[UPDATED] #LitmusTest - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Tammie
Jun 5, 2017
5 min read

An introduction to #LitmusTest:

Let’s try something new. I’m not planning to do a traditional book review. Instead of writing my review post-read, I’m planning to do one mid-read.

Hopefully this will help me in 2 ways:

Get me to finish the review and to keep writing. I have a tendency to leave things halfway through completion.
I’m trying out my hypothesis to see if my attitude towards a book during a mid-read review will change drastically (for better or worse) after I’ve finished the book.

I’ve casually named my little theory after the typical chemistry experiment, the Litmus Test (LT). More aptly, I’m using its implications in political scenarios, where the test is used to reveal a decision of potential success or failure.

Extracting this theory for the reading of books, if I determine it to be a good read halfway through the book, and feel the same way after I complete it, the LT will be a successful one. Otherwise, if I feel that the book somehow took a turn for the worse, the LT will be a failure. Regardless, both scenarios will lead to an important conclusion – read more books to increase the sample size and prove more theories! Absolute win-win in any case, if you ask me.

That said, I feel that the LT shouldn’t be used freely. My rough criteria (I will finetune it as I go along) currently stands as: i) the book should be at least 500 pages long for me to consider doing a LT. Novellas or short stories logically can’t qualify because a LT wouldn’t do much of a difference to the review. And ii) it has to be fiction books, for now at least.

Let’s begin with a book I’m currently reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I’m new to Tartt and her writing, so I’m starting from a neutral ground.

The story, so far, is told in flashbacks. It opens with a young adult Theo, the protagonist. Theo reminisced firstly, of his last precious moments with his mother before she died in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of the Art, or the Met, which has one of the greatest art collections in the world, and a landmark in New York City.

Theo miraculously survived the blast and somehow smuggled out the titular ‘Goldfinch’ painting during his escape from the scene, which he misunderstood to be another bomb victim’s dying wish for the painting to be saved. Side note, I’m sincerely hoping bombing of the Met does not happen in reality because it will be a tragedy for mankind.

Young Theo quietly struggles over the years with coming to terms with his mother’s death. What stood out to me was the fact that Theo was very much aware that he was not grieving openly, something that the society had expected. His temporary stay at Andy Barbour’s home, a close friend from school, played a hand in overcoming his grief.

Unlike majority of stereotypical, mischievous schoolboys, the relationship between Andy and Theo was formal and mature, almost as if they were two adult roommates. Andy would willingly cover for Theo as he went out to meet with people connected to the victims of the Met bombings. Despite Theo’s brief encounter with the victims of the Met bombing, his actions were fuelled by curiosity. Who else survived? Were the survivors and families of victims grieving the same way? Theo eventually found a companion in Hobart, or Hobie, an ex-business partner of the dying victim that Theo spoke to.

Tartt’s depiction of pre-teen Theo, vaguely reminds me of Sam from Moonrise Kingdom:

Sam, caught in all seriousness, from Moonrise Kingdom

The differences are uncanny: Bespectacled, slightly dorky, and serious in nature. Sam was also perpetually in his scout’s uniform, just like Theo and his smart pants, which were deemed too uptight in laidback Las Vegas, when he moved over from New York. There, Theo meets Boris, another troubled teenager with a penchant for pharmaceuticals and vodka. Their adolescence spent together in Las Vegas was crucial in influencing decisions in Theo’s later life. The two quickly spiralled into a hedonistic life of drugs and alcoholism. Honestly, a large section of the book was dedicated to his years with Boris, which may not do justice to the book because I’m doing a LT mid-way, after all.

This is when the reliance on flashbacks as a narrative technique can be frustrating. Just like how human memories function, Theo somehow remembers selective vignettes of his adolescence with great clarity. However, as he is engulfed in a manic drug haze, his recollections get fuzzy and he tends to glaze over, or even repress, certain memories, such as a sexual dalliance with someone - no spoilers from me here.

Tartt writes with ease and the years slip by as Theo morphs from a repressed, polite little boy whose character borders on being unrealistically formal with his manners (where do we find such a kid these days?), to a lost teenager who simply wants a place to call home. Loss is a recurring theme here. Theo is lost, in all sense of the word because he is literally lost, without a place; prematurely lost his footing in life because he dropped out of school in Las Vegas and ran away; and a child who is lost - without parents or close kin.

As Theo loses his innocence, he loses his grip and purpose. After initially putting a lot of thought into the Goldfinch painting he stole, he somehow neatly tucked it aside, literally behind his bed frame. Out of sight, out of mind. Clouds of guilt occasionally loomed over Theo when he remembered that he essentially committed an art theft. However fleeting those moments were, Theo and the painting are inseparable, as it was a memento of that fateful incident with his mother. He plucked it out of its hiding place only when he decided to run away from Las Vegas and come full circle back to where he started - New York City. You can take the person out of New York City but you cannot take the City out of the person, I suppose.

Conclusion:

So, what’s next? At this point, I have not read enough from Theo’s perspective as an adult to make a complete judgement yet. However, his homecoming is intriguing enough to reel me in for now. What does he plan to do in New York City? Will he ever meet Boris again? What about Hobie? Or Andy? I’m curious to see how adult Theo is like.

[UPDATE] Post-read, 5 Jun 2017:

Well, what do you know? In a swing of events, my first LT has proven me false. I earlier predicted that the second half of The Goldfinch will still hold my attention because of Theo’s homecoming… Yes, that was true initially, but page after page, Tartt’s storytelling became fragmented. Think of it as a huge homemade quilt, but each patch of cloth more mismatched than the next, held together by flimsy strings, almost as if Tartt herself could not decide which ending to commit to.

What started out as a bildungsroman of a teenager trying to find his footing and sense of belonging in a vast, urban city, was swiftly abandoned as soon as Theo returned to New York City. I felt helpless as I read, cringingly, as Theo found himself on a transatlantic art heist, and to top it off, the resolution to that was equally unbelievable.

Ugh, to think it started out so promising! Quite disappointing, really.

Rating: 2 / 5

Bonus: If I could just sum it up in a gif: