Song of Solomon
Donna Tartt, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch, established herself as a major talent with The Secret History, which has become a contemporary classic. Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
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Community Reviews
I loved the beginning of this book so much. The beginning is a 5; I thought I'd found a new favorite. But the book gets increasingly more stressful and the characters grow more hateful and the second half I was just eager for the book to end.
This is one of the most stuffy and long-winded books I've ever read.
That was my original thought, as I looked down to see that I was only 3% through the book when I could have sworn I was at least 20% through. If you would have told me at that point that I would end up really enjoying this book, I would have called you crazy. And a liar. And probably something that would need asterisks in place of letters.
It was a long (and sometimes exhausting) journey. It was a march through characters that I truly disliked from start to finish. It was a cruel vortex sucking me in and distracting me from things I should have been doing (Oh, the house is a disaster? Don't care. We're out of clean clothes and food and water? Don't care!).
I knew early on that I could not - and that I would not - identify with the characters. A couple small differences between us?:
1. I've never smoked pot and gotten sky high before a funeral.
2. I've never murdered anyone. Although I did once run over a family of raccoons that was crossing the road late at night.
The characters ARE the book. There is no real explanation for their actions, no "Mommy and Daddy didn't pay enough attention to me" excuses, but there really didn't need to be. I didn't want them to be someone that I could know. I loved that they were something so foreign to me. These intellectual, spoiled, trust-fund brats with no sense of consequence who loitered around an old East Coast campus and an old unoccupied estate because there really is nothing they need to be doing. I like my books to take me somewhere I'll never be. I don't read to be where I already am.
For a long time, I felt the book was inappropriately lengthy. Now I think it was necessary. Necessary to push what awful things were done out of your mind. Necessary to forget how callous, how EVIL words and actions were. Necessary to evoke some empathy for these characters you found to be despicable not-so-long ago. Not a LOT of empathy, mind you, but enough that you wonder what kind of witchcraft this Donna Tartt is practicing on you.
Except in the movies (Knute Rockne, All-American) I don't know if I've ever seen such a bravura performance.
That is this book. A bravura performance.
That was my original thought, as I looked down to see that I was only 3% through the book when I could have sworn I was at least 20% through. If you would have told me at that point that I would end up really enjoying this book, I would have called you crazy. And a liar. And probably something that would need asterisks in place of letters.
It was a long (and sometimes exhausting) journey. It was a march through characters that I truly disliked from start to finish. It was a cruel vortex sucking me in and distracting me from things I should have been doing (Oh, the house is a disaster? Don't care. We're out of clean clothes and food and water? Don't care!).
I knew early on that I could not - and that I would not - identify with the characters. A couple small differences between us?:
1. I've never smoked pot and gotten sky high before a funeral.
2. I've never murdered anyone. Although I did once run over a family of raccoons that was crossing the road late at night.
The characters ARE the book. There is no real explanation for their actions, no "Mommy and Daddy didn't pay enough attention to me" excuses, but there really didn't need to be. I didn't want them to be someone that I could know. I loved that they were something so foreign to me. These intellectual, spoiled, trust-fund brats with no sense of consequence who loitered around an old East Coast campus and an old unoccupied estate because there really is nothing they need to be doing. I like my books to take me somewhere I'll never be. I don't read to be where I already am.
For a long time, I felt the book was inappropriately lengthy. Now I think it was necessary. Necessary to push what awful things were done out of your mind. Necessary to forget how callous, how EVIL words and actions were. Necessary to evoke some empathy for these characters you found to be despicable not-so-long ago. Not a LOT of empathy, mind you, but enough that you wonder what kind of witchcraft this Donna Tartt is practicing on you.
Except in the movies (Knute Rockne, All-American) I don't know if I've ever seen such a bravura performance.
That is this book. A bravura performance.
dark academia, writing style, and the characters.
the vibe surrounding the story and the beauty of each word written.
needless i say more?
Very, VERY overwritten. Got boring in the middle. Good book, but too long. Unnecessary story line that only added to confusion.
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