on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
- Get link
- Other Apps
Rating: 2.5/5
Pages: 784
Started: 12 September
Finished: 28 September
Summary:
Theodore Decker is ten when, on the way to a meeting with the school principal, he and his mom stop for a few minutes in a museum that, a few minutes later, is the site of a terrorist bombing. During the attack, Theo accidentally connects with a dying stranger, loses his mother, and accidentally steals a tiny yet priceless painting of a goldfinch from the museum's crumbling ruins. Reeling from his mother's death, Theo struggles to adjust to his new life living with his friend's wealthy family, and has no chance to return the painting to the authorities. The longer he keeps the painting--through mindless days of grief in his new home, through his meeting the business partner of the dying man from the museum and his subsequent venture into the business of antique furniture, through his being shipped off to Arizona to live with his addict father, through his own cycles of addiction enabled by Boris the Russian immigrant--the more he falls in love with it, and the less he can imagine giving it up. Yet, just like his father, Theo is far too good at digging holes, and when his mistakes start to catch up to him, he is forced to face the harsh truth of his own place in the world.
Thoughts:
This book was miserable to read. Though the beginning was intriguing, and I can certainly see how the writing won the Pulitzer, I found the experience of reading the final two-thirds of this book to be depressing, demoralizing, and just generally unsatisfactory. The novel meanderingly followed Theadore's life, meaning it lacked the structure of a plot arc or a hero's journey, and the meandering made the book feel directionless. Perhaps that was the point; the protagonist was not a particularly hopeful character. But it made the novel unappealing, with far too many extraneous scenes that could have been cut to keep the book at below 700 pages.
The characters were distinct and well-developed; I will admit I was impressed by how specific each person was, and I feel like I did really get to know them. Boris was especially well-done, from the accent that came through impressively distinctly in his dialogue to the predictably unpredictable choices he made. However, with the exception of Howie, none of the characters were people that I actually wanted to get to know. They were all train wrecks, with limited morals and too great a propensity for making mistakes. Watching characters fall into addiction and crime is hard to do, and I found that the format of this book made it even harder to take--there were no exciting moments scattered throughout, no scenes of triumph to balance out the tragedy. The novel was just morose and depressing from start to finish. Reading it felt like watching the news, which is not something I want in my fiction.
There were also lots of details that didn't quite line up--Theo left his fiancée the night of their engagement party, disappeared, and basically never talked to her again? The book was written to Theo's childhood love, but he also kept a journal of letters to his mother that he never mentioned before the very end? That felt very slapped-on-at-the-end. Theo's fiancée had no problems with his obvious obsession with his childhood love?
All of these problems might have been less of an issue if the book were shorter and the ending more satisfying, but although there was a relatively clever ending, it was neither impactful enough nor lengthy enough to make all the suffering of the rest of the book feel worthwhile. The pacing of the end struck me as very odd--in very few pages, it was announced that an off-screen character had solved all the problems and everything would be okay again, and then after a few dozen more pages of Theo nihilistically yet artistically philosophizing, the book was done. I found both the logistics and pacing of the end to be quite lazy, to be honest, and too rushed compared to how lengthy the rest of the novel was.
I do not think this was a wholly bad book, but I do believe it was a wholly unpleasant one. As much as I like tragedy and misery, this was too much for me to handle, which is why it took so long for me to read. While I do feel that the book has some merit in some ways, I will only be recommending this novel in the future to people on whom I wish a distinctly unpleasant experience.
Quotes:
"Popping out new fodder for the grave"
Words:
Hausfrau (n) a german housewife
Chthonic (adj) concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld
Fatuous (adj) silly and pointless
Indolent (adj) lazy
Endogenous (adj) having an internal cause or origin