Personally, I can recognize TarttвЂ™s underlying talent while still feeling like she was heavy handed with detail and frill. вЂњвЂThe GoldfinchвЂ™ is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind.вЂќД«ut not all critical and public reception of The Goldfinch have been favorable, as detailed in a July 2014 Vanity Fair article. Stephen King had this to say about the novel: ThereвЂ™s no question that Tartt is a talented writer after all, The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize and has been heralded as a Dickensian masterpiece. Lows include the length, the pace, most of TheoвЂ™s inner monologues/stream of consciousness rants, the Kitty sub-plot, and the surprisingly backseat role the painting took for much of the novel. If I ever make it to the Netherlands, this painting will be high on my list of things to see. I also like that the novel is based on a real painting, and was inspired to do more background research into the life of Carel Fabritius. вЂњBut sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping, and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illuminated in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.вЂќ Highs of the novel include Hobie, Pippa, Popper the dog, descriptions of grief, a surprising twist (or perhaps IвЂ™m just naГЇveВ ), and some poignant-albeit disingenuous-closing reflections from Theo. Throughout the subsequent 700+ pages, I regularly felt like the plot was moving at an achingly slow pace. The premise is interesting enough, but I was disappointed by how much time Tartt dedicated to Theo wandering around the museum in the aftermath of the bomb. The explosion leaves Theo badly injured and disoriented, and in his confusion he steals one of his motherвЂ™s favorite paintings: The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. If youвЂ™ve read the book jacket synopsis or heard anything about the book, you know that his mother passes away after a bomb goes off in the museum. The novel opens with the main character, Theo, visiting a museum with his mother. Unfortunately, I knew within the first 50 pages of The Goldfinch that I was in trouble. I expected to love this book, given that itвЂ™s marketed as a character-driven saga revolving around a stolen work of art (if youвЂ™ve spent even a little time on this blog, you know I love a good art crime). He is alienated, unmoored, and in love-and drawn inexorably by the powers of that painting into a narrowing, dangerous circle.вЂќ

As an adult, Theo moves easily between the antiques store where he works, the drawing rooms of the rich, and the underworld of art. He is bewildered by his strange new home and, tormented by his longing for his mother, clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that has come into his possession. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue family. The nail where you fate is liable to catch and snag.вЂќД«ook Jacket Synopsis: вЂњTheo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Maybe for someone else, not a dealer, it wouldnвЂ™t be an object. вЂњEvery dealer and antiquaire recognizes them.

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