The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch is a novel written by legendary modern literary author Donna Tartt, and was published in 2013 At nearly 800 pages long, it is the longest book Tartt has ever written, taking her 8 years to complete. In 2014, The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The Goldfinch follows 13 year old Theo Decker, a young boy who loses his mother in an explosion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. During the short aftermath of the explosion, he steals a painting known as The Goldfinch, which is both the namesake of the book and a real painting painted in 1654 during the Dutch Golden Age by Carel Fabritius. Theo’s fate inevitably becomes linked to the painting, as he is sent to live with wealthy family friends he feels disconnected from, then his father, and then Hobie, an owner of an antique furniture shop in New York City. He navigates the world, exploring his feelings towards and relationships with the people around him, observing the ways the world is intertwined with one another, all thanks to the fate of the painting.

Theo Decker is an incredibly written protagonist, every thought, every action, every decision he makes whether good or bad, all feel like something a real person would do in his situation. He is never written to be a “good person”, but rather a real person, even in some of the worst things he does in the book, you become so attached to him that even without justifying the things he’s done, you can simply say “I understand.” His grief after the loss of his mother resonates throughout the book, and is a driving theme. Theo’s sense of hollowness and despair connects with the reader, as he vividly describes the ways in which his mother’s death has left him to feel empty, alone, and desolate. As all of the events in The Goldfinch unfold, every page has you thinking: “None of this would have happened if his mother had survived.”

Tartt’s signature writing style doesn’t hold back in The Goldfinch, as she beautifully creates memorable and loveable characters, scenes and chapters. She holds back no restraint as she brings to life these words on paper, and creates a sense of reality and relatability to the characters she has carefully crafted. Beautiful, humourous, despairing, anger and suspense are all things you feel and experience when reading The Goldfinch, all done with care and experience.

Despite the long and lengthy descriptions coming in handy in helping to tell a compelling and complex story, they also managed to hurt it’s story as well. Long, drawn out descriptions helped to bring life to the story Tartt was trying to tell, but also in many parts would feel irrelevant and frankly unneeded.The Goldfinch could’ve been fifty to a hundred pages shorter, yet still maintain the same charm and excellence.

In conclusion, The Goldfinch is a wonderfully written book, and despite it’s incredibly long page count, is a book I would recommend to anyone who has the ability to read words written on paper.