The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt produces a novel roughly every ten years. And they’re worth the wait. Having read The Secret History and The Little Friend several years ago, it has taken me almost a decade to pick up The Goldfinch. Heft is a factor - there are only a few times a year one might be motivated to read an 850+ page novel. Going through a distracted period recently, my usual move might have been to pick up a slim novel, but it’s not the size that matters, is it, it’s whether the book draws you in completely. And this one did. Theo Decker is thirteen when the novel begins. He lives with his mother in New York City, his father no longer in the picture. One morning on their way to his school for a disciplinary meeting, they stop by at the museum because they have some time - this is one of his mother’s favourite places. On that fateful morning, as they come to the end of their visit, an explosion rips through the museum. Theo is one of very few survivors and even as he makes his way to safety, he does something inexplicable - he takes something, a tiny painting.

Through the rest of the novel we follow Theo as he struggles to come to terms with his life altering loss. He is unmoored and while he does find kindness and friendship, he gets into trouble many times, always grappling with the question of what he truly cares about and why. The Goldfinch, the painting by Dutch artist Carel Fabiritius is the tiny beating heart of the novel - a small bird chained to its feeding box, perched against a whitewashed wall. Very few of Fabritius’s works have survived - he died in the gunpowder explosion that devastated the town of Delft on 12 October 1654. The Goldfinch survived, somwhow, and is, today, one of the most famous paintings in the world. Theo’s obsession with it is the core of Tartt's novel. 

The narrative can be a bit slow at times, but it did not deter me from finishing this wonderfully written novel.

And if this whets your appetite and you want to read more about The Goldfinch and its creator whose life was tragically cut short, we would highly recommend Thunderclap by Laura Cumming. We have written about this book before, so please click here to read what we had to say about it.