The Goldfinch
"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....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthralling force and acuity. It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. The Goldfinch is a novel of shocking narrative energy and power. It combines unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and breathtaking suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
14mentions
11people
2016–2026years
50% recommend36% neutral14% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Best book I've read in a long time: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt -- it's not often that literary fiction reads as smoothly as a Stephen King book. It's a coming of age story, a drug story, a heist story all rolled up.
Best book I ever read (for myriad other reasons) probably remains Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- never has a book amused me like that. I don't think much about my sensibility, beliefs, way of looking at the world would be quite the same if that book hadn't have come along when I was eleven and said, "you're okay, you're not alone. Don't panic."
- I've had four episodes of major depression in my life, the last and longest lasting 1.75 years, during which I was pretty much non-functional and unable to concentrate enough to read.
Through trial and error I stumbled on two things that WERE readable and provided much comfort.
1. Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander" and its twenty sequels set during the Napoleonic Wars, featuring British naval captain Jack Aubrey and his ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin.
2. "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt.
I wish I'd known of more such books at the time.
- The Mauritshuis, the regular home of The Girl with a Pearl Earring, is also well worth your while. It's a lot smaller than the Rijksmuseum, so you don't need to set aside as much time, but additionally has The Goldfinch by Fabritius (recommended companion read: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt) and The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt.
- I can't recommend Donna Tartt's books enough, especially The Secret History and The Goldfinch. I've read both 3 times now.
- For anyone who has time on their hands and wants a good read, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a wonderful book that tells a story set in the world of art theft.
- A great novel with furniture fraud at its core is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
