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Donna Tartt: The Little Friend

R

Rogue

New Member
I finished this book some days ago and I'm stilled kinda perplexed about the brilliant beginning and the insulting rest of this book.

I was bored by "The Secret History" but the first lines of her new book captured me so I gave Tartt a second try. Unfortunately "The Little Friend" was dissapointing to say the least.

It started out like a new "To Kill a Mockingbird" with all the brave little girl, Southern setting and all the black/white conflict only that Lee's novel is gorgeous wheras Tartt's is crap.

The murder of the littel girl's brother holds the story together, but the girl's (Harriet) search for the murderer 10 years later is fruitless and compromises gun toting little kids setting out to kill people. Harriet's ability to hold her breath for some minutes comes handy as a "deus ex machina" when some bad guy tries to drown her. And that's just one of the twist you see coming 50 pages before they happen. Furthermore the story consists of more scenes detailing the life and quirks of people than of ones moving the story along. There are way too many non contributing sidestories watering down the main storyline.

I started skipping pages soon and didn't seem to miss out on the storyline a lot. The ending was a mess. The pieces of this misconstructed puzzle just didn't fit.

Really this books isn't worth wasting your time or money.
 
The Secret History is a good book, I think so, anyway. however, The Little Friend i couldn't finish as I thought it was boring. Too drawn out - nothing seemed to happen.
 
Ditto. I absolutely loved The Secret History, so I thought I'd give The Little Friend a go. I was really interested at the beginning of the book, but it just couldn't hold my interest. It just seemed like nothing happened. :rolleyes:
 
Donna Tartt

1. How oh how could anyone be bored by The Secret History? When I read the last page I turned back to page 1 and read it through a second time without even pausing (well, a few times to eat perhaps).

2. The Little Friend... less fast-paced that TSH, but equally compelling in its own way. I think some are frustrated with it because it purports to be a whodunnit at first, and then takes a different direction altogether.

3. For those who like TSH but don't like TLF... have you noticed the deliberate parallel between the two books that Tartt puts in at the end? I won't spoil it for anyone, but if you think about Bunny in the first book, and then think about the heroine's best friend in TLF, you start to get very worried for him... Almost as if the whole book is a kind of preamble to the real action, which is only just about to start happening as soon as the story is finished.

That's my unorthodox reading of it, anyway... ;-)
 
GreenKnight said:
1. How oh how could anyone be bored by The Secret History? When I read the last page I turned back to page 1 and read it through a second time without even pausing (well, a few times to eat perhaps).

2. The Little Friend... less fast-paced that TSH, but equally compelling in its own way. I think some are frustrated with it because it purports to be a whodunnit at first, and then takes a different direction altogether.

3. For those who like TSH but don't like TLF... have you noticed the deliberate parallel between the two books that Tartt puts in at the end? I won't spoil it for anyone, but if you think about Bunny in the first book, and then think about the heroine's best friend in TLF, you start to get very worried for him... Almost as if the whole book is a kind of preamble to the real action, which is only just about to start happening as soon as the story is finished.

That's my unorthodox reading of it, anyway... ;-)
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There is a thread on The Secret History which i am sure would enjoy reading :)
 
bluecaffeine said:
Oh no. Sorry to hear it's boring. I haven't read it yet. Glad I only paid a quarter for this one.. just in case!
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Other people might find it boring but you might not
you never know till you read it for yourself :)
 
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