review written by Sue Major for the bookshow
Aged 13years, Theo Decker son of a loving
mother and feckless , absent father amazingly survives a terrorist bomb at a
local museum and art gallery. The bomb kills his mother ….a fact he doesn't at
first recognise....and he talks to an injured elderly man about a painting of
a captive goldfinch, which he
subsequently takes from the rubble. Theo
has no idea what this will get him into, but the reader has suspicions that it
will not be good!
He is taken in by the family of a friend,
and he is muddled and bewildered by schoolmates who reject his monosyllabic
strange behaviour....post-traumatic stress, I think. He is tormented by
memories of his mother and clings to the
small alluring painting of the goldfinch that most reminds him of her, and her
last moments with him. He moves through temporary home after home meeting amazing characters
along the way, getting involved with the criminal underworld and all the time concealing the painting. He
meets Boris , a Ukrainian, who attends his high school, and falls easily into
his world of drug-taking, theft and
excess. .His father appears on the scene and takes him in, and then there's
Pippa the girl of his dreams, who he meets and parts from throughout the story.
And there's Hobie to whom he returns again and again.
This novel is a big read. It is full of
surprises, strands and great characters, and it takes a time to get into and
enjoy. But my goodness it's worth it.
It's a very ambitious book that my review can't do justice to....it's a great book and Theo's twists and turns
through his teenage life are agony and ecstasy to read. It is sad and wistful and joyous all at the
same time. Donna Tartt took years to produce this her third novel..but it's
worth every moment .
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