The Goldfinch was Delicious

Author Donna Tartt’s expert craft in word choice, phrase construction, paragraph progression, and plot architecture combined with narrator David Pittu’s deep, exact pronunciation and dramatic inflection made all 32 hours of listening to The Goldfinch (2013) audiobook—simply delicious.

The novel centers around Theo Decker, a young man who lost his mother through tragedy and gained a priceless work of art that altered his life forever. We follow Theo from the age of 13 to his mid-to-late twenties. Talk about a dynamic character on a journey. Talk about tension and suspense. It’s there in abundance.

When the novel was suggested to me last summer, I wasn’t overly enthused about a plot centering on art history and museum heists. The 32-hour length, however, intrigued me. 

I usually have a hard-copy novel on my nightstand (currently Eliot’s Middlemarch) and a non-fiction craft book on my desk (now Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal). Added to that are audiobooks to keep me company on road trips and while performing household duties, such as packing lunches and cooking. So, for my taste, the longer the book the better. Hence, the appeal of a 32-hour audiobook (translated into hard copy, that’s almost 800 pages).

I usually listen to audiobooks for free through my local library using Hoopla Digital or Libby. Just as with library books, audio books are only loaned for a finite period, and but unlike library books, there’s no renewing on Libby. A hold must be placed on the book, and in the case of The Goldfinch, I was only halfway through before it expired, and it was a month before I got it back from the library. It was worth the wait.

Listening to The Goldfinch at first made me feel extremely inadequate as the wildly unsuccessful writer I am. It won the Pulitzer Prize and there were many arguments about whether it was truly literary fiction, because how could literary fiction be so popular? Sigh.

As I progressed through the book, though, I became inspired to squeeze the most out of every single word I write—to judiciously select words and build them like marble blocks into a story. 

Having read widely and listened to a lot of books, I’ve often been frustrated that other writers have become published for works that won popularity contests rather than were earned through merit. Sometimes, I find myself editing novels with a pencil used as a bookmark. Whenever I encounter the opposite, I experience something next to nirvana. This is always the case with anything that Elena Ferrante has ever written. Move over on the golden bench, Elena. You’re going to have to make room for Donna Tartt in my world. 

I’ve also placed the movie version of The Goldfinch into my DVD Netflix queue. Apparently, the film, with a cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, and Luke Wilson, was a flop. And apparently, Donna Tartt was disappointed that she was not asked to write, or at least help write, the movie script. I’m looking forward to watching the movie and might add to this post afterward. If it’s not good, I suspect it’s because Donna Tartt didn’t have a hand in the script. As I argued above, word choice and phrase construction are half of what made this book so delicious. And if the screenwriter messed with the plot, well, that’s unforgivable.

I listened to The Goldfinch on Libby through my local library and already have Tartt’s The Secret History (2002) favorited on Hoopla Digital, also through my local library. Her The Little Friend (2002) isn’t available on Libby nor Hoopla, so I might have to see if I can borrow a physical copy from our library or buy it used somewhere. 

Tartt published her books in 1992, 2002, and 2013. Might there be something new coming along soon?