took her from him. He urges Boris to come with him, but this does not end up occurring. Their parting, though not likely intended to be by Tartt, strikes me as the emotional center of the novel, she writes it so powerfully.
"But the guy said as long as the money in my fund was used for education - it could be anybody's education. Not just mine. There's more than enough for both of us. Though, I mean, public school, the public schools are good in New York, I know people there, public school's fine with me."
I was still babbling when Boris said: "Potter." Before I could answer him he put both hands on my face and kissed me on the mouth. And while I stood blinking - it was over almost before I knew what had happened - he picked up Popper under the forelegs and kissed him too, in midair, smack on the tip of the nose...
"Good luck," said Boris. "I won't forget you." Then he patted Popper on the head. "Bye, Popchyk. Look after him, will you?" he said to me.
Later - in the cab, and afterward - I would replay that moment, and marvel that I'd waved and walked away quite so casually. Why hadn't I grabbed his arm and begged him one last time to get in the car, come on, fuck it Boris, just like skipping school, we'll be eating breakfast over cornfields when the sun comes up?...
More than anything I was relieved that in my unfamiliar babbling-and-wanting-to-talk state I'd stopped myself from blurting the thing on the edge of my tongue, the thing I'd never said, even though it was something we both knew well enough without me saying it out loud to him in the street - which was, of course, I love you.
It will be a decade until Boris comes back into the picture, apparently driven by a mixture of devotion and guilt that he feels towards Theo. By this time Boris is some sort of mid level gangster figure in the Russian underworld and he is eager to lead Theo on a sketchy quest towards what he believes will be a great reward. Theo, unhappily engaged to a beautiful but cold society girl and still dealing with personal demons, allows himself to be dragged along despite misgivings, and nearly to the doom he has been circling around since that day when he was 13 years old. ( )
  lelandleslie | Feb 24, 2024 |
Obsession
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
This is a good book but it was such a chore to get through. I have no issues with a slow burn, but something about The Goldfinch failed to ever emotionally draw me in. The story was much more enjoyable for me than that of The Secret History and I really loved the first 1/4th of the book but after that, I lost motivation and eventually had to switch over to the audiobook to get through the rest. I admire Donna Tartt's writing and can understand why she is so well loved, I unfortunately just have yet to fall in love with any of her works. I still plan to go back and give The Secret History another try at some point in the future. ( )
  brookeklebe | Feb 6, 2024 |
I thought the beginning of this book when Theo was young was fabulous, but then the story bogged down and became somewhat unbelievable. Some paragraphs were so long and full of what seemed useless details that I started skipping bits, and it was hard for me to get a sense of some of the characters. Nevertheless, a mostly beautifully-written book and an interesting tale. ( )
  bschweiger | Feb 4, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 754 (next | show all)
Good things are worth waiting for. . . a tour de force that will be among the best books of 2013.
added by 4leschats | editBookPage, Megan Fishmann (Nov 1, 2013)
 
It’s my happy duty to tell you that in this case, all doubts and suspicions can be laid aside. “The Goldfinch” is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind. I read it with that mixture of terror and excitement I feel watching a pitcher carry a no-hitter into the late innings. You keep waiting for the wheels to fall off, but in the case of “The Goldfinch,” they never do.
 
Book review in English 2 out of 5
added by zwelbast | editNRC (Dutch), Rob van Essen (Sep 23, 2013)
 
Book review in English 5 out of 5 stars
 

» Add other authors (14 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Tartt, Donnaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Fabritius, CarelCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hayes, KeithCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jong, Sjaak deTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lecq, Paul van derTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nielsen, Rose-MarieTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nimwegen, Arjaan vanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pittu, DavidNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
The absurd does not liberate; it binds.
ALBERT CAMUS
Dedication
For Mother, For Claude
First words
While I was still in Amsterdam, I dreamed about my mother for the first time in years.
Quotations
It seemed like the kind of room where a call girl or a stewardess would be murdered on television.
He's telling you that living things don't last—it's all temporary. Death in life. That's why they're called natures mortes. Maybe you don't see it at first with all the beauty and bloom, the little speck of rot. But if you look closer—there it is.
Every new event—everything I did for the rest of my life—would only separate us more and more: days she was no longer a part of, an ever-growing distance between us. Every single day for the rest of my life, she would only be further away.
But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.
When I looked at the painting I felt the same convergence on a single point: a flickering sun-struck instant that existed now and forever. Only occasionally did I notice the chain on the finch's ankle, or think what a cruel life for a little living creature—fluttering briefly, forced always to land in the same hopeless place.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

"The author of the classic bestsellers The Secret History and The Little Friend returns with a brilliant, highly anticipated new novel. A young boy in New York City, Theo Decker, miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friend's family and struggles to make sense of his new life. In the years that follow, he becomes entranced by one of the few things that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the art underworld. Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America, and a drama of almost unbearable acuity and power. It is a story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the enormous power of art"--

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Book description
Qui est Theo ? Que lui est il arrivé à New York pour qu'il soit quatorze ans plus tard , cloîtré dans une chambre d'hôtel à Amsterdam comme une bête traquée ? D'où vient cette toile de maître , Le Chardonneret , qu'il transporte partout avec lui ?

Ce roman laisse le lecteur essouflé , éblouï et encore une fois conquis par le talent hors du commun de Donna TARTT.
Haiku summary
Liked a goldfinch chained / Booze, drugs can't erase the pain / Of his mother's death (LynnB)
Blast kills mother.
Painting of a goldfinch
dominates life's remainder.
(Bebedee)

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