The Goldfinch

Those of you who have been paying attention at the back probably know that I am a published author and voracious reader as well as being a copywriter. It will come as no surprise if I confess to the total number of books on my bookcase and Kindle that I haven’t read yet, in addition to the list of Audible downloads that I haven’t got around to.

So, I surprised myself when, after a stressful week that was rendering my brain useless as far as concentrating on Kindle or book-based words was concerned, I turned to The Goldfinch on Audible. It’s one of those books that I’ve heard so much about, bought because I thought I should, and never read or listened to. It was a project; the book is 32 hours long. But I soon realised that listening to a book is hugely relaxing. So much so that I had to stop it and go back to the last bit I remembered at some points when I *cough* dozed off listening to it.

The Goldfinch – the story

Where do I start? It’s a story about love, obsession and fate. Oh, and a famous work of art. The protagonist, Theo is 12 when he loses his mother in an explosion at a New York museum. His mother had taken him to see the exhibition featuring The Goldfinch, a painting by Carel Fabritius, a painter thought to have been one of Rembrandt’s most promising students. In reality, almost all of Fabritius’s works were destroyed in the Delft explosion of 1654, in which he too died.

Beautifully observed characters

From this point on, Donna Tartt weaves a tale that features mysterious characters, strange coincidences, the worlds of fine art and antiques and Theo’s gradual descent into depression, drugs and crime. The thread that pulls the whole thing together for me is the relationships between the characters. Some of them border on obsession, such as Theo’s love for his mother, and belief that he was partly responsible for her death. He also develops a romantic obsession with Pippa, a teenage girl he remembers from the explosion, and who reappears in his life later.

Others are deliciously life-affirming, like the affectionate, almost paternal relationship that develops between Theo and  ‘Hobie’ the gentle giant antique seller, and his Ukrainian school friend Boris who I’d argue is the great love of Theo’s life. I found the characters beautifully drawn. I could almost see Xandra the Vegas bar girl and Boris, Theo’s lifelong bestie in my head. The dialogue is wonderful and Donna Tartt’s writing is so gorgeously descriptive that she took me right out of my head and into Theo’s.

The Goldfinch is a LONG story…

The story spans around 15 years in total and the action takes place in New York, Las Vegas and Amsterdam. Although there are criticisms levelled at The Goldfinch over its length, and yes, there are places where the action drops off slightly, you can’t afford not to pay attention because every detail is there for a reason. Towards the end, during the last two chapters, the action is incredibly fast-paced and there’s so much going on – involving characters and situations that have been expertly set up earlier in the book – that dozing off is not an option!

It’s hard to write about this book without giving too much away, but I LOVED it. The ending was wonderful and I didn’t see it coming at all. I hear there’s a film out but I don’t know if I can bring myself to see it, after seeing the characters so vividly in my head over the past ten days. The paperback has an impressive 881 pages so if you haven’t read it yet, brace yourself for a good long reading project! I loved it and I’m going to need a few days to process it before my next reading project which is Dune…

I need to know…

Have you read the book or seen the film? I’d love to know what you think. Pop over to my Facebook page and let me know…