The Goldfinch Reviewed
I confess. I did something I rarely do. I didn't finish this book. It spent a year on my nightstand and I read up to page 565 of its 771 pages (73%). At night, I turned to where I'd left off a few days ago, a week ago, a month ago, and then I'd put it back and pick up something more entertaining. Yeah. I know. National Bestseller. Pulitzer Prize. It's all right there on the cover. But still, by the time I quit, this book had become a sort of torture. It started out fine. I rooted for Theo with the same conviction I had rooted for Pip in Great Expectations . But as the pages wore on, the misfortunes and poor decisions took their toll--on me. When Theo's loser friend Boris shows up again I just couldn't take it. I knew it would ruin everything in Theo's life and I didn't feel like actually reading that again. Don't get me wrong. The prose is beautiful. I felt like I, the country bumpkin, had been transformed into a native New Yorker. That I was in