Our favorite book of 2013 (so far): The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Goldfinch, cover design by Keith Hayes. Php755 at National Bookstores.
Stephen King led us to The Goldfinch. In his NYT review of Donna Tartt’s third novel, he mentions Dickens, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an adolescent narrator suspended from school, and a little-known Dutch master—concepts which make a novel almost unbearably attractive to us. King also mentions the book’s toe-crushing heft, which would be annoying if he weren’t Stephen King and if our arms weren’t tired from reading this 771-page novel in bed. The e-book would be more convenient, except that every 50 pages we have to stop to give this book a big hug. We love it.
The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. Photo from The World According to Art.
We’re only halfway through The Goldfinch, but it’s already our favorite book of 2013. (No, we haven’t read The Secret History or The Little Friend.) Okay, it could still fall apart for us. And there are nearly two months left in the year. But we have to stop typing now because we need to get back to our reading.
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Speaking of arresting book designs, we’re waiting for
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 6th, 2013 at 11:10
Been saving this book as one of my Xmas gifts-to-self!
Arghhhh words escape me now but The Secret History is really really really good! Very much deserving of all the hype and praises.
November 9th, 2013 at 09:35
I like how she produces one major work per decade. I can’t wait for 2023.
The Little Friend does not get a lot of love but it deserves some respect too particularly since it evokes To Kill A Mockingbird and then deconstructs it.