First Edition Points

“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt tells the story of Theodore (Theo) Decker, who was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art during a bombing which kills his mother.

Last September, I challenged myself by reading “The Goldfinch”. Only now, over a year later am I finishing it. I’ll start off by saying that I put it down around January and read about 5 books between, then resumed it this September. Then I’ll say that the book is a whopping 771 pages long with 5 parts, some set in different locations and some set years apart. There are only 12 chapters, but inside them there are numerous sections embedded to break them up better. The reason behind the length of this book is because Tartt consistently goes into immense details and lengthy monologues. 

Now that I’m done, I’m telling myself that it was a good read and that I enjoyed it. But if I really enjoyed it, why did it take me so long to finish, and why did I dread picking it up? So, what I’m asking myself is: did I really enjoy this book or am I just glad to be done reading it?

 “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt tells the story of Theodore (Theo) Decker, who was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art during a bombing which kills his mother. In the midst of chaos, Theo steals one of the paintings that was on display- The Goldfinch, painted by Carel Fabritius. In this time, he also develops an unlikely acquaintance with an elderly man in the same room of the museum Theo was in during the bombing. These events deeply impact how Theo will navigate his life- some that will help him and some that will hurt (the majority will hurt him). The book follows Theo’s unfortunate life; from age 13 to his early to mid twenties. It explores his obscure experiences and the interesting characters he meets along the way. 

Personally, I had mixed emotions from reading “The Goldfinch”. I excitedly started the book and was immediately intrigued by the story, the characters, the setting and pretty much everything about it. I initially avoided thinking about the number of pages but very soon, it became evident that I would be reading this book for a while. Remembering the length made me despise reading the book. The story seems to drag on forever and it left me high and dry waiting for something to happen. When I finally started to near page 650 or so, I felt more motivated to finish it and I found myself somewhat enjoying the content again. Nothing about the writing had changed, it was just the fact that I saw myself close to being done and I was eager to finish it.

The other good thing about it was that no matter how long the break I took was, I still had a vivid memory of the last thing I read which I guess I can say was because of the length of the detailing that the author used. When it comes to whether I liked this book or just wanted to finish it, I would have to say both. I genuinely did enjoy the storyline itself and in my opinion, the characters were very developed and three-dimensional. The reason I disliked reading it is because it was way too long and there was an abundance of unnecessary details that seemed to be interminable. The book did not really keep me interested but I believe if it were a little more condensed, it would have been more enjoyable.