Reading List: The Goldfinch
What are you guys reading lately?
I've gone through a bunch of books this summer, including Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Bittersweet, The Vacationers, The Fixed Trilogy (bad romance a la 50 Shades of Grey), This is Where I Leave You, and currently The Goldfinch.
I feel like The Goldfinch is one of the 'novels of the summer'. Everyone I speak to is reading it. Clocking in at over 700 pages, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't daunted by it, especially since it centers around a piece of art, something that I'm not really so into. Lots of you chimed in on Instagram that I should just go for it. Once I started the book and got through the first few pages, I was hooked. A Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Goldfinch is a bit overly descriptive (which is the only time the story lulls), but I adore the way that the author portrays the acuteness of Theo's loss as he tries to rebuild his life following his mother's death. I also adore that the story is set in New York City.
I'm still early on, but am already trying to sneak in time to read a few pages here and there. If you're interested in reading, here's a synopsis:
Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
I think that following this, I may start The Outlander...have any of you guys read that one? I know it's a long series and a new TV drama on Starz, so I find it appealing, yet also daunting.
3 Comments | August 21, 2014 | Share Article | Email Article | in Book Club Print Article | Permalink
Reader Comments (3)
Hi, my summer reads have been, A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Off the Couch; same author. Almost half way through Cutting For Stone, it's a big one. Will pick up The Goldfinch after. Happy Reading!
I have read the entire Outlander series and HIGHLY suggest it! Don't let the "time travel" stop you if you don't usually read that type of thing because it's such a small part of the whole story!
I am so glad that you jumped in and that you're really into the book now! The Goldfinch is the best book I've read in years, I absolutely loved it! Also - I'm very impressed with your homemade butter skills! :)