The Secret History (Vintage Contemporaries)

This book is an experience on several levels, some of which occur outside of the book but undoubtedly affect one's reading. For instance, to me, part of the experience involves pausing to consider and awe at the fact that a twentysomething wrote words others might not even approach in a full lifetime. More than that, though, the uniqueness of reading The Secret History is both its content and delivery (duh). Who else would think to write such a modern book peppered with ancient references and archaic verbiage, let alone succeed at such an endeavor? One of Tartt's key skills, in this work and to a lesser extent the work that follows, is found in the reader's relation to her work, not exactly suspending disbelief but in that ballpark. There's a certain ease and naturalness with which you eventually accept the entirely pretentious and stilted way these characters talk and the erratic oscillations the writer and plot and characters take, swinging between topics or actions or moods of maximal intensity and passion on one end and maximal casualness and callousness on the other. The book is funny, the plot is electric, the tone is somewhat austere and sharp, the range of vocabulary used is unparalleled. What I find as equally impressive as any other praises one could heap onto this book and how impressive it is for a writer under thirty to have penned its pages, is the voice. Though obviously this book was written over a decade, the reader experiences it all at once, and thus can't help but notice and marvel at the clarity of style and the writer's grasp of what their style is and how they relate to it and how they can play to their talents. Simple things like liberally using em dashes or use of obscure words or allusions to esoteric items of a classics education, Tartt knows how to use her tools to their fullest extent. Most of all, as noted, the plot moves, the story itself is fascinating, and the first page, with its brilliant flipping of the murder-mystery genre, hooks you immediately. A must read, though perhaps one you may never read again. I say the latter because there are probably ways to read this book less charitably, which I think probably comes from second and third readings. I can see how someone might tire of the writing style or find it a little too consciously hewn or that Tartt sometimes seems more interested or equally interested in impressing the reader or justifying her place in the writing world or her status as a writer than she is interested in writing a good book, or that this book too desperately wants to be literary or a great work of literature or one deserving of more than just popular/commercial success and general acclaim. Reminds me of something an English professor once told me which was that my essay sounded too much like a writer who knew he was writing an essay, that he read it and thought I must've been thinking while writing "AH! I am writing an English essay! I must show you that I am writing an English essay!" But again, I don't read it that way and refuse to change my opinion or taint its positive tilt through further rereading.

i would read the terms of service for a smart fridge if it were written by donna tartt

4 out of 5 stars, what a ride.

First and foremost, I would like to adress the criticism that this book is slow or boring.
I genuinely think it is a medium- paced story, taking into account the genre the book goes for.
If you judge the pace of a book solely on how many " action scenes" there are ( not only meaning cars blowing up but also big twists, in your face moments, blood, sex, etc.) then yes, it is a slow paced story. However, as a psychological thriller, mainly focused on the moral decay of young adults in the face of a murder, then it is medium. A lot happens here : Richard fighting its way to get to this elite college, Richard trying so hard to get into Julian's classes and meet this mysterious group of young scholars. Him again surviving a deadful winter and almost dying, and the end, my god... I can go on and on and on.

It was maybe 50-60 pages too long. The prose and writing style was good, but could have been better regarding the repetition of words and the flow of the dialogues :
1 ) lexically - i said, she said, we said and then I said.
2) The rythm of the dialogues overall. I really didn't like the fact that every silence was told to us after the fact, and not experienced.

Also, for a book this long, I couldn’t understand why some very important scenes weren’t introduced earlier. Instead, they were suddenly dropped in only when they became relevant, which made it feel as if the author thought, “Shoot, I should have mentioned that before—well, I’ll just put it here.” If those scenes had been introduced more organically (as some others are in this book), I’m sure the surprise would have been far more rewarding. Almost like Richard himself says while lying in bed: that “oh! oh! oh!” moment we get when all the pieces finally click into place.

Also, at times, the constant references to historical figures, obscure poems, artists, authors, or cultural events and shows that only an American reader might fully understand came across as a bit snobbish on the author’s part—or like an unnecessary, cheap trick. Especially since they were almost always used just to describe a person or a place. It felt a bit overdone.

Yes, I know—it’s technically Richard who’s writing the book. He’s an unreliable narrator, and not exactly a skilled writer either, but that feels like too easy an excuse to shield Donna Tartt from criticism. After all, the guy graduated in English literature; he really shouldn’t be this sloppy as a storyteller.

But I gave it a 4 ! So why ? Because I enjoyed the book very much, even though I have all the reasons to dislike it (the plot kept me in mostly). It was like a fever dream, I wanted to know everything and more. The relationship between the characters, although unlikable in every way possible (every one, save you Francis, poor chap) was so intriguing, so eerie, so unstable as if I was on a ship with cracks all over the place, I just couldn't look away. After all beauty is terror....

The main cause why I took out a star is not for the reasons I gave earlier, but mainly because I was really disappointed in the fact that we didn't get to know or interact with Julian more (or at all).

In conclusion, The Secret History is a book you love to hate and you hate to love.

again, an amazing book by Donna Tartt, and again at least 200 pages too long. the entire middle section can be resumed as thus: "Richard, wake up, where is Charles (or Francis, or Bunny, or Henri)?" I felt poor Richard needed his sleep and I needed to be able to move on with the story...

It's really a 4.75. This book can truly, be described as "dark academia" and it definitely fucked with my head. It was a behemoth to get through, the only female character in the group was underdeveloped, but The Secret History eventually got me thinking. I wanted to dislike it because I dislike ambiguous endings but it has unfortunately wormed its way into my head (not my heart).