So after I finished up with Dirty English, I decided my brain needed a bit of a break from all the romance and erotica. While it's entertaining to read, being a single girl with four cats and reading endless books of everyone in the world finding eternal love and steamy sex can get a tad depressing after awhile. I won't lie, I was feeling bummed, so I decided to give my brain and my heart a break and check out a book I've had my eye on for quite awhile.
The Goldfinch is a solid novel by Donna Tartt. Let me give a bit of a backstory. I discovered Donna's work maybe two years back (I'm honestly terrible with time, it could've been a year) when I picked up a copy of The Secret History from my local Barnes & Noble. I saw it on a "must-read" list for that year and had to give that one a go. Unfortunately, after about a hundred or so pages in, I got distracted and put that book down. I have yet to go back to it. I swear, I will though because I was thoroughly intrigued. Anyway!! Fast forward to just a few months ago when I saw The Goldfinch sitting on the shelf of B&N when I was doing my usual outing. I didn't pick up a copy because I had other books stacked in my arms, and, hello... budget. The cover alone intrigued me (I know, I know.. I totally judged). Once I left the store that night, I swear, this book has followed me. Every time I went into a book shop, I saw this book just hanging out in the open right at eye level. It took a few adventures, but I finally decided to cave and buy a copy.
After all the anticipation and pent up excitement as to what these pages would hold, the story was not quite what I thought it was. Sure, the back cover gave the basic premise, but once I was in the middle of the story, I just saw that it wasn't going the way I thought originally.
I figured there would be a more romantic notion and mystery connecting Theo to the painting of the goldfinch that meant so much to him. Instead, I got a tragic and semi-twisted coming-of-age tale. Not that I was disappointed, but I didn't quite care for the characters and some of the decisions they were making. This brought a disconnected feeling for me, and I couldn't devour this book the way I had planned.
Theo, Boris, and Kitsy were three people out of a cast of characters I just couldn't get on board with for most of the story. Like Theo, I've dealt with death and tragedy, and I know we all handle it in our own way, but I could not relate to anything he was doing or the people he would associate himself with. I find little sympathy for people who cope and hide from their problems by getting addicted to drugs of any sort. I have even less sympathy or understanding for cheaters. These people covered all those grounds and then some, so I found it really hard to get into their corners and thoroughly enjoy the overall story.
The ending, however, was a total turn-around. I did enjoy Theo finally coming to his senses and talking about his troubles. He grew up and examined his life and the lessons he had learned all throughout his younger years. I appreciated his explanation and insight about how life works and balances the universe to make our day-to-day outcome what it is, in good or bad. Since the ending redeemed a chunk of the book for me, I found this to be an interesting read.
My Final Rating: three out of five stars
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