The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company

Pages:        784

Category:   Literary fiction

"The Pulitzer Prize 2014", "The greatest literary event of this decade" - these words screamed at me to get my attention in a bookshop. It was almost impossible to skirt them around indifferently. I have to admit, I wasn't disappointed - although The Goldfinch is a large volume (over 800 pages), I wasn’t bored even for a second. When I read books I often want to finish them as soon as possible to immerse myself into another novel. On the contrary, while reading The Goldfinch, I enjoyed the possibility of spending every moment with Theo and Boris – main characters of the book. I eagerly waited for the moment to sit down and delight in the taste of this story.

As I said  before, the main character of The Goldfinch is Theo. We meet him for the first time when he is scared to death siting in a hotel room in Amsterdam. How did he get here? What will happen to him later? Well, I won’t tell you, you have to read the book. Theo recalls his childhood, especially one specific stormy day when he visited a museum with his mom. That visit turned his world upside down.

This is a book about how each of our decisions affect our life. It provoke us to think about our own destiny – everybody had at least one moment or one person that completely changed his/her life. This is also a novel about dealing with a trauma, about friendship and about the fact that we won't run away from being children of our parents. Even if we try very hard.

At some point, the action jumps over 8 years. When I was reading what has happened through these years to Theo, Andy and Boris, I felt as if I chanced on acquaintances I haven’t seen for a long time. I was very anxious to know, what had happened with them over the past years. To my mind,  this reflects the strength and depth of characters created by Tartt.

The last part of the book (more less the last 100 pages) is the weakest one. Suddenly the story changes from novel of manners to an action book. These pages are written in a rather chaotic, inconsistent way. Fortunately, in the last chapter the action calms down and the end is convincing. I strongly recommend this book.