Melissa "Dog/Wolf Lover" Martin's Reading & Ramblings: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

3 STARS

I really hate that I didn't love this book to death like so many others :-(

I would say I loved the first half or maybe a little more of the book, I felt like it was too long and some of the things I wasn't interested in toward the end.

First off this painting by Carel Fabritius 1654 is so beautiful, so simple and so beautiful.

It seemed like a normal day with Theo and his mom going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

but it wasn't anywhere near normal, this was the day (at thirteen-years-old) that Theo lost his mom when a bomb went off at the museum. Theo wakes up in the rubble and makes his way out. Theo meets a man that was trapped and gives him a ring for Theo to take it to his partner. And on the way out Theo takes the Goldfinch painting as well, that followed him throughout his childhood and adult life.

When the social services find out that Theo is alone, that his mom died in the bombing, and his dad was who knows where as he left when Theo was a toddler and that his grandparents were too sick to take him... they set him up with a childhood friend and his family. It took a bit for Theo to try to fit in with this family... well I mean he's still in shock!.. but the family was rich and had their own little ways. Most of the kids were brats, but his friend Andy, I thought he was cool. It seems as soon as he starts to settle in, his no good father and girlfriend show up to take him from his home in New York to Las Vegas. We all know this is not a good idea, but he's Theo's father so that's what has to be done. I mean some people don't need to be parents! We all know his father just came back to try to get money etc.

So, Theo's new life in Vegas isn't that great. He meets a friend named Boris that gets him into all kinds of drugs, which sucks. But I did like Theo and Boris as friends though. And I'm glad they found each other again in the end when they were adults. Anyway, a bunch of stuff goes down and Theo heads back to New York.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Theo did get the ring back to Hobie and told him about his partner's (I forget his name) last moments. Hobie and he owned an antique store, where Hobie fixed up the old things etc. Theo started hanging around Hobie and they became good friends. So later on when he came back to town he lived with Hobie and learned the trade and became a partner with Hobie.

I think this is where it took the turn for me. Theo is being harassed by someone that wants the painting and other things and so forth and so on. It's a big ole mess. I felt really bad at what Theo had to go through, it's like he didn't even have time to miss his mom at all. Everything pretty much worked out. There were some other people in the book that I liked and some that were real twats of course.