The Goldfinch ~ Spoiler Alert

[Geila]

I've been reading the novel and it is soooo long. I'm about 60% through (with a lot of skimming) and I don't think I can keep going. It's not that it's bad, it's just there is so much words, a lot of words, that it feels sluggish and never-ending. And most of it is sad and depressing. I applaud the realistic portrayal of hardship, but I just can't get into it enough to read every word. Part of it is that I read two mysteries before it (After Anna and The Wife Stalker). So the change of pace is pretty abrupt. And did I mention it's really long? I got the large print and that book is a behemoth.

I really wanted to like it and finish it but I think I'm going to stop and just wait to watch the movie to see how it ends. What am I missing? It won the Pulitzer. I don't get it.

Anyone read it?

[razz]

I had the same feeling as you when I struggled to read it some time ago and posted a thread:http://www.simplelivingforum.net/sho...ight=goldfinch

I can't imagine it in large print as it was quite large in regular print.

[Tammy]

This is how I felt about War and Peace and The brothers Karamazov. Couldn’t handle either one.

[iris lilies]

Well, there’s nothing wrong with skim reading. I skim read a lot.


War and Peace. Anna Karenina. The Goldfinch.I skim read all of them. I love The Goldfinch and found it to be a magical novel in the parts that resonated with me. The parts I skipped over were the criminal interactions with the Russians ,? Or whoever that was. When he met the Russian kid when he was living in Arizona, His grifter father, every scene of that era was great.

This author shines at representing children and teens.

The premise of the novel is richly imagined, so interesting! The New York settings resonate with me in the art gallery, Park Avenue apartments, antique dealer, selling faked antiques, etc. I find all of that world interesting. Settings are important to me in a novel and a mediocre novel and a decent setting may hold my attention longer than the same mediocrity in a boring setting.

[iris lilies]

I had the same feeling as you when I struggled to read it some time ago and posted a thread:http://www.simplelivingforum.net/sho...ight=goldfinch

I can't imagine it in large print as it was quite large in regular print.

sometimes large print publishers put a fat novel out in 2 volumes.

[rosarugosa]

I really liked The Goldfinch.

ETA: When I am finding a book to be slow going, but I know it's worth my while to finish it, I'll often put it aside a time or two to read something light, and then pick it back up again.

[Geila]

For those of you who liked the book - what was it about it that you liked?

Part of my struggle with it is that nothing about it feels new. I feel like it's a barrage of words about things not are not news to me, things I already understand. There are no new insights. I like Theo, I empathize with him, I want the best for him, I'm saddened by his circumstances. And of course I love Hobie. I get Boris. It's just so many words. So many words. I decided to skip the movie and just go to the last chapter of the book and even that was a challenge. All the chapters are huge. The paragraphs are huge. I didn't know what was going on specifically, but I got the gist of it, and I just didn't care to read all about it. I ended up reading just the last couple of pages. And it somehow felt like it was leaving room for a sequel? God help me.

Razz - thanks for the link. I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't get into it.

[iris lilies]

For those of you who liked the book - what was it about it that you liked?

Part of my struggle with it is that nothing about it feels new. I feel like it's a barrage of words about things not are not news to me, things I already understand. There are no new insights. I like Theo, I empathize with him, I want the best for him, I'm saddened by his circumstances. And of course I love Hobie. I get Boris. It's just so many words. So many words. I decided to skip the movie and just go to the last chapter of the book and even that was a challenge. All the chapters are huge. The paragraphs are huge. I didn't know what was going on specifically, but I got the gist of it, and I just didn't care to read all about it. I ended up reading just the last couple of pages. And it somehow felt like it was leaving room for a sequel? God help me.

Razz - thanks for the link. I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't get into it.

This author does not churn out sequels, She’s not that kind of author. She only writes a book every 8-10 years? Something like that.

All of her books feature children and young adults as central characters. She’s very good at getting into their head and presenting their world. She’s also good at establishing atmosphere and setting.She can do action scenes well, too. I didn’t follow all of the intrigue with Boris and his colleagues and the painting because that didn’t interest me much. But in one of her previous books, the one set in the south, there’s the most astonishing scene of a little girl Being chased on top of a water tower and it is cinematic in her ability to tell that adventure.

[Geila]

I did like her portrayal of young people. I read a lot of YA literature, so that part was not new to me, although I did appreciate it. In thinking about it, I've never read War and Peace or any of the other large famous works, so I guess it was just the length that I didn't like and that's good to know for future.