(book review)

(I run my book Telegram channel, where I publish various reviews of the books I read. The other day, I wrote a review of ‘The Goldfinch’ by Danna Tart.)

This text is filled with numerous hidden meanings. In this novel, Donna Tartt incorporates and references many other books, music, and countless works of visual art, making this story demand familiarity with the context of both the work itself and the references made by the author. This novel is profoundly intertextual.

The book is challenging to read, not due to its length, but rather because of the depressive, heavy, and gray nature of the story. Theo’s tragic tale begins in his childhood and permeates every event of his adult life that we follow.

It is impossible not to empathize and feel the complexity and injustice that permeates Theo’s life and ours as we read this story.

The book contains a lot of descriptions of the protagonist’s internal state, providing us with a vivid portrayal of how Theo experiences or attempts to cope with the loss of the most valuable person in his life.

There is no dynamism here, and perhaps due to the anticipation of it in the text, my initial mini-review was not too positive. However, from the second half of the book, I realized that it was not boring, and the main character was not as weak as many had noted in their reviews. The author shows us that sometimes one event can change a life and break a person. This story should be read with prior reading experience. It is not easy, neither in the plot, the author’s style, nor in the perception of the story itself.

I am glad that ‘The Goldfinch’ came into my hands now, and I am certain that I will read this book again in a few years. Reading it now has given me a certain amount of meaning, which I am sure will only multiply when I read it again.