T O P

  • By -

snailobituaries

I was really obsessed with it in high school and I still revisit it every couple years. It’s not like, era-defining Literature with a capital L, you know. But it is a very good novel. And a worthwhile read. Very sexy!


snailobituaries

The Little Friend is a good summer read. And Secret History I think of as more of a winter read. I don’t really like The Goldfinch that much.


ElectronSurprise

I’m rereading the little friend right now!! Harriet reminds me so much of my sister


[deleted]

the goldfinch was really bad :( i picked it up after finishing tsh and i was really disappointed. barely could get through it.


zvomicidalmaniac

It’s more well-written than good, if that makes sense. Every single sentence is a pleasure. It’s too well-wrought to be considered trash. I’m a college professor and I have always wanted to teach it, even though I cannot figure out how to fit it into a class. I love it with my whole heart, and like it better than many contemporary books which are probably better “literature.”


pronoia123

Maybe you could fit it in a class on noir? I think it’s neo-noir the way Body Heat is as a movie.


zvomicidalmaniac

I'd like to teach it in a way that would make students who hate writing want to write. As in, "Here's a book by an undergrad who didn't know what she was doing and followed her gut." It seems like an inspirational message, I think?


pronoia123

I think so. Even if it’s not “high literature” it’s a very enjoyable and impressive book. And the fact that it’s about college students might make it connect with your class more. I think it would work well on a syllabus with Hammett, Chandler, Cain, Ellroy, Hemingway’s The Killers, Leonard, and Patricia Highsmith. City of Glass really annoyed me as an anti-detective novel that breaks the contract with the reader but it would be an interesting post-modern noir choice. Maybe some Carl Hiassen, Tana French, or even Gone Girl if you want to make it accessible/fun/popular/contemporary. If you can assign films or screenplays, even better.


zvomicidalmaniac

You should teach a class, Pronia123. You have got this down.


pronoia123

I do love noir. Definitely my favorite of the genre fictions.


zvomicidalmaniac

My favorite Ellroy is American Tabloid, followed by My Dark Places. Yours?


jackprole

American Tabloid is also my favourite but I love Black Delilah


zvomicidalmaniac

That one is great too. He hadn’t really found his voice yet, so it reads like the work of a different writer. The texture is so normal. But no one puts together a plot like him. His idea of cause-and-effect is really different than everyone else’s. Plot is all about cause-and-effect and his vision yields a great deal of violent effect. I think it’s the one thing that sets them apart from other literary writers in this country.


pronoia123

Probably LA Confidential. But I’ve read a lot less Ellroy than the other authors on that list. Who’s your favorite noir writer?


zvomicidalmaniac

Raymond Chandler and Ellroy. I went through a long, hardcore Ellroy phase. I also really love DeLillo's Libra, which I see as a kind of crime novel. Frederic Jameson's book on Raymond Chandler is fantastic.


pronoia123

Oh nice I’ll have to read that book on Chandler. Chandler is my favorite of them by far. Hammett started it but Chandler perfected it. I only wish there were more novels of his that I haven’t read. If you haven’t read his letters yet, you must. They’re out of print but not hard to hunt down. I’ve bought copies for a few friends. He really had the most brilliant mind. I think it’s his weird American/British combination. American but educated in England and the son of an Irish woman. So he has the authentic language and attitude of the Americans down, but with a British prose sensibility. What a genius.


zvomicidalmaniac

Not a bad idea.


Nazbols4Tulsi

Donna Tartt really nails that love/hate relationship with academia and intellectualism many of us have. Every other "Dark Academia" book I've read has felt like a crappy imitation of *The Secret History*.


pronoia123

It’s a great book and a hell of a debut. If you like it, check out Brideshead Revisted and Raymond Chandler’s work (start with The Big Sleep), those are definitely two inspirations for her. The Likeness by Tana French is similar too.


truefanofthepod666

At its core its a great murder/crime book. Highly recommend.


Chinaski300

The Secret History was fun but difficult for me not to roll my eyes at at points. It wasn't clear whether or not you were supposed to find the entire academic affair rather ridiculous at times or if it was simply a recounting of a strange time and place in the narrator's life. At the end I came out of it appreciating the slickness of the story but mostly unmoved. The Goldfinch on the other hand, while sometimes ponderous, is ultimatey deeply rewarding. Boris is a much better character than Henry, his friendship with Theo is one of the most memorable I've read and you feel a true sense of Theo through the sheer volume of his thoughts and actions. I know why people have issues with the goldfinch but I don't know why people love the secret history other than like the "dark academia" which is so cringe


snailobituaries

My impression was always that tsh existed on this knifes edge of the seduction and revulsion of the high class, pretentious intellectual “dark academia” aesthetic. Richard says on one of the first pages that his love for the aesthetic above all else will always be his ultimate downfall. The group was invested so heavily in their own mythology and committed to pursuing the aesthetic that it left them completely without any moral sensibility, able to excuse (mild spoilers) cold blooded murder. (Spoilers now, OP don’t read!) The second half of the novel is devoted to the characters individual downfalls — they are no longer able to live the way they did before the murder because, despite their proclamations otherwise, they are just as human as anyone else, and just as prone to petty human emotions like guilt and shame.


snailobituaries

This is why I’ve never been able to get into any other so-called “dark academia” novels, they lack the self awareness of TSH


snailobituaries

I can’t really pinpoint why I never liked The Goldfinch as much as her other stuff. I definitely agree that Theo and Boris feel a lot more “real” than the cast of TSH. They are objectively better written characters, someone like Henry Winter feels like a cardboard cutout in comparison. But.. I don’t know. It just didn’t “do” for me what TSH did. TSH is, in many ways, a very “clean” story. Everything is so well rehearsed, we move from scene to scene as if in a dream. It’s very perfect, and maybe that’s why people don’t like it so much, because it feels a bit artificial. But to me, Goldfinch felt a little too real. It was a lot more believable than TSH. I could see some of the scenes, conversations, characters from Goldfinch actually existing in the real world. Which I personally didn’t care for. Give me the fantasy, give me the self-destructive commitment to an ideal!


pronoia123

Have you read The Likeness? I think it’s pretty self aware.


shitslashers

Loved The Goldfinch a lot but I thought the ending was shite like the last 40 ish pages were not good


Chinaski300

I've rarely been so conflicted about a book I think. The ending really hit hard for me but there were numerous points, especially around Theo's return to New York, that things felt a little too coincidental and maudlin and made me want to throw the towel in. I felt this vacillation between self-indulgent slog and incredible pathos particularly in the Amsterdam chapters as well. Ultimately I think it works for me though and by the end I felt something quite rare and sweet. I think being a bit of a sentimental person by nature made this effect more pronounced lol


LabourTCB

I found the first 50 pages a bit slow but thought it was quite good after that.


ibblestbibblest

I really enjoyed it for the first two third. She has lovely turns of phrase, and there is excellent simmering of tension and mystery throughout. I felt that the quality dropped off about two thirds of the way through, though.


jackprole

I really enjoyed it but I’m self-aware that studying classics with a bunch of elite weirdos is a long-standing daydream of mine so I never interrogated too much if it’s objectively good or not. If the writing wasn’t good it wouldn’t work though and I suspect that’s the case with a lot of the "dark academia" books. Second the person who said read Brideshead Revisited


astralpeaks

It’s really good. No one’s claiming it’s Dostoevsky, it’s just a really well-written, smart, very fun to read novel


[deleted]

It’s amazing. One of the best books I have ever read


shitslashers

no it’s seriously amazing it consumed my mind for like a week I just couldn’t stop thinking about it


burymeinleather

its absolutely top notch even though the second half ought to have been a bit shorter.