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  1. Seven Crowns

    Seven Crowns Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    The Goldfinch. A narrative disaster?

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Seven Crowns, Mar 7, 2019.

    I've never read a Pulitzer that I gave less than 4 stars to, but this Goldfinch book . . . I don't know. I'm not going to say anything that's not on the intro blurb, but here's the basic setup: "Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother."

    I'm only 15% of the way through this book and I've been paying very close attention to the parts that are awful. For me, getting through the 5-10% range of the book was like crawling through a landfill and cataloging every find with a high-powered microscope. The breadth of detail is not believable. I don't mean that the world isn't authentic, but rather that there's not a chance in hell that a 13-year-old kid is going to see these descriptions. It is detail upon detail upon detail with backstories and asides and yet more detail. It's like falling into a kaleidoscope of description. There's not single point of importance because everything is rococo and rhinestones. It's relentless.

    The narrative strategy has been done before. There's a child MC in 1st person POV, and so that limits his insights. So to overcome this, the story is told in retrospect by the now adult MC. That way, the reader gets adult insights and not 800 pages (yes, you read that right!) of teenage angst. "To Kill a Mockingbird" does this well. But Scout is not some sort of OCD savant who sees all and pontificates on everything's inner meaning. So it must be the future narrator filling in the details, but it's not believable. The kid would have to remember everything for his future self to later say. It's plainly stated in the text that the MC can't remember the people he met at the bomb blast even though his future narrator describes all their details in the book. (There's one death that is drawn out so ridiculously I thought it was a Monty Python skit, and yes, the MC sees and describes it all, every gurgle and sigh. I was yelling at the book. F'ing die already!)

    The kid has the observational skills of Columbo and a memory like a supercomputer. There is no chance that he understands what he's saying. For example:

    "Through the dusty windows I saw Staffordshire dogs and majolica cats, dusty crystal, tarnished silver, antique chairs and settees upholstered in sallow old brocade, an elaborate faience birdcage, miniature marble obelisks atop a marble-topped pedestal table and a pair of alabaster cockatoos."​

    Exhausting. I don't buy that the future narrator is filling this in. A 13-year-old boy will not know about: Staffordshire, majolica, settees, sallow, brocade, faience, obelisks (ok, maybe this one), alabaster. Even if he did know what they were (he wouldn't), none of it would be important enough to register. His perspective that of a child, not an archaeologist/fashion-designer/wine-lover/interior-decorator/professor/gourmand. (He seems to be all of these things.) And this is just one line. Remember this kid was in grade school just a few years ago.

    So the Pulitzer Committee thinks this was the best book of 2014. I see the "call to adventure" point coming up, at the 120 page mark (good lord), and I'm hoping the author focuses on plot rather than setting. Maybe that will redeem it.

    Has anyone here finished this thing? Was it worth it?
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2019
  2. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    I haven't read The Goldfinch at all. I did love Donna Tartt's The Little Friend, but couldn't get into her previous novel The Secret History (the one about the university students) that won major prizes. I ended up getting about a fourth of the way through, and quit. I don't know. It was well-written, but just didn't engage me.

    I often find literary books that win major prizes just aren't my thing. I must be a philistine or something.
     
  3. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    Thanks for the warning. Sounds like one of those authors in love with his/her own vocabulary. Way too purpley for me.
     
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  4. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I really struggled with The Goldfinch, although actually I liked the start of it pretty well. It all went downhill from there, for me. So if you're already having trouble... run!
     
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  5. Seven Crowns

    Seven Crowns Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I've gotten up to the 25% mark. There's actually a plot now, and that helps immensely.

    I'm so torn by it all. At times it's very, very good, and when the author is elegant in an image, she can be a genius. The dialog between the two kids (the MC and his buddy) is very nice. I like the socialite mother's talk too. It's dead on. But sometimes things just fall apart. The narration is still my biggest problem. I don't believe it's authentic. And there are places in the text that just don't seem right. I shouldn't find things like this:

    “How’d you learn how to do all this?” I said, after a timid pause.
    He laughed. “<a paragraph of blah blah blah>”
    “Welty taught you?”
    “<blah blah blah>—” he laughed—“<a paragraph of blah blah blah>”
    “Your dad never gave you the money you earned?”
    He laughed, warmly. “<a paragraph of blah blah blah>”
    <a normal dialog line>
    “All what?”
    He laughed. “<a paragraph of blah blah blah>”​

    I'm not kidding. That's actually in there. I just copy/pasted and cut the paragraph replies. (question/laugh/answer - - - question/laugh/answer - - - etc.) Now, I understand the rhetorical uses of repetition, but this isn't one of them. If I read this in a copy of Goosebumps, I wouldn't care, but . . . come on. I don't care how exuberant the character is, you find a different way to show it.

    Or I find a line like this:

    Mrs. Barbour was from a society family with an old Dutch name, so cool and blonde and monotone that sometimes she seemed partially drained of blood. She was a masterpiece of composure; nothing ever ruffled her or made her upset, and though she was not beautiful her calmness had the magnetic pull of beauty—a stillness so powerful that the molecules realigned themselves around her when she came into a room.​

    . . . and I want to weep. It's so close to profound. I blame the editor.

    Mrs. Barbour was from a society family with an old Dutch name, so cool and blonde and monotone that sometimes she seemed partially drained of blood. She was a masterpiece of composure; nothing ever ruffled her or made her upset, and though she was not beautiful [comma] her calmness had the magnetic pull of beauty—a stillness so powerful that the molecules realigned themselves around her when she came into a room.​

    I mean, you have this fantastic phrase "cool and blonde and monotone" (tricolon + polysyndeton) and so the phrase following it can't waffle. It should be direct. You can't do another triplet, this time a squishy "sometimes seemed partially." The whole line comes stuttering to an end with a triple step-away from a wonderful image. I have other issues with that line too, and I shouldn't be finding this type of thing in a Pulitzer. Like that clunky ending that sounds like something from Trek's LCdr. Data:

    the molecules realigned themselves around her when she came into a room.
    (should be)
    the air/ether/world folded around her when she came into a room.​

    It's not hard to fix. It should probably even be flipped for cause/effect instead of effect/cause, especially since the effect is more striking.

    when she came into a room the world folded around her.
    (Possibly with a comma in there.) And remember, these are descriptions from a 13-year-old. I don't buy it. So like I say, I'm torn.
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2019
  6. Hammer

    Hammer Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    How funny -- when I read the OP I was immediately put in mind of The Secret History. I haven't tried the Goldfinch but struggled most of the way through Secret History until I finished, realised that I had quite enjoyed it, and immediately read it again!


    The book sailed majestically through the air with the grace and precision of Milvus Milvus, the red kite, but splashed into the river like a duck as Hammer showed his dissaproval in a time-honoured way...
     
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  7. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    That's really interesting. Do you have any idea why you changed your mind? When you read it again, were you happy with the whole thing, or did you have the same problems at first?
     
  8. Hammer

    Hammer Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I think it's a slow burn and works better as a slow read.

    The first time I read it, I was waiting for something to happen; second time around I knew the cast much better and could enjoy Tarrt's delicate characterisation more.


    ETA - I was much the same with Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita - I know that's a translation but it took me ages to get into it, now it is one of my "desert island" reads. Maybe I'm just a bit slow... (c:
     
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  9. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    I might give it another go. I think what put me off is I didn't like or identify with any of the characters. Not sure why.

    I can't say I 'liked' the characters in The Little Friend either, but I thought they were really well done. Tartt pulls off a big no-no in the story, by the way. Breaks a major rule that should never be broken. Except when it works! :)
     
  10. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    I'm also about 1/4 done, and I've actually quite liked it. I don't think I even stopped to think about the authenticity of the voice but rather, the author is taking some liberties to create moods and images. But yeah, if one is looking for a realistic experience, it's probably not the novel for them.
     

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