Donna Tartt
1992
Around 560 pages
I love a good campus novel, and dammit, after the last couple entries, I deserve a treat, dammit! I really enjoyed this is as a unique detective story with unforgettable characters.
Richard Papen leaves his hometown to study literature at the elite Hampden College in New England. Richard cannot enroll in the classes of the Classics professor Julian Morrow, as he limits enrollment to a hand-picked clique. Richard works his way into the clique, and spends more time with the group, which includes twins Charles and Camilla, hypochondriac Francis, prodigy Henry, and mooch Bunny. Richard discovers that bizarre tensions exist in the group, and that they might be covering up a dark secret.
I feel like if A.S. Byatt wrote this story, it would be way too slow and erudite, but Tartt's first priority seemed to create an exciting and well-paced narrative. All of her literary allusions served the greater person of getting us to understand these characters inside and out.
What can I say? I like intellectual murderers. In theory, of course, this is all strictly academic...
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Tartt did not like the film adaptation of The Goldfinch, so there is doubt whether she would ever allow this to be on screen.
UP NEXT: The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
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