The Secret History by Donna Tartt Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Secret History
Book Review: 1 Book that should not be missed!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved Donna Tarrt's The Secret History more than any book I have ever read. The book is much more than loosely based on Bennington College, reading it while sitting in the same room the main character was supposed to have been in gave me chills. I would hear a knock on my door and think it was Charles, Camilla or Henry. (best friends of Richard, the main character) I fell deep when I started this book. I highly reccomend this book if you enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier or any books by Ethan Canan. Hearing about Bennington in the book was wonderful, some things never changed. Now, I am not saying we go around killing people or have elite groups of students who study greek, but the people, faculty and staff are so similar to the people who work here now. There is even a part when Richard sees a student eating with paintbrushes as chopsticks, this is something I see daily.
Pick up a Bennington College brochure while you are reading, this way you can see where the book takes place. Good going Donna!
(Did anyone else notice that strange similarity of characters and plot line coinciding with the Secret Diaries, a young adult trilogy?!?)
Book Review: 100% recommendable
Summary: 5 Stars
i find myself recommending this book to any- and everyone. i read it when i was a backpacker, and found that the inspiring backpackers i met along the way - the ones to whom i really was excited about recommending this book - had, of course, already read it. even now, i'm back in the worker-bee world, i find myself running into possible sages and thinkers who, if they haven't read it, really really ought to. and when they do, they thank me.
Book Review: A "Secret History" of the world itself
Summary: 5 Stars
The Secret History explores a heroic effort by five students to recreate, at their small ivy-twined New Hampshire college, a world from which the gods have fled. All five are known eccentrics, and all have their reasons for despising the world they live in. Charmed by a brilliant teacher, drunk with Homer and the ancient legends, they attempt to experience in themselves an earth-old ecstasy. Short-cutting devices like drugs and alcohol only get them high. The Real Thing eludes them until one vital element clicks into place: in order to invoke the gods, it is necessary to believe in them. This simple expedient allows them to finally cast off the moorings of their American middle-class upbringing and plunge into a night of total self-abandonment. They come to, just before dawn, with blood on their hands and a mangled corpse at their feet.At the heart of all religion is a longing for the loss of self and complete surrender to the world of spirit. Henry, the acknowledged leader of the group, explains the appeal and the cost: "I wonder if you understand what sort of state we were in. . . really, truly, out of our minds. And it may be a superhuman effort to lose oneself so completely, but that's nothing compared to the effort of getting oneself back again." Though successful in their quest, they have flung themselves, not into Dionysian revelry, but Faustian tragedy, which works out a suitably inexorable fate for each of them.
For it's impossible to return to the misty mythical morning of time and experience; we know too much. There is no going back through centuries of accumulated blood-guilt to recover a lost innocence. The "essential rottenness of the world" that narrator Richard Papen discovers by novel's end is no illusion, no trendy collegiate attitude; he's experienced it first-hand. Not a cheerful story, and marred by the rambling character of the second half. But gripping, almost literally--the deep scratches left in my mind after reading it were scored by a hard edge of truth..
Book Review: A Dark Page Turner
Summary: 5 Stars
I find it ironic that this book which was so inpired by the classics was the one to make me cast away my copies of Milton, Chaucer and even Balzac for more contemporary fiction. In a world taken over by Mary Higgins Clark and Danielle Steele, it is nice to know that there is something else out there. In contrast to many of the reviews I have read, I didn't feel that the characters were unlikeable. I admired Henry for his intelligence and discipline, I was surprised by his supposed sacrifice for Charles' sake which did give his character more depth. From the moment I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I found that I was able to identify with all of these characters, Richard for his insecurities with his former life, Bunny for his tendency to say the wrong thing without realizing or caring, Francis for so badly desiring something he could not have, Charles for his all consuming jealousy, Henry for his stubborness and Camilla for her imagined fears. It was my ability to identify with all of the characters that made me so interested in the story. So few books are able to capture my interest for 500+ pages. "The Secret History" was beautifully written. Tartt was able to accuratly put into words the picture of a small New England town. It is true that she often added details, not quite subplots, to the story that didn't have much to do with the main plot, but that is part of the beauty of her writing. It makes for a more realistic story with these added details. Life is generally random, unrelated events all woven together contributing to some greater purpose, though not always directly. Stories that can be wrapped up nicely under a big red bow, with every part contributing to the last page may be easier to read,and they may be shorter, but not that realistic, or even that interesting.Book Review: A History of Secrets
Summary: 5 Stars
I was so surprised to see that the first review of this excellent book was that terrible Kirkus one that I just had to write my own review as a rebuttal. On the contrary, The Secret History is a very rich, paradoxical, and incisive book that most intelligent people should enjoy. Tartt's style is very interesting- lyrical, chilling, and scholarly; yet also hysterically funny in places you least expect it. The storyline, extremely unpredictable and constantly surprising, is filled with sly symbolism and clever foreshadowing. It is a very page-turning, satisfying, challenging read which I highly recommend.