The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Who knew this would have a happy ending ... well, considering. I know it's morose (a word I use for all Donna Tartt books) but it all worked out well in the end. Spoiler? Heh. I mean seriously, I thought of all possible scenarios for a plot like this to end and although this ending was one of those scenarios, I didn't keep my hopes up ... but there you go.

Normally I read for the story over prose. For Donna Tartt it's the other way around. Everyone who read Donna Tartt before would know (but may not agree) that she drags. How else would you keep a story with very few characters going for 700+ pages? If I read for her story I'd find myself riled up by page 10 only to be let down in the next 158. Her prose and ... philosophy (?) I really enjoy. Her stories are out of this world (as some reviewers would say, it's very unrealistic) but the words behind them I'm sure people would be able to relate to. For example, I don't plan to steal any paintings but I do agree that "life is a catastrophe". Wait-what? Lol.

On another note, anyone ever noticed how all of her stories have a family-whose-old-money-eventually-faded-after-either-a-disaster-or-a-few-generations-of-mismanagement-angle? It's so easy for her to write about the high society, is it? Just saying.

Four stars because, yes the story dragged but, I loved her prose. I especially loved the last 13 pages where Theo just blabbed a good kind of ponderous blabbing (whatever that is) and I am not being sarcastic here.