“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe.”
If you came here looking for a light read turn around. This is NOT something “fun”. It is harsh and cruel and unapologetic. It is life with all it’s ugliness (and occasional beauty). It is life with struggles and pain and sorrow and grief and misfortunes.
The story follows the life of a young boy, Theo Decker, whose life is struck by tragedy after he loses his mother. We follow h
im as his life goes downhill and he desperately tries to hold on to the memories of his mother and his home. And what helps him hold on is the Goldfinch, his mother’s favourite painting.
This book, even though not easy, it struck me like lighting. It has a philosophical ring to it, and it makes you think. It makes you think that at any moment you could find yourself in Theo’s place. You could have been an orphan with no home, with an alcoholic, neglecting father. What would you do then? How would you have turned out? Is it in us to do bad, does upbringing play a role? Well, for me, yes, absolutely yes. Maybe if he was still with his mother he wouldn’t have fallen into the rabbit hole. Maybe not. Everything we do has consequences and every event defines us.
This book left me a very bittersweet taste. I don’t quite know how I feel about certain events, but I certainly know that Tartt’s characters are not just black or white. They’re not good or bad. Hell they’re not even gray. They’re human, and that’s what makes them unique and so close to likeable/unlikeable. Because humans are complex and not everything they do is right or moral. Not everyone likes a certain person as not everyone dislikes said person. The way I see it – the way the book made me see it- everything is fluent. Nothing is set in stone.
Now moving to the writing, I’m not going to lie I had a little difficulty following her thoughts sometimes. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m not a native english speaker, or maybe it was indeed difficult, I don’t know.
What I did enjoy though and I will praise till the day I die is how DESCRIPTIVE she was. You could see everything playing out right in front of your eyes. I felt like I was in New York, I could see it all, even if I’ve never step foot there, it didn’t matter. His place, Vegas, random images, it was all so vivid. They were the kind of descriptions you don’t get bored at, you don’t skim over, because they are so accurate, they suck you right in.
I would mostly recommend this to adult readers, because some of the themes are better understandable if you are of a certain age and you’ve experienced some things in life.
Marianna's Corner 