The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

I'm jet lagged and my brain isn't all there, so I don't know how good a review I'd do. And I would really have to do a good review to pay tribute to this incredible book. I'll do my best.

Summary

The other day I spent a good half hour summarizing the book to my boyfriend. He was very patient (thank you my love) but I don't want to bore you. Anyway, my goal is that you read this book.

So here's what I'm going to say: Theo loses his mother at the age of 13, while he was visiting a museum with her that was the victim of a terrorist attack. Since his parents are separated (and his father is an asshole), she was all he had. So he finds himself alone in the world. But he has a constant companion: a painting called "The Goldfinch" (a real painting by the way), painted by Carel Fabritius in the 17th century. This painting, he "saved" it from the rubble, incited by a dying man. He then becomes, suddenly and in spite of himself, an orphan and thief of one of the most famous works of art in the world.

Impressions

This book has worn me down. After hearing about it constantly as a masterpiece, I finally got my hands on it, in electronic format. So I was more or less aware that it was a big brick (800 pages). Good, because its length might have discouraged me, and what a pity that would have been!

This book grabbed me and impressed me like no other. At first I thought it was going to be a story about a poor traumatized orphan, a mostly touching book. I was wrong. Then I thought it would be about his life in his childhood friend's family, a rich family with hidden problems. Wrong. Then I thought it was going to be about his dumb father coming back into the picture to destroy his life. Wrong.

I was wrong, constantly. I could never predict what was coming. And that made it a real page-turner. Then I realized what an incredible book it was, and I fell in love with it. It took me three weeks to read it, but I found it too short. Because the pages don't serve any purpose: they serve to get completely absorbed in the novel, to get to know the characters intimately and to see all their shades of grey, to follow the unpredictable adventures and the mind-blowing environments.

Yes, it's a brick. Yes, it's a Pulitzer Prize. But don't let that intimidate you. This is a book I recommend to absolutely everyone; a great book, in every sense of the word.