Round one goes to...
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
I always forget that I have a Kindle. I'm not the biggest fan of them, I really prefer the physicality of a book but I still have one. So when I was given the chance to read Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch for free (no it is not illegal don't worry), I jumped at the chance and thought why the hell not. The book has received huge attention recently, having picked up multiple awards, including the coveted Pulitzer Prize, as well as having the film rights for it purchased. So things are looking pretty good for Tartt at the moment.
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| Donna Tartt's impeccable third novel |
I didn't really know too much about the novel when I first downloaded it. Tartt's third novel follows Theo Decker, a man who at the start we can already tell is an extremely troubled young man. The first 50 pages follow him as he is in Amsterdam scouring newspapers and the news for names he recognises. Then Tartt takes us right to the start of Theo's difficult childhood, where he loses his mother in a bomb blast in New York's Metropolitan museum, a blast he also gets caught up in and survives. Tartt injects an eerie emptiness in Theo from the outset, from the stumbling little boy lost in a wrecked museum, to walking through a room full of the dead (the living have been evacuated), there is a sense of something not being right in him from the outset. There is so much tradegy to come for young Theo including not having anyone to rely on except a school friend who he lost touch with.
Words cannot really do this book justice in my opinion, only the ones that Tartt has written so masterfully. There are so many brilliant and original characters, including my favourite Boris, whom Theo befriends when he eventually ends up living in Las Vegas' barren outskirts with his father. It is quite sad to read the lives of two boys who have been abandoned to grow up without any guidance. As they both head towards delinquency, there are flashes of things they are far to young to understand, including taking drugs, selling drugs and drinking copious amounts of vodka. These go onto affect them into there older years, where Tartt pulls them apart before throwing back together once they are older. But in typical Boris and Theo style, they manage to get themselves into more trouble.
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| Stunning painting, stunning novel. |
The whole book also surrounds this image of The Goldfinch, an exquisite painting by Carel Fabritius, which Theo inadvertently takes from the scene of the explosion. It haunts him his whole life, and acts as a constant reminder of the tragedy of his youth and all that was taken from him. The enthralling climax to the book, taking place as it started in Amsterdam, will not disappoint. I won;t spoil it for you, but the painting, this thing that Theo doesn't let himself looks at and is constantly searched for by the art world, plays a central role to the entire ending. The last chapter was some of the best writing I have had the pleasure of reading all year. Please read this book, I couldn't put it down, well the Kindle down.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is published by Little, Brown in the UK.
The Secret Place by Tana French
Round two today goes to Tana French's new novel The Secret Place. There has been much hype surrounding the release of the novel, including a brilliant campaign from Hodder and Stougton, carrying the slogan of the entire novel and what kicks off the action 'I know who killed him'. Set in a boarding school where not all the girls stay and no one stays at the weekends, a message posted on 'The Secret Place', basically a glorified pin board, re- ignites an old murder case. A boy was found on the grounds of the girls school, brutally murdered with a garden hoe but no culprit was ever found. A year on, a message is posted on The Secret Place with his photo and the slogan. Doesn't it sound like every school girls dream to have an outlet to put all of your and others secrets? A place to pin up all the gossip? I mean it is a bit Mean Girls, but I'm hardly complaining about that!
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| The Secret Place- basically a bitchy pinboar |
The two detectives who are put onto the investigation, one from cold cases who has an attachment to the girl who brings him the evidence, and the other a tough bitch who is the new girl from the murder investigation team. They are a slightly cliched, even acting out the whole bad cop, good cop stereotype. But French makes it work, giving the teenage girls someone to stand up to and someone to feel like they have power over. I mean it bloody works in the novel... the girls can't stop dropping new information that was never revealed a year ago.
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| A bit too Mean Girls? |
The main culprits for the murder come down to two sets of girls, all of whom are supposed best friends, and they totally hate each other. French has that bitchy girl tone down to a t, I can't help but think she probably has or has had a teenage girl at some point in her life. But the naivety of the girls actions shines through, their reliance on boys and their appearances never falters. French has written such believable characters all of whom have traits that make them all different from each other. Sometimes it is hard to see differences in girls nowadays, but French brings them all to the forefront.
I have to say, it was very difficult to put this book down. The story takes place over the course of one day and in that day we learn about the entire case, new evidence not previously known and by the 10pm, we even know who did it. I didn't care for the detectives much, but the setting is perfect, there is always a sense that the detectives are being watched, whether it be distant parents, prying teenage girls or the stern mistress. Well done Tana French, well done for making me interested in crime fiction again.
The Secret Place by Tana French is published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK.
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K Rowling)
The third and final round today goes to The Cuckoo's Calling. Now this book hardly gained any attention until it was revealed that it was actually written by J.K Rowling. I find that quite sad really. But hey that is the world we live in. When it eventually came out, sales figures rose by a massive 500%, and it confused me as to why she bothered. I know she wants to change direction and not get pigeon holed as that woman who wrote Harry Potter, but I think that's a badge she can never lose. Stick to your name love, it clearly sells better.
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| A.K.A J.K Rowling |
The Cuckoo's Calling marks yet another departure for Rowling as she moves on from young adult fiction from Harry Potter, to contemporary drama with The Casual Vacancy, to crime drama in her latest offerings (she has written a second after this one called The Silkworm). Set at a failing detective agency, the novel opens with new temp Robin starting a new job, fulfilling a childhood dream. With a weeks' work with Coromon Strike, the ex- military man turned private detective, Robin goes into her new job rather looking forward to it. She hardly has her expectations met when her boss, a man who sleeps in his office and receives constant death threats, is the private detective at hand.
The case that makes up the plot for Rowling's first venture into crime surrounds that of the apparent suicide of a supermodel called Luna. Coromon is hired by her step brother John Bristow to re- investigate, as he thinks a murder has taken place. Everything points to suicide, that is until Coromon begins to dig deeper and deeper, going over everything again and interviewing everyone involved. It can become quite tiresome reading endless question and answer, and Rowling slips into this repetitive structure every now and then. She has is obssessed with racial stereotypes it seems. I said the same about The Casual Vacancy. It just feels awkward J.K.
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| Better luck next time for crime writing? |
I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't really enjoy about this novel. But I really didn't. I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt but there is just far too many cliches in it for me. From the gay fashioner designer, to the supermodel who likes to party and has a loser boyfriend or the poor black birth mother who lives in Hackney, there is something that doesn't read write about it. I get it is her first stab at a crime novel, and of course there s plenty of dramatic and entertaining moments, but I found all of the characters annoying and much of the structure the same. If you like your crime fiction, then it is perfect for you. It has everything you need. It has murder. Lies. Red herrings. Dead endings, Christ it even has the cliched ending of the big reveal, and even the overdone meeting between murderer and detective to the end the whole thing. I get what you are trying to do Robert or J.K or whoever the hell you are, and it was a nice first try. But it just didn't do much for me. Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't a fan. I'll give The Silkworm a go at some point to see if the writing has improved, but for now, thank you J.K, thank you for making me lose interest in crime. Again.
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith is published by Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown in the UK.
So there you go. Three very different books, but all brilliant in their own ways. For me I would pick The Goldfinch as the stand out book, I was still thinking about it for days after. But then the two crime novels also have their own methods of entertainment. The Secret Place is pure entertainment but not stupid and over the top murder, just plain, simple girl power becoming too much.
