The Goldfinch : Did it Deserve the Pulitzer? 

Thank you so much for watching and for your kind words. They make the effort, writing, and research all worthwhile.

I also read all of Tartt’s novels last year. I really enjoy her style, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Thank you for watching. So glad to know my reviews were helpful.

Thank you for your kind words and welcome to my channel. ☺️

Thank you for watching!

Thank you for watching. Let me know your thoughts when you get to read The Goldfinch. The Secret History is my favourite Tartt novel I think, but I do love all her works for different reasons. I can’t wait to read what she puts out next.

Thanks, Brandon.

Thanks, Micheal. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts if you ever do read some Tartt.

I've read 64 books this year, and the two Tartt books I read (the secret history and the goldfinch) are in the top 5 of all of them for me. Have you read them yet? Since your comment was 10 months ago. I find a lot of the criticisms of her work to be really pretentious, while claiming her work itself is pretentious. I wish more people could just appreciate a thing for what it is. Her work has spoken to me deeply, especially the goldfinch. Probably because of the themes of traumatic childhood and addiction etc. Maybe it's hard to see the value without those experiences, idk. I'd love to hear what you thought of them though!

@@MissSeaShell sadly I still haven’t!

Thank you for watching. Tartt’s novel always make me sit and think about them for awhile.

If you ever read her work I recommend reading it in consecutive order. It’s what I did and it really left me feeling conflicted and a bit confused with the Goldfinch. I’m sure my theory is not mainstream, but Tartt is no hack, so I trust she did it on purpose. There has been a lot of expectations placed on her right from her first novel considering the advance the publisher gave her, but she is reclusive. She only comes out to promote her book during first publication and then she disappears again. I think she is an artist and so I think she is talking to both the reader and her critics in The Goldfinch. But that’s just my opinion. Thank you for watching. Let me know you thoughts if you decide to read her.

Tartt really gets me thinking.

OMG! This may be the best comment I’ve ever received. LMAO!! Tartt with the mic drop! Bravo 👏👏👏

If I was judging Donna Tartt’s novels based on just the writing, my ranking would be: 1. The Secret History 2. The Little Friend 3. The Goldfinch Theo made some very poor choices, but he was a very flawed person. Everyone was flawed, which was good. I liked Boris. Lol!! I liked the theme of stunted development that one could see in all the characters. There is what everyone sees and then there is the prisoner inside, trapped in their own world , just like the Goldfinch.

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Its funny how one of the most memorable things of The Goldfinch for me was Theo's mom. I have such a clear picture in my mind of that beautiful , cool, cultivated woman, trying to make ends meet for his son. How it made me sad thinking what a shame that life was cut short. And loved the humanity of the guys at the building, the doorman, janitor, etc. Theres some great things about this book, it just didnt grab me as i was expecting but still very happy i read it.

@@carlosbranca8080 I agree, I somehow didn’t connect with it as much as I did with Tartt’s other two novels, but I still enjoyed reading it. Those lobby guys felt so real. As if I knew those guys in real life. Same thing with Boris. For all the critics calling those characters cliche, I know those people in real life. So what does that say? Boris gets a lot of criticism especially, but ironically the criticisms of his character and how some would “fix” him would only make him 2 dimensional and more cliché. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That’s understandable, it’s pretty slow going there for awhile.

Awe! Thank you so much. I've never read any Yokomizo, but I looked it up and it sounds good. You will have to let me know what you think of it after you read it. I would love to get more Japanese authors on my radar. I made a spoiler free review of The Little Friend. That's one of my favourite novels but it's quite polarizing. Oooooweee! Sipping some vodka? Wait for me! 😉🙃

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I went on to read both the Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse. I realized on starting the later that I had actually seen a screen adaptation. Fortunately, my memory is below average so that seeing the movie did not detract from the reading experience. I would recommend that if you do read Yokomizo that The Inugami Curse is a better choice as it is much more fully developed story. I watched Joe Rose's interview of Tartt and now I definitely have to read something by her. After hearing that interview, I watched your commentary again.

Thank you so much.

I can't argue what deserves a prize and what doesn't but the critics always make me wonder about their process.

I haven't watched the film yet. I'll have to hunt it down.

Many people may enjoy heavy handed writing. I’m not a fan of it myself as it feels as if the writer is trying to speak directly to the reader instead of the story speaking to the reader. The only part I would consider heavy handed in the novel is the conversation Theo has with Boris at the end of the novel. It’s basically Boris talking for 2 whole pages and it shows us what the whole book and Theo’s journey was about. It’s conflicting because while I loved the conversation, it was very uncharacteristic of Boris’s character. He never spoke like that throughout the whole novel.(I think this conversation happens around page 740) How is the Goldfinch cliche? I saw it in the metaphors (I can’t remember the metaphors off the top of my head right now as it’s been a while since I read it) used in several places, but as I said, I think Tartt was being intentionally cliché as all art is a copy of reality. Some critics thought that the characters like Boris and the building staff were cliche also but I didn’t feel that way. My position about this book is not worthy or above anything. I was attempting to defend The Goldfinch against the critics who claim that it’s popularity means that fine literature is dying. I thought The Goldfinch was very self aware and that alone really impressed me. I think The Goldfinch *was* worthy of the Pulitzer as opposed to many of the critics I quoted. The fact that this book was a debate about the meaning of art and that critics refuse to call this book art even though it tackled these topics in very interesting and thought provoking ways is very ironic to me.