The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, a Book Review
Stop whatever you are doing and get the book titled THE GOLDFINCH. Get it at the library. Get it at the bookstore. Order it online. Listen to it on Audible, or for free on Axis 360. Listen on any device you own. This is the best book you will ever read. Absolutely number one on my list. Donna Tartt uses language as no other author can. A few words can make you see a space, feel it, smell it, and hear it. She has an impeccable command of words. Her descriptions of characters still linger in my mind, one “dreamy, stumbling, asthmatic, hopeless,” and another, “there was also a dark, slurry undercurrent of something else: a whiff of Count Dracula, or maybe it was a KGB agent.”
Then, when you have this book, call in sick to work. Hire a babysitter. Cancel your doctor appointments. Tell your friends you will not be on Facebook for a few days or able to meet them for lunch. Tell your family to dial 911 if there is an emergency. You will not be available by phone, text, or email. Tell everyone the kitchen is closed. And then--read, read, read--or listen. I loved listening because the voice actor was able to speak with all the accents of characters from various countries. I guarantee you will be mesmerized, dazzled, speechless, and in awe. You will laugh. You will cry. Then, you will do it again. No wonder this book won the Pulitzer Prize.
The story begins in the confusion of a terrorist bombing of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Theo Decker and his mother are in the museum, and his mother is killed by the bomb. Totally traumatized by the fires, smoke, and death, he grabs a painting of a goldfinch, a priceless piece that inspired his mother to pursue a career in art. After escaping the museum, Theo, now alone in the world, lives with a classmate’s family until his deadbeat dad takes him to Las Vegas. He becomes best friends with Boris, a classmate who suffers from the same neglect and loneliness Theo faces. They spend their days drinking and experimenting with drugs as they devise various schemes to avoid placement in foster care after Theo’s father, drunk, is killed in a car crash. With nowhere to live, Theo returns to New York.
He follows the instructions given to him by a dying man in the museum bombing and finds Hobie, an antique dealer, who takes him in. During all this time, the stolen goldfinch painting remains hidden with Theo. Boris joins Theo in New York, and their friendship continues in a fog of alcohol and drugs. As they grow older, they continue to hatch plans for obtaining money. While Theo has a moral conscience, Boris does not, so conflict occurs.
Theo and Boris travel to Amsterdam where Boris has planned an attempt to sell the goldfinch painting. Chaos and frenzy follow with a shootout and meetings with high level art smugglers. You will be caught up in this story as if you were with these young men! You will feel as if you are right there with Theo as he tries to figure out life. He thinks about, “the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire.” In the end Theo realizes that for him, “the only truths that matter to me are the ones I don’t and can’t understand. What’s mysterious, ambiguous, inexplicable…. The loneliness that separates every living creature from every living creature. Sorrow inseparable from joy.”
And what about the goldfinch painting? I give away no spoilers about the conclusion. I assure you, however, that you will enjoy pondering the symbolism and the metaphor of the beautiful goldfinch chained to its perch.