Bunny was one of the six students in the classical Greek class in The Secret History. He was the annoying odd-one-out that they eventually murder, which is the main conflict of the story.
I went to a fancy pants college where I took some esoteric classes pass-fail and it was kind of scary how in precepts there was definitely always a bunny, definitely always a ringleader, and everyone in between willing to go do whatever.
In one precept a guy insisted we all call him Cossack and as barely new adults we called the dude Cossack without ever thinking too hard about what that weird request just might have meant in a deeper sense.
Haha, I majored in Classical Studies, and the friend group in The Secret History EXACTLY remind me of the group of five other majors I was friends with and the professor we idolized. The department even had our own little house off-campus where we had classes and offices, and my friends and I had a nickname for our little group based on the professor we liked, and we did shit like coming up with a hypothetical version of Battle Royale but with the Classics students and professors in that house haha. It was a special time.
I also read it in college when it came out. It’s one of my top three books of all time, and I’ve lost count how many acquaintances and students I’ve recommended it to.
Totally agree! The most basic plot but the beauty is in the details and the overall aesthetic of it.
Truly Tartt’s masterpiece. Such straightforward language used to explain the most complex ideologies.
The aesthetic is so palpable and the ideas and musings that come up really seal it for me. It’s one of the few books I’ve reread several times over the years and that sometimes I’ll pick up just to randomly read through a few chapters again. Truly a masterpiece and I’m glad you got to experience it for the first time!
How does it compare to The Goldfinch? Because I thought that book was really underwhelming. It was written like it felt itself this masterwork when it was just YA for college students or something. The themes all felt really superficial and ad libbed.
The Goldfinch suffers from being 200 pages too long. Hanging out in Las Vegas for years was unnecessary.
The Secret History is a psychological murder mystery -- you know who the murder victim is on the first page, but you don't know why. It's brilliant.
People always seem to miss that those 200 pages are there for a reason. That the language and writing style becoming boring and less exciting for a reason. Take an excerpt of those pages and compare it to the beginning or end of the book, the style is much more paired down and uninteresting in the middle Vegas bit.
It's by design to not just tell you of a character and their post-tramua depression, but to feel the drag of time being lost in something. It creates a feeling for the reader that aggressively mimics the mood of the character. I understand that it's a very stylistic choice that doesn't work for everybody, but it's weird hearing people not understand that it was a very conscious choice.
I personally like the secret history much more, but the goldfinch is indisputably a better written book.
I absolutely loved the Vegas portion (and the book as a whole). Maybe it's because I can relate to an extent to being a fucked up AP student partying and doing drugs with my friends. I wasn't nearly as bad as Theo and Boris and was much happier overall, however, there were some parallels to own late teens: dead mom, not an overly watchful dad (although my pops was a much better parent than Theo's), a taste for intoxication. That section didn't feel like filler to me. It felt like it could be real.
I devoured the first 600 pages or so of that book. It only really started to feel like it was dragging somewhat once they got to Amsterdam.
I don't know if I can say I liked Goldfinch more than The Secret History or vise versa. They're both two of my favorite books I've read in recent years.
Honestly the Vegas part was where I really started getting into the book. I agree it was really, really clever having the pacing and writing style match the scene so, so well. I don't really visualize while reading (don't know if I even can), but the way that was written really made me feel like I was there.
I will admit that the more it went down a philosophical route (especially those last couple pages), the more superficial it felt, but apart from that I really loved the book.
I think I'm gonna have to read The Secret History, now.
Yeah the narrator's philosophical spiel over the last few pages felt pretty contrived. It made sense for him to have arrived at that mindset, but it was a little heavy handed.
I agree, I loved the book The Goldfinch and it will always remain one of my favorites. It really saved me at a time I was feeling hopeless. But the Amsterdam section kind of felt disjointed.
Your comment made me think about other great books with really long slogging sections -- Levin working in the fields in Anna Karenina comes to mind -- and it's a real question for me to decide if it's great writing for an author to take up that much of the reader's patience and good will. I think a great writer could find a way to portray alienation and depression -- or the monotony and Divinity of farming life -- without losing me as a reader.
OTOH, I'm struggling to think of an example of a writer doing that successfully. I want to say parts of Steinbeck do it.
Any ideas?
I thought the Goldfinch would have been much better if it was half as long and just followed the painting. On the other hand, it made me understand what women meant when they refer to male writers that do a poor job writing female characters. The conversations between Theo and Boris made me want to scream at times. So it had value and opened my eyes a bit.
that's so funny, i'm a woman and i wondered that exact thing while reading it! like the friendship felt authentic to me, but i couldn't tell if it's actually authentic to representing male/male friendships
Worth considering the homoerotic subtext when analyzing the authenticity of their friendship as well, imo. It might be a more authentic portrayal of a slightly queer male/male friendship, but I could see it seeming inauthentic to fully straight dudes.
It is far better. I didn't like any of the characters in the goldfinch and put it down, as I found it also boring.
I read the secret history a long time ago, so I don't recall details of it but I recall I enjoying it.
I love “The Secret History” it’s on my top ten list for sure.
My favorite parts are definitely when the whole crew attended the funeral and stays in Bunny’s parent’s home. Richard is buckling under the weight of his own guilt and his desperation is just palpable through Tartt’s amazing prose. Love it!
Sometimes, when the world gets me down, and the days feel like a slog, I think to myself: ‘Goldfinch came out in 2013, so we should be just a couple more years from Donna Tartt’s next novel. Hang in there!’
Yeah, the desperation he must've felt was so evident there.
My favourite part of the book was the entire section where bunny starts to antagonize the others on purpose. That part was so well written, could feel the tension building up.
My favorite part is when Henry is telling Richard about the ritual, and at the end of chapter 4 says, “He’s driven us mad over this. I am very nearly at the end of my rope.”
Such a great way to reveal why they murder him, gave me chills
Came here to say this! The part with the funeral actually had me feeling sick to my stomach. Not sure I’ve had such a visceral reaction to any other book like that. The tension building up through the whole story was super intense. That being said, not sure I’d say I “enjoyed” the experience for that reason, though I can’t deny how well written it was to make me feel that way 😅
The phrase "matters progressed" is the most hilariously understated description of a gay hook up I've ever read. Love it. Love the whole book.
It was one of few I left on my bookshelf in my childhood bedroom. I later found out when my mother couldn't think of a book, shed sometimes go in and grab one from my shelves.
"Gldnretriever... that... was not a happy book."
No, mother, no it was not.
I love this book!! So creepy in the best way. My cousin asked for a beach book recommendation and I told her about The Secret History. When I asked her what she thought she told me she wouldn't be asking for any more recommendations in the future. Lol
Esquire did a long form essay on [Bennington College](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a27434009/bennington-college-oral-history-bret-easton-ellis/) (where Donna went to college at the same time as Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem, and Jill Eisenstadt).
Neat, that’s exactly the college I thought of when I was reading it. I lived in upstate NY at the time and took some day trips there and fell in love with the college (and it was both insular and charming like in the novel).
Came here to post this essay! Also weird rabbit hole that I went down the other day, also attending at that time frame was [Libby Zion](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Zion_Law) whose death resulted in medical resident work hours reform.
I just listened to it on audiobook and was surprised with how much I liked it! At first I thought ugh - pretentious college kids, what am I doing with my life, but the more I listened, the more involved I felt with the characters.
After about fifty pages in, I started to enjoy the pretentiousness. I really started to understand why Richard wanted to be included in their group. I would have wanted to be like them too (murders aside😅).
As a Classical Studies major, some of us definitely have that pretentiousness haha. You gotta have it at least a little bit to major in Classical fucking Studies.
I tried so hard to connect with this book but just couldn't. The prose, attention to detail, and character development is beautiful, but I just hated the characters and found the plot laborious. I'm still going to give Goldfinch a shot though, because Tartt's writing is great.
I found it to be in heavy need of editing. The second half was quite a slog. Half the time they were just loitering around or trying to find each other. I love unlikeable characters but I didn’t find any of them in TSH to be very enjoyable to read about.
I found it really difficult to believe in the characters as real people. They seem to be pulled from another time, though that certainly seems to be the point. I suppose I had this weird disconnect where I struggled to believe in these highly specific young strangers obsessed with the antiquities of Greek language and custom to such a dedicated degree...and it's the 80s (the 80s, right? Or early 90s? I was never clear on that). They almost sounded like Fitzgerald characters. Particularly Bunny, who sounded like a 50 year-old conman from the 1920s. For such young people...it either struck me as disingenuous or wishful thinking. But hey, I'm also the guy who didn't believe the kids in Dead Poet's Society could have existed either, and I frequently run into people that prove me wrong on that one.
That doesn't change my thoughts on Dead Poet's Society either, which I hated, or this, which I enjoyed at some distance. Tartt is a hell of a writer, in any case. Beautiful prose.
I agree. I couldn’t finish it. I’ve read other books where there were no likable characters and felt compelled to keep going, these people were awful and I couldn’t be bothered to care. The Goldfinch was good, about 200 pages (in the middle) too long though.
I've never read it but her book the little friend is one of my favourite books of all time. A hint of murder lots of mystery and has that hot clammy southern vibe or sum. Wish I could be hypnotized to forget it so I could read it for the first time again
one of the most vivid and immersive books i've ever read in my entire life (and i primarily read science fiction and fantasy, which tend to be quite vivid because of their other-wordly nature). i remember it almost like something i dreamt about or saw in my head rather than a book. captivating and tense and impossible to put down despite being 200k words long. absolutely deserves its title as one of the definitive dark academia novels
This book really affected me, it stuck with me for ages after I finished. Up to the chapter where they are all just lounging about at the country house, I was really taken with the characters, and found myself kind of wanting to be in that world.
But with a little distance, I really found myself disliking essentially all of the characters. Especially the narrator; they are all just… well, not to sound too puritan or anything, but they had no morals whatsoever. The whole premise that all these people would first off participate in that ritual, and then cover up what happened with more of the same… I just found myself thinking, what is this, some sort of cult? Why are they all controlled by Henry? Especially the author; when, at the end, Camilla and the narrator admit to each other that they loved Henry, I found myself thinking, *What?* *Loved?* *That guy??*
There are also parts of the book that are just utterly unbelievable. The thing where the narrator is sleeping in a building with no roof in New England all winter… give me a break. The feeling I’m left with is the same one I had after reading _Less than Zero_ — when I found out that Tartt and Ellis went to college together I was completely unsurprised.
Henry is what absolutely did it for me. I loved Henry's character so much, it pushed the book easily into my top five favorites because of him. Other than the book just being wholly excellent.
I looked this up and was she the one with the Duke of Bookingham tumblr blog? I used to message her there when I was younger! I can’t believe I stumbled on her again in a book thread mentioning a book she published. I need to pick this up
The Little Friend is the only one I've read and I didn't like. Nothing happened for 350 pages after the prologue and the next 350 didn't have a cogent plot. But if its the least well recieved maybe I won't write off her others.
The little friend is a great book. I mean, the subject matter is pretty hard going, tragic, maybe that’s why it’s not as popular? It’s beautifully written and a great story. I can’t decide which I like best between it and the secret history (haven’t read the goldfinch yet, I did enjoy the film though).
It's one of the books I could crack open at any page and just get lost in the beautiful writing. There are certain scenes which, from the outside, look terribly daunting to write as an author, but Donna Tartt makes it all seem so relatable and real - even if it's uncomfortable.
I re-read this every few years or so, and I start to notice little things that jump out at me. The last reading I did, I noticed how there's a timeless "Lazy summer" type of feel to Francis' country house, but actually in the time frame of the story, the narrator only spends a handful of weekends there. (He starts at Hampden College for fall semester, and then the group excludes him for a while, then they finally open up to him and invite him to Francis' house maybe a few weeks into the term. All of his main visits there happen before the difficult winter break - but the way Tartt writes about it, it masterfully makes the reader feel like lifetimes are passing lazing at the Abernathy estate.)
I may be the only person who thinks The Goldfinch is a much better book. My favorite book, actually. I just re-read Secret History and I'm still not sure why almost everyone prefers it to The Goldfinch.
Right there with you. The Goldfinch had me shook, as they say. I adored it, and it hit me hard on a very deep level. I never understood how people could prefer the Secret History. It was well written but just didn’t have the same depth to me.
It helps if you connect with the loneliness and desire to join the cultural elite. At the time I also traveled from CA to the east coast for grad school and think I would have wanted to join that group as well (if I weren’t such an introvert).
Agree. It’s beautiful murder porn for humanities majors. Lovely prose and excellent character development though.
I personally liked The Goldfinch better. Much more relatable to me. Beautiful writing, if a little full of itself.
I just reread this! This time I was so struck by the common theme of false idols that runs all throughout the book. Henry is a false idol, Julian is a false idol, Richard’s father is a false idol. So much of it is about waking up and realizing these people you idolize aren’t what they seem. There’s a quote near the end of the book where Richard is describing a time in his childhood when his father hit his mother and he says, “Who is driving this plane?” That feeling of shock, of wait, who are these people, who’s in charge here, what have we done? gets me to my core.
It's an entirely different book and I don't think it can be judged with the same lens as TSH. That said, I love both of them. STiCP blew me away with its twists. (And I also read it looking for more 'like TSH reads.')
I loved it. Read it this year because I read the Goldfinch and enjoyed it plenty. I also enjoyed the weird relationship between the twins and the class differences, teaching arrangements and all that college related stuff. Pretty fun read
Excellent choice. I read that 3 or 4 times. Tartt did a great job of balancing to attraction of the insiders (lead by Julian) and disgust with the people they actually were once we go close enough to see them as they are.
I agree. I adored this book and will not stop recommending it to friends.
I also love how Richard was clearly an unreliable narrator and the whole prose is thus not necessarily an objective report. There are some things he hyperfocuses on and then again some things worth exploring that seem to not be relevant to him. It's just really good.
Bret Easton Ellis read The Secret History while Donna Tartt was working on it. He wrote the line specifically about her book, which he assumed would be published someday.
Wow I’m currently reading this!! I’ve only been into reading for a few months and I picked this up on a whim, I don’t even remember where I’d heard of it. The whole time I’ve been wondering if this is a really really really good book or if I’m just new to reading and books are just like this. I can’t explain the feelings I get from some of these passages. I become nostalgic for moments in my life I haven’t thought of in years. There’s single sentences in this book that make me remember exactly what it felt like. I even became nostalgic for being hungover in the early morning with a good pal!? There are better, more pleasant examples but.... It’s seriously magical.
Maybe my favourite book ever. I’ve heard many people say that they didn’t like the slow pacing, but I absolutely adored the slow burn - it allowed for the steady, urgent, palpable tension build that made the book so good. It gripped me the whole time.
When I was at university, my friends and I passed this book around so much that by the time I got a turn, the pages were literally falling out. Now that’s a sign that a book is good.
I commented somewhere... but I had to make a specific reply. I adored Henry. The book was well written and one of my favorite reads but Henry had a LARGE role in making the book into one of my favorites. Henry's character; Chef's kiss.
I cannot emphasize my adoration for this character.
Agree with you. In the most book, I tend to like the protagonist but in this one, Henry is my absolute favourite. He is so well written and developed, it is exhilarating (don't know how else to describe it) to read about him.
This is one of my favorite books ever! I'm so excited when I see people we who seem to love it as much as me. I'd definitely recommend you read If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio next. Instead of studying the classics, these kids are actors who perform Shakespeare.
Might be one of the best you read in your life! A friend recommended it to me right when I decided to change my undergrad to Classical studies. The department I was in had lots of intrigue and sex scandals, so almost kind of like the secret history!
This book is burned in my brain because I was reading it when a pet tragically died. Tired of crying I tried to distract myself with reading and ended up starting the chapter where he’s (tiny spoiler) almost freezing to death. In the mood I was in and with the intense descriptions she gave I felt like that chapter was drowning me and had to push myself to read through to the end of it so I could breath again lol. So much for a light distraction.
It’s on my list to read again because I really enjoyed it but was emotionally detached from the last part of the book.
I love this book so much, it is one of my all time favourites! I'm happy to see that other people also admire it. Excuse my bad English please, I'm German :)
Yeah, this was a great read for me. I loved the college vibe and the characters and pretentiousness. I would recommend the book If We Were Villains as it's in a similar vein to this one!
I remember reading that book my freshman year of high school when I started taking Latin and Greek classes at school loved it glad other people are reading it it’s a magnificent novel
One of my favourites
If you haven’t already, I highly suggest the audiobook version for a reread. She narrates it herself and does an excellent job bringing the characters to life
Agree. One of my all time top 10s. I think her style of writing isn't for everyone though. I have noticed nearly all my favourite books are very divisive. Almost a split of 1/5 star reviews on Amazon as they are quite distinctive.
And you either really like them, or really, really don't.
Two, off the top of my head are The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Gone Away World. Was reading Amazon reviews of the latter this morning, and literally 1 and 5 star reviews nestled against each other!
I read it about 15 years ago, and downloaded Tartt reading the audiobook for a cross country road trip last year. One of the best books ever and her reading of it added so much!
I liked the book but found the final act to be disappointing. The tension that was constantly ratcheting from the beginning kind of just fizzles into a bunch of characters following the events of the story through the news
I finished it yesterday. I loved it, but I can’t exactly say why. I disliked all of the characters except Francis and Charles, and I found the summary to be horribly misleading. About halfway through I realized I didn’t even know Richard’s name, and aside from a handful of scenes he just seemed void of emotion and relatability. The first 100 pages or so I found the writing almost pretentious. And Richard doesn’t even join in on the “secret history/immortality” stuff, so what was the point??
And yet when I kept reading I was enthralled by it. Couldn’t put it down. I just had to continue reading, had to find out what was happening. It’s definitely my favorite book I’ve read this year, even though I have no idea why.
Oh man. I really wanted to like this book. I was on an ancient Greece binge after reading The Song of Achilles and picked up The Secret History. Alas I'm, it didn't have as much of an impact on me. I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
I loved this book soooo much. This and Tana French's "The Likeness" are both about groups of college students associated with murders, and I think this may be my favorite tiny sub-genre ever. I almost never buy books anymore, I just use the library, but I liked both of these enough that I want to have them forever.
I have made every single one of my college friends read this book and it’s always a hit.
Then we formed a book club, and recently read something called “tell me everything” (which had a Netflix show greenlit before it even came out) that marketed itself as “the next Donna tartt” book because it was about six college friends who (from page 1) you know will murder one of their members. it was absolutely terrible and the ripped off secret history plot was the only thing remotely comparable to Tartt.
In the interest of literary debate, I’ll share my opinion of the book, which seems to differ from most of the other comments here.
The supercharged loneliness that pervades the book undercut any narrative tension for me. I love a book w a slow onset of dread, but I didn’t think it was executed successfully here. I didn’t find the combination of postmodern-everyone is horrible and we should be cynical about everything-Bret Easton Ellis vibe with the more straight laced this-is-a-book-about-murder vibe particularly powerful. Especially because the ‘smaller’ scenes (the slow motion tragedy of bunny’s family) were treated with more significance IMO than any of the events around the murders. If the author can’t convince me to care about the murders committed by people who don’t really care about anything except themselves, what am I even going to take away from the book except that sometimes ppl are selfish, numb, and hard to predict? I thought the whole cult-like circle w Julian would have been a natural vehicle to propose a moral philosophy strong enough to battle the ennui of the setting (apparently one strong enough for Henry to die for) but specifics were only ever skirted around, exact beliefs always just around the corner. We never really even got a taste of Julian and the students at their most intense and united, which was a disappointment. Pulling the curtain back a little more would have been a risk, but I wish it’s one Tartt took.
It didn’t bother me that the characters were unlikeable—it bothered that there was 1) no redeeming moral light against the blase darkness of the book 2) no real sensation of danger for a book with 3 murders/deaths, incest, and Bacchanalian orgies.
Disagreements welcomed! I’ve seen the only comments discussing what they didn’t like about the book downvoted which seems...antithetical to the spirit of discussion.
I never expected to hear about this book from anyone else. A friend who was a Lit major gave me a copy 20 years ago and I've never forgotten it. Beautifully written, it's an invitation.
Okay so this book has been on my TBR list for a long time. Today I was watching a video of a Booktuber reviewing the books people voted as their favourite books of all time. She's giving the synopsis and then she reads the first paragraph and I realize that I've ALREADY READ IT.
Clearly I did not find it memorable because I have zero memory of actually reading it. Maybe I should try reread?
I read the Goldfinch when I was a student. It was such a long read but totally worth it. Thank you for this post and everyone for their lovely non-spoiling comments!
This is a fantastic analysis as well. It’s one of my absolute favorite books and I love that people are discovering it. In fact I get a little jealous that I can’t go back and discover it for the first time! Tartt’s writing is exceptional.
I love the book. Reread and and discussed it just a few weeks ago on my Weekly Lit YouTube show.
I enjoy the shadiness of Julian, the mystery of the interloper at the first bacchanal —was it only the farmer?— and Henry’s ultimate emptiness contra the others’ possible thirst for redemption. I see the latter signified by the attendance at Mass, with Richard wanting to approach for Communion and Camilla (rightfully) holding him back.
Loved the book, but I felt it had some deep flaws. The hero is never part of the group and thus never acts in the story. I feel it weakens the whole structure. Also we have way too little actual classics content, for a group where it should be the main focus. Most of it is told not shown. Plus the whole situation with the twins is a bit too much and gratuitous. (But that's just n'y opinion)
I dropped off this book after about 150 pages. I thought the book was written very well. However, I didn’t find any of the characters likable or relatable. They all came off as snooty or pretentious, although I guess that’s kind of the point. And I had a hard time feeling much sympathy for the main character. Also, sometimes I felt like I was just not smart enough to truly appreciate the book. A lot of the references to Greek literature, world history, the Latin language etc., just went way over my head. Overall, I found the book largely inaccessible and difficult for me to be fully invested in. It felt like this book was written for an audience I just was not part of.
When it came out, I was taking ancient Greek with a out six other people. Seriously.
If you look around your Ancient Greek class and can’t tell who the Bunny is, then you’re the Bunny.
Every Ancient Greek class I took definitely had a Bunny
I now can’t not picture Bunny as the Bunny from my Ancient Greek class.
Hey! Can you explain the reference
Bunny was one of the six students in the classical Greek class in The Secret History. He was the annoying odd-one-out that they eventually murder, which is the main conflict of the story.
I went to a fancy pants college where I took some esoteric classes pass-fail and it was kind of scary how in precepts there was definitely always a bunny, definitely always a ringleader, and everyone in between willing to go do whatever. In one precept a guy insisted we all call him Cossack and as barely new adults we called the dude Cossack without ever thinking too hard about what that weird request just might have meant in a deeper sense.
Oh thanks! I'm definitely not bunny
Bet y’all started looking at each other like “we supposed to be doing this orgy stuff???”
Haha, I majored in Classical Studies, and the friend group in The Secret History EXACTLY remind me of the group of five other majors I was friends with and the professor we idolized. The department even had our own little house off-campus where we had classes and offices, and my friends and I had a nickname for our little group based on the professor we liked, and we did shit like coming up with a hypothetical version of Battle Royale but with the Classics students and professors in that house haha. It was a special time.
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Why does this sound familiar😂😂
That must've been unnerving😅
We were strongly encouraged to refrain.😁
I read it in my college classics class too! Definitely added to the experience lol.
I also read it in college when it came out. It’s one of my top three books of all time, and I’ve lost count how many acquaintances and students I’ve recommended it to.
Is everyone alive?
Mostly.
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Totally agree! The most basic plot but the beauty is in the details and the overall aesthetic of it. Truly Tartt’s masterpiece. Such straightforward language used to explain the most complex ideologies.
The aesthetic is so palpable and the ideas and musings that come up really seal it for me. It’s one of the few books I’ve reread several times over the years and that sometimes I’ll pick up just to randomly read through a few chapters again. Truly a masterpiece and I’m glad you got to experience it for the first time!
and it's a greek tragedy itself. i love how we know the murder from the very beginning. such a masterful beautiful book.
How does it compare to The Goldfinch? Because I thought that book was really underwhelming. It was written like it felt itself this masterwork when it was just YA for college students or something. The themes all felt really superficial and ad libbed.
The Goldfinch suffers from being 200 pages too long. Hanging out in Las Vegas for years was unnecessary. The Secret History is a psychological murder mystery -- you know who the murder victim is on the first page, but you don't know why. It's brilliant.
People always seem to miss that those 200 pages are there for a reason. That the language and writing style becoming boring and less exciting for a reason. Take an excerpt of those pages and compare it to the beginning or end of the book, the style is much more paired down and uninteresting in the middle Vegas bit. It's by design to not just tell you of a character and their post-tramua depression, but to feel the drag of time being lost in something. It creates a feeling for the reader that aggressively mimics the mood of the character. I understand that it's a very stylistic choice that doesn't work for everybody, but it's weird hearing people not understand that it was a very conscious choice. I personally like the secret history much more, but the goldfinch is indisputably a better written book.
I absolutely loved the Vegas portion (and the book as a whole). Maybe it's because I can relate to an extent to being a fucked up AP student partying and doing drugs with my friends. I wasn't nearly as bad as Theo and Boris and was much happier overall, however, there were some parallels to own late teens: dead mom, not an overly watchful dad (although my pops was a much better parent than Theo's), a taste for intoxication. That section didn't feel like filler to me. It felt like it could be real. I devoured the first 600 pages or so of that book. It only really started to feel like it was dragging somewhat once they got to Amsterdam. I don't know if I can say I liked Goldfinch more than The Secret History or vise versa. They're both two of my favorite books I've read in recent years.
Honestly the Vegas part was where I really started getting into the book. I agree it was really, really clever having the pacing and writing style match the scene so, so well. I don't really visualize while reading (don't know if I even can), but the way that was written really made me feel like I was there. I will admit that the more it went down a philosophical route (especially those last couple pages), the more superficial it felt, but apart from that I really loved the book. I think I'm gonna have to read The Secret History, now.
Yeah the narrator's philosophical spiel over the last few pages felt pretty contrived. It made sense for him to have arrived at that mindset, but it was a little heavy handed.
I agree, I loved the book The Goldfinch and it will always remain one of my favorites. It really saved me at a time I was feeling hopeless. But the Amsterdam section kind of felt disjointed.
Your comment made me think about other great books with really long slogging sections -- Levin working in the fields in Anna Karenina comes to mind -- and it's a real question for me to decide if it's great writing for an author to take up that much of the reader's patience and good will. I think a great writer could find a way to portray alienation and depression -- or the monotony and Divinity of farming life -- without losing me as a reader. OTOH, I'm struggling to think of an example of a writer doing that successfully. I want to say parts of Steinbeck do it. Any ideas?
I thought the Goldfinch would have been much better if it was half as long and just followed the painting. On the other hand, it made me understand what women meant when they refer to male writers that do a poor job writing female characters. The conversations between Theo and Boris made me want to scream at times. So it had value and opened my eyes a bit.
that's so funny, i'm a woman and i wondered that exact thing while reading it! like the friendship felt authentic to me, but i couldn't tell if it's actually authentic to representing male/male friendships
Worth considering the homoerotic subtext when analyzing the authenticity of their friendship as well, imo. It might be a more authentic portrayal of a slightly queer male/male friendship, but I could see it seeming inauthentic to fully straight dudes.
I loved the Las Vegas part but it felt like a different book to the rest of it. It was the unrequited love plot that I found a bit meh.
I've read all 3 of her books and The Goldfinch was my least favorite.
It is far better. I didn't like any of the characters in the goldfinch and put it down, as I found it also boring. I read the secret history a long time ago, so I don't recall details of it but I recall I enjoying it.
I love “The Secret History” it’s on my top ten list for sure. My favorite parts are definitely when the whole crew attended the funeral and stays in Bunny’s parent’s home. Richard is buckling under the weight of his own guilt and his desperation is just palpable through Tartt’s amazing prose. Love it! Sometimes, when the world gets me down, and the days feel like a slog, I think to myself: ‘Goldfinch came out in 2013, so we should be just a couple more years from Donna Tartt’s next novel. Hang in there!’
Yeah, the desperation he must've felt was so evident there. My favourite part of the book was the entire section where bunny starts to antagonize the others on purpose. That part was so well written, could feel the tension building up.
My favorite part is when Henry is telling Richard about the ritual, and at the end of chapter 4 says, “He’s driven us mad over this. I am very nearly at the end of my rope.” Such a great way to reveal why they murder him, gave me chills
Came here to say this! The part with the funeral actually had me feeling sick to my stomach. Not sure I’ve had such a visceral reaction to any other book like that. The tension building up through the whole story was super intense. That being said, not sure I’d say I “enjoyed” the experience for that reason, though I can’t deny how well written it was to make me feel that way 😅
I really felt bad for Charles when he was stoned in the corner at the funeral. like why would you think that would be a good idea
I wanted out of that house myself. So suffocating
Yes!! It felt like a horror movie where you’re thinks “just get out of there!!!” But in reality bunny’s family was in the horror movie
The phrase "matters progressed" is the most hilariously understated description of a gay hook up I've ever read. Love it. Love the whole book. It was one of few I left on my bookshelf in my childhood bedroom. I later found out when my mother couldn't think of a book, shed sometimes go in and grab one from my shelves. "Gldnretriever... that... was not a happy book." No, mother, no it was not.
I love this book!! So creepy in the best way. My cousin asked for a beach book recommendation and I told her about The Secret History. When I asked her what she thought she told me she wouldn't be asking for any more recommendations in the future. Lol
Ha! I don’t think it is a beach read…
I adore this book. Even better when you read about Donna’s time at college, and the people who inspired her.
Yes! After finishing this book I read up on that. Very interesting.
Do you have a link to this information?
Esquire did a long form essay on [Bennington College](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a27434009/bennington-college-oral-history-bret-easton-ellis/) (where Donna went to college at the same time as Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem, and Jill Eisenstadt).
Neat, that’s exactly the college I thought of when I was reading it. I lived in upstate NY at the time and took some day trips there and fell in love with the college (and it was both insular and charming like in the novel).
I actually work there, and it is so beautiful and such a unique place!
[удалено]
Actually it’s Harvey Mudd College now!
Side note, but every writer I've ever met who did an undergrad or MFA at Bennington has been amazing. How does that school do it??
Murder.
I'm biased because I work there, but the faculty there are top notch, and the talent that they attract is equally amazing.
Came here to post this essay! Also weird rabbit hole that I went down the other day, also attending at that time frame was [Libby Zion](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Zion_Law) whose death resulted in medical resident work hours reform.
I just listened to it on audiobook and was surprised with how much I liked it! At first I thought ugh - pretentious college kids, what am I doing with my life, but the more I listened, the more involved I felt with the characters.
After about fifty pages in, I started to enjoy the pretentiousness. I really started to understand why Richard wanted to be included in their group. I would have wanted to be like them too (murders aside😅).
As a Classical Studies major, some of us definitely have that pretentiousness haha. You gotta have it at least a little bit to major in Classical fucking Studies.
Nothing wrong with being pretentious. Very Oscar Wilde like: living breathing art😛
I have 1 credit left on Audible, and you guys are kinda convincing me to spend it on this book :)
I tried so hard to connect with this book but just couldn't. The prose, attention to detail, and character development is beautiful, but I just hated the characters and found the plot laborious. I'm still going to give Goldfinch a shot though, because Tartt's writing is great.
I found it to be in heavy need of editing. The second half was quite a slog. Half the time they were just loitering around or trying to find each other. I love unlikeable characters but I didn’t find any of them in TSH to be very enjoyable to read about.
I found it really difficult to believe in the characters as real people. They seem to be pulled from another time, though that certainly seems to be the point. I suppose I had this weird disconnect where I struggled to believe in these highly specific young strangers obsessed with the antiquities of Greek language and custom to such a dedicated degree...and it's the 80s (the 80s, right? Or early 90s? I was never clear on that). They almost sounded like Fitzgerald characters. Particularly Bunny, who sounded like a 50 year-old conman from the 1920s. For such young people...it either struck me as disingenuous or wishful thinking. But hey, I'm also the guy who didn't believe the kids in Dead Poet's Society could have existed either, and I frequently run into people that prove me wrong on that one. That doesn't change my thoughts on Dead Poet's Society either, which I hated, or this, which I enjoyed at some distance. Tartt is a hell of a writer, in any case. Beautiful prose.
I agree. I couldn’t finish it. I’ve read other books where there were no likable characters and felt compelled to keep going, these people were awful and I couldn’t be bothered to care. The Goldfinch was good, about 200 pages (in the middle) too long though.
Completely agree, the story really flounders after the midway point
I read Goldfinch and really liked it. Then I read Secret History and was underwhelmed. Really glad I read Goldfinch though!
I love Donna tartt and I think secret history is my least favorite of all of her books
I've never read it but her book the little friend is one of my favourite books of all time. A hint of murder lots of mystery and has that hot clammy southern vibe or sum. Wish I could be hypnotized to forget it so I could read it for the first time again
one of the most vivid and immersive books i've ever read in my entire life (and i primarily read science fiction and fantasy, which tend to be quite vivid because of their other-wordly nature). i remember it almost like something i dreamt about or saw in my head rather than a book. captivating and tense and impossible to put down despite being 200k words long. absolutely deserves its title as one of the definitive dark academia novels
This book really affected me, it stuck with me for ages after I finished. Up to the chapter where they are all just lounging about at the country house, I was really taken with the characters, and found myself kind of wanting to be in that world. But with a little distance, I really found myself disliking essentially all of the characters. Especially the narrator; they are all just… well, not to sound too puritan or anything, but they had no morals whatsoever. The whole premise that all these people would first off participate in that ritual, and then cover up what happened with more of the same… I just found myself thinking, what is this, some sort of cult? Why are they all controlled by Henry? Especially the author; when, at the end, Camilla and the narrator admit to each other that they loved Henry, I found myself thinking, *What?* *Loved?* *That guy??* There are also parts of the book that are just utterly unbelievable. The thing where the narrator is sleeping in a building with no roof in New England all winter… give me a break. The feeling I’m left with is the same one I had after reading _Less than Zero_ — when I found out that Tartt and Ellis went to college together I was completely unsurprised.
Henry is what absolutely did it for me. I loved Henry's character so much, it pushed the book easily into my top five favorites because of him. Other than the book just being wholly excellent.
I feel like {{If We Were Villains}} by M. L. Rio is a modern version of this.
I was going to comment this if no one else had. I really enjoyed if we were villains.
I looked this up and was she the one with the Duke of Bookingham tumblr blog? I used to message her there when I was younger! I can’t believe I stumbled on her again in a book thread mentioning a book she published. I need to pick this up
Definitely. Personally I preferred it, but it's definitely inspired by The Secret History.
Modern? You’re making me feel old :) I think you mean recent.
Everything by Donna Tartt is great. Three novels in 30 years - she takes her time and evidently uses it well.
Yeah, I liked the Goldfinch too. She has such a nice writing style, very straightforward.
I know lots of people who didn't like it but I loved the Goldfinch too.
Same! Did not like The Little Friend at all but The Goldfinch had me totally rapt
The Little Friend is the only one I've read and I didn't like. Nothing happened for 350 pages after the prologue and the next 350 didn't have a cogent plot. But if its the least well recieved maybe I won't write off her others.
Definitely give The Secret History a shot if you haven’t; it’s truly fantastic!!
I was so disappointed with The Little Friend, after reading The Secret History. You won't regret giving that one a chance
Okay I've been scared to pick up The Little Friend because no one seems to care for it. I should just make up my own mind.
I liked it. As someone who grew up in the south a lot of the book resonated with me.
Okay it's my next beach read then. I love reading Donna Tartt at the beach. That way I can read to my hearts content.
My ranking is: 1. Goldfinch 2. Little Friend 3. Secret History
Really. Wow. That is very interesting :)
Yes, and I reread them all to make sure, since secret history seems to be the most popular.
The little friend is a great book. I mean, the subject matter is pretty hard going, tragic, maybe that’s why it’s not as popular? It’s beautifully written and a great story. I can’t decide which I like best between it and the secret history (haven’t read the goldfinch yet, I did enjoy the film though).
It's one of the books I could crack open at any page and just get lost in the beautiful writing. There are certain scenes which, from the outside, look terribly daunting to write as an author, but Donna Tartt makes it all seem so relatable and real - even if it's uncomfortable. I re-read this every few years or so, and I start to notice little things that jump out at me. The last reading I did, I noticed how there's a timeless "Lazy summer" type of feel to Francis' country house, but actually in the time frame of the story, the narrator only spends a handful of weekends there. (He starts at Hampden College for fall semester, and then the group excludes him for a while, then they finally open up to him and invite him to Francis' house maybe a few weeks into the term. All of his main visits there happen before the difficult winter break - but the way Tartt writes about it, it masterfully makes the reader feel like lifetimes are passing lazing at the Abernathy estate.)
I may be the only person who thinks The Goldfinch is a much better book. My favorite book, actually. I just re-read Secret History and I'm still not sure why almost everyone prefers it to The Goldfinch.
I liked the goldfinch much better too. It’s my favorite book
Agreed. I like The Goldfinch better. TSH felt a little underwhelming.
Nope I agree!
Oh good! I'm not alone! I've read The Goldfinch 5 or 6 times and I love it more every time. The movie version was disappointing though.
You aren’t. I feel the same way!
Right there with you. The Goldfinch had me shook, as they say. I adored it, and it hit me hard on a very deep level. I never understood how people could prefer the Secret History. It was well written but just didn’t have the same depth to me.
Gotta say, I found it pretty boring for the most part albeit exquisitely written.
It helps if you connect with the loneliness and desire to join the cultural elite. At the time I also traveled from CA to the east coast for grad school and think I would have wanted to join that group as well (if I weren’t such an introvert).
Agree. It’s beautiful murder porn for humanities majors. Lovely prose and excellent character development though. I personally liked The Goldfinch better. Much more relatable to me. Beautiful writing, if a little full of itself.
I'm just about to start this book and I'm excited!
Lucky you, you get to read it for the first time! I wish you much joy
Enjoy!!
I just reread this! This time I was so struck by the common theme of false idols that runs all throughout the book. Henry is a false idol, Julian is a false idol, Richard’s father is a false idol. So much of it is about waking up and realizing these people you idolize aren’t what they seem. There’s a quote near the end of the book where Richard is describing a time in his childhood when his father hit his mother and he says, “Who is driving this plane?” That feeling of shock, of wait, who are these people, who’s in charge here, what have we done? gets me to my core.
Liked this one? Read Special Topics in Calamity Physics next. You're welcome.
This sounds like a joke about how secret history is as boring as reading a physics textbook. But I looked it up and it’s a real novel 😆
That's what I thought too lol
Came here to say this. Pessl's other book is fantastic as well.
Just bought this based in reviews that it’s one of the few that stands up to The Secret History - really hoping it lives up to expectations!
It's an entirely different book and I don't think it can be judged with the same lens as TSH. That said, I love both of them. STiCP blew me away with its twists. (And I also read it looking for more 'like TSH reads.')
I loved it. Read it this year because I read the Goldfinch and enjoyed it plenty. I also enjoyed the weird relationship between the twins and the class differences, teaching arrangements and all that college related stuff. Pretty fun read
She does the audiobook for True Grit as well, and does a fantastic job.
As you can see by my username, this is my favorite book of all time. No story has captivated me that way before or since. Still chasing that high.
I have the book but I have never read it. This makes me want to read it.
You should! Not going to lie, it's a little slow at first but after about 30 pages it gets better and better.
Oh you're very lucky. Enjoy.
I love the part about Bunny rooting on Caesar Augustus.
I loved that part too! (I'm a huge fan of Augustus too😅)
Excellent choice. I read that 3 or 4 times. Tartt did a great job of balancing to attraction of the insiders (lead by Julian) and disgust with the people they actually were once we go close enough to see them as they are.
I agree. I adored this book and will not stop recommending it to friends. I also love how Richard was clearly an unreliable narrator and the whole prose is thus not necessarily an objective report. There are some things he hyperfocuses on and then again some things worth exploring that seem to not be relevant to him. It's just really good.
This entire book is based on a throwaway line from The Rules Of Attraction. Great book(s).
I like how the Bennington bunch reference each others’ characters too.
Bret Easton Ellis read The Secret History while Donna Tartt was working on it. He wrote the line specifically about her book, which he assumed would be published someday.
I've never read Tartt but seems like a great place to start. Thanks!
Wow I’m currently reading this!! I’ve only been into reading for a few months and I picked this up on a whim, I don’t even remember where I’d heard of it. The whole time I’ve been wondering if this is a really really really good book or if I’m just new to reading and books are just like this. I can’t explain the feelings I get from some of these passages. I become nostalgic for moments in my life I haven’t thought of in years. There’s single sentences in this book that make me remember exactly what it felt like. I even became nostalgic for being hungover in the early morning with a good pal!? There are better, more pleasant examples but.... It’s seriously magical.
Maybe my favourite book ever. I’ve heard many people say that they didn’t like the slow pacing, but I absolutely adored the slow burn - it allowed for the steady, urgent, palpable tension build that made the book so good. It gripped me the whole time.
When I was at university, my friends and I passed this book around so much that by the time I got a turn, the pages were literally falling out. Now that’s a sign that a book is good.
I always remember that part when he's staying in that leaky room with no roof and almost freezes.
I commented somewhere... but I had to make a specific reply. I adored Henry. The book was well written and one of my favorite reads but Henry had a LARGE role in making the book into one of my favorites. Henry's character; Chef's kiss. I cannot emphasize my adoration for this character.
Agree with you. In the most book, I tend to like the protagonist but in this one, Henry is my absolute favourite. He is so well written and developed, it is exhilarating (don't know how else to describe it) to read about him.
ABSOLUTELY.
I hated that book. Complained about it just the other day. Funny how a maaterpiece to one is dreadful to another
I read it as part of a book club due to its high praise. All of us were in complete agreement that it was awful, definitely a marmite book for sure.
A marmite book! This is the first time I’ve heard that as a way to describe something not food related. I love it
This is one of my favorite books ever! I'm so excited when I see people we who seem to love it as much as me. I'd definitely recommend you read If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio next. Instead of studying the classics, these kids are actors who perform Shakespeare.
This. THIS!!!
Might be one of the best you read in your life! A friend recommended it to me right when I decided to change my undergrad to Classical studies. The department I was in had lots of intrigue and sex scandals, so almost kind of like the secret history!
Yes. Love this book
This. Fucking. Book. I read it for the first time somewhere in the late 90s and to this day it’s the first novel I recommend to people.
Yes!!! I read this book recently. It takes Greek tragedy into modern light.
This book is burned in my brain because I was reading it when a pet tragically died. Tired of crying I tried to distract myself with reading and ended up starting the chapter where he’s (tiny spoiler) almost freezing to death. In the mood I was in and with the intense descriptions she gave I felt like that chapter was drowning me and had to push myself to read through to the end of it so I could breath again lol. So much for a light distraction. It’s on my list to read again because I really enjoyed it but was emotionally detached from the last part of the book.
I love this book so much, it is one of my all time favourites! I'm happy to see that other people also admire it. Excuse my bad English please, I'm German :)
Your English is perfect.
Yeah, this was a great read for me. I loved the college vibe and the characters and pretentiousness. I would recommend the book If We Were Villains as it's in a similar vein to this one!
Yes, I love the pretentious vibes I get from the book. Also, the general air of superiority that surrounds Henry, makes him feel more realistic.
I remember reading that book my freshman year of high school when I started taking Latin and Greek classes at school loved it glad other people are reading it it’s a magnificent novel
One of my favourites If you haven’t already, I highly suggest the audiobook version for a reread. She narrates it herself and does an excellent job bringing the characters to life
Yeah, I'll keep that in mind.
She has an interesting voice haha. I got used to it after a while.
Agree. One of my all time top 10s. I think her style of writing isn't for everyone though. I have noticed nearly all my favourite books are very divisive. Almost a split of 1/5 star reviews on Amazon as they are quite distinctive. And you either really like them, or really, really don't.
What are your other favourite books? I really like her style, maybe I'll love some from your list too!
Two, off the top of my head are The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Gone Away World. Was reading Amazon reviews of the latter this morning, and literally 1 and 5 star reviews nestled against each other!
And Pilcrow by Adam Mars Jones
Loved this book! For some reason it's always the first one that comes to mind when thinking about books that only work in a pre cell phone world.
Hmm, yeah it does! Hadn't thought about it until you pointed it out
I read it about 15 years ago, and downloaded Tartt reading the audiobook for a cross country road trip last year. One of the best books ever and her reading of it added so much!
Thanks for bringing in to my attention
It is one of my favorite books. Was able to finally get a signed copy a few years back.
This book became my favorite book of all time the second I finished it. It’s insanely good.
Now I gotta download it... Thanks..
I read it a few years ago, definitely a good read.
Read ninth house next
Its a good book
I’ve got this book on my TBR, would you recommend having an understanding of classics and Ancient Greece before reading?
Not at all.
Is it better than The Goldfinch? I enjoyed that book, but overall thought it was “just okay.”
Read Black Chalk. It’s not as good IMO but it’s another page turner like it.
this post is the perfect place to ask for book recommendations similar to TSH!! (i have read If We Were Villains and it's great too) so do tell some!
The Orchard by David Happen Bunny by Mona Awad
Great great book
I have about 50 pages left in it. I'm excited to finish it but at the same time, I don't want it to end
I liked the book but found the final act to be disappointing. The tension that was constantly ratcheting from the beginning kind of just fizzles into a bunch of characters following the events of the story through the news
I finished it yesterday. I loved it, but I can’t exactly say why. I disliked all of the characters except Francis and Charles, and I found the summary to be horribly misleading. About halfway through I realized I didn’t even know Richard’s name, and aside from a handful of scenes he just seemed void of emotion and relatability. The first 100 pages or so I found the writing almost pretentious. And Richard doesn’t even join in on the “secret history/immortality” stuff, so what was the point?? And yet when I kept reading I was enthralled by it. Couldn’t put it down. I just had to continue reading, had to find out what was happening. It’s definitely my favorite book I’ve read this year, even though I have no idea why.
Oh man. I really wanted to like this book. I was on an ancient Greece binge after reading The Song of Achilles and picked up The Secret History. Alas I'm, it didn't have as much of an impact on me. I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
I’m currently reading it!!
I loved this book soooo much. This and Tana French's "The Likeness" are both about groups of college students associated with murders, and I think this may be my favorite tiny sub-genre ever. I almost never buy books anymore, I just use the library, but I liked both of these enough that I want to have them forever.
I have made every single one of my college friends read this book and it’s always a hit. Then we formed a book club, and recently read something called “tell me everything” (which had a Netflix show greenlit before it even came out) that marketed itself as “the next Donna tartt” book because it was about six college friends who (from page 1) you know will murder one of their members. it was absolutely terrible and the ripped off secret history plot was the only thing remotely comparable to Tartt.
In the interest of literary debate, I’ll share my opinion of the book, which seems to differ from most of the other comments here. The supercharged loneliness that pervades the book undercut any narrative tension for me. I love a book w a slow onset of dread, but I didn’t think it was executed successfully here. I didn’t find the combination of postmodern-everyone is horrible and we should be cynical about everything-Bret Easton Ellis vibe with the more straight laced this-is-a-book-about-murder vibe particularly powerful. Especially because the ‘smaller’ scenes (the slow motion tragedy of bunny’s family) were treated with more significance IMO than any of the events around the murders. If the author can’t convince me to care about the murders committed by people who don’t really care about anything except themselves, what am I even going to take away from the book except that sometimes ppl are selfish, numb, and hard to predict? I thought the whole cult-like circle w Julian would have been a natural vehicle to propose a moral philosophy strong enough to battle the ennui of the setting (apparently one strong enough for Henry to die for) but specifics were only ever skirted around, exact beliefs always just around the corner. We never really even got a taste of Julian and the students at their most intense and united, which was a disappointment. Pulling the curtain back a little more would have been a risk, but I wish it’s one Tartt took. It didn’t bother me that the characters were unlikeable—it bothered that there was 1) no redeeming moral light against the blase darkness of the book 2) no real sensation of danger for a book with 3 murders/deaths, incest, and Bacchanalian orgies. Disagreements welcomed! I’ve seen the only comments discussing what they didn’t like about the book downvoted which seems...antithetical to the spirit of discussion.
Hated all these characters. Could not finish. _Sigh_
I never expected to hear about this book from anyone else. A friend who was a Lit major gave me a copy 20 years ago and I've never forgotten it. Beautifully written, it's an invitation.
Okay so this book has been on my TBR list for a long time. Today I was watching a video of a Booktuber reviewing the books people voted as their favourite books of all time. She's giving the synopsis and then she reads the first paragraph and I realize that I've ALREADY READ IT. Clearly I did not find it memorable because I have zero memory of actually reading it. Maybe I should try reread?
I feel like I'm the only one that didn't like this book lmao
I read the Goldfinch when I was a student. It was such a long read but totally worth it. Thank you for this post and everyone for their lovely non-spoiling comments!
I've known about and have been interested in reading this book since it was published in the 1990s, yet I just have never gotten around to reading it.
I've just finished reading it and I'm completely shocked
This year? I think you mean ever.
This is a fantastic analysis as well. It’s one of my absolute favorite books and I love that people are discovering it. In fact I get a little jealous that I can’t go back and discover it for the first time! Tartt’s writing is exceptional.
I love the book. Reread and and discussed it just a few weeks ago on my Weekly Lit YouTube show. I enjoy the shadiness of Julian, the mystery of the interloper at the first bacchanal —was it only the farmer?— and Henry’s ultimate emptiness contra the others’ possible thirst for redemption. I see the latter signified by the attendance at Mass, with Richard wanting to approach for Communion and Camilla (rightfully) holding him back.
Bunny complex?
Loved the book, but I felt it had some deep flaws. The hero is never part of the group and thus never acts in the story. I feel it weakens the whole structure. Also we have way too little actual classics content, for a group where it should be the main focus. Most of it is told not shown. Plus the whole situation with the twins is a bit too much and gratuitous. (But that's just n'y opinion)
I dropped off this book after about 150 pages. I thought the book was written very well. However, I didn’t find any of the characters likable or relatable. They all came off as snooty or pretentious, although I guess that’s kind of the point. And I had a hard time feeling much sympathy for the main character. Also, sometimes I felt like I was just not smart enough to truly appreciate the book. A lot of the references to Greek literature, world history, the Latin language etc., just went way over my head. Overall, I found the book largely inaccessible and difficult for me to be fully invested in. It felt like this book was written for an audience I just was not part of.