[Book Review] The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt's widely acclaimed fictional novel "The Goldfinch" bridges into a visual treat through its beautiful and elaborate depiction of each and every scene. This winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014 swings somewhere between suspense thriller and realistic fiction.

The partially visible goldfinch peeking through the torn part of a realistic looking paper is attractive enough to grab your attention. The use of charcoal chalk font brings out the fact that this book is something related to paintings. The paperback cover feels so smooth to touch that I instantly fell in love with this one. This sophisticated cover manages to cover up the slightly ugly truth that it is a large book (more than 800 pages). I guarantee you that it is uncomfortable to read as much uncomfortable as it looks because managing heavy books lying on bed is a challenge I never came to overcome. With all that said, let's move onto the novel.

In a nutshell, Theo Decker is a devoted son of an equally devoted mother who is admired by everyone. When Theo loses his mother at a terrorist attack in an art gallery, he manages to gain the painting of Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch which draws him to a series of events and into a complex stressed lifestyle. The journey of Theo through these events gives him the definition of life and living.

Theo is a careful, innocent character while his friend Boris is a complete opposite package. He is carefree, mischievous and flirty. Eventhough they are different in many ways, they also share many common interests. Theo is a likeable character with whom we can relate to the most. Donna Tartt gave us a vivid picture of each character and their interests. 

Donna Tartt strikes the right chord with the usage of elaborate language as this is a first person narrative. Her concentration on details and description is like hearing the words which Theo thinks. Many of the references and similarities are often quite interesting to relate to. The one major problem of this book is that it gets unbearably boring at some part into the book that I felt like putting it back on my bookshelf. Overall, it's a not such a bad read but not a must read. To wrap it up, "The Goldfinch" is a novel focusing on every bit of detail as possible and if you like paintings, drugs and furniture making, then you might want to grab this one.