The Secret History by Donna Tartt Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Secret History
Book Review: Best Book I have Read (out of thousands!)
Summary: 5 Stars
As soon as I finished this book (it only took me three days as I could not put it down), I opened to page 1 and started it all over again. Enough said.
For maximum enjoyment, begin reading on a cold evening in November...
Book Review: Best book I've read
Summary: 5 Stars
Without going into detail about the story (lots of others have done that already) I'd like to just comment on the perfection of this book. Its one of the few that I've read and wished it would not end. Donna Tartt keeps the story going and going. I am very impressed with her writing style and I can't wait to read The Little Friend. If I could give this book 10 stars I would do it in a heartbeat. This book is satisfying to the end. Thank you Donna Tartt....Give us another one!Book Review: Blather.....
Summary: 3 Stars
I just recently finished this book for the second time, and I must say, my impression of it is ENTIRELY different from the first time I read it. The first time through I thought it was terrific -- well written, intriguing, authentic, mysterious, and downright spooky in places. I thought the idea for the novel was great and that Donna Tartt executed it flawlessly.
My impression having just finished it for the second time.... what in the world was I thinking seventeen years ago?! The book today reads as a bloated, narcissitic, overambitious tale that leaves MUCH to be desired in its delivery. The idea for the novel is still great, but Tartt leaves so many of her ideas unfinished and unexplored and ultimately leaves the reader frustrated and wanting more. The idea of the quirky, mysterious classics professor who enchants his six students into a private other-world of sorts is brilliant (Plato, Homer, Bacchus, Dionysian ritual) -- however, the reader never finds out anything about this professor that would make us believe these six students would blindly follow him into this strange world. Instead, he is a flat, peripheral oddball and I can't imagine anyone giving up their "normal" college experience to follow this weirdo.
The students' characters are developed more in depth, but some of them seem like they are straight out of the 19th century instead of the 20th. Page after page of mundane details -- sitting in the school cafeteria, what they ate, how many cigarettes they smoked, how much booze they drank, how long they slept, what they wore -- aaaaaghhhhh!! Enough already. Hundreds of pages of details that don't move the story forward at all. This book could easily have been pared down from 560 pages to 300 -- hundreds of pages just lopped off and the reader would have been spared wading through this bog of unnecessary blather. Also, while alcohol and recreational drug use is to be expected in a college setting, these kids were popping so many pills and drinking so much booze throughout the entire novel it seems unlikely they could even stagger in to their classrooms. They popped uppers to get themselves going for class, downers to get themselves unwound after class, all chased by copious amounts of booze that just didn't ring true in the college setting. I'm sure there are plenty of kids in college abusing drugs and alcohol, but honestly, EVERY kid on campus? Wasn't my college experience at all.
The most intriguing question to me is, why did I love this book so much at age 27 yet find it so annoying at age 44? Obviously, what I THOUGHT was destined to be called a classic really isn't one. I suppose it appealed to me more the first time because I was closer in age to the characters and could identify with them on some level (college experience, youth, etc.) However, as an older reader the whole thing just seems silly and unbelievable -- would college students really behave this way? Really? Classics stand the test of time and are relevant to most readers regardless of age, race, nationality, etc. This book feels very dated (early 80s m-TV era) and I can't imagine readers today would have the same feelings about it as readers did when it was first released.
I did still give it 3 stars because it is well-written in many parts and Tartt's writing skills are apparent. All this book needed was a good editor...
Book Review: Brilliant literary work that deserves all the hype and will be read for years to come
Summary: 5 Stars
How does one describe a novel that you want (you NEED) to devour, that you stay up late nights reading, but is so long and intense that even the most dedicated reader couldn't finish it in less than a dozen sittings? Donna Tartt's 1992 debut novel weighs in at a hefty 524 pages, but all of them are captivating, and in no way is the dramatic action of a year at the exclusive Hampden College (Vermont) overly drawn-out. Not to mention that even the most literate reader will most likely pick up more than a few new vocabulary words from this amazing work of literature.
Reading the inside book jacket, I was a skeptic--our narrator is going to join an exclusive Greek studies community and be convinced he should assist in the murder of a classmate? The story unfolds so well, however, that as a reader, I fully believed in the reasons for offing the classmate who stood to destroy the lives of the four others. Our culprits are no ordinary criminals; rather, they are brilliant students who wisely cover their tracks and every single contingency. But lies beget lies, right? And everyone gets in deep. Would their ringleader, the man who convinced everyone to commit murder in the first place, stop at anything to protect himself, even it means harming the remaining members of the clique? What exactly are everyone's internal motives? With more than one love triangle running around, and money and family troubles thrown into the mix, even the best laid plans aren't as simple as they seem.
Tartt's novel is full of philosophical, ethical, and moral dilemmas. My best advice is to clear your calendar once you pick up this page turner of a novel. The hype is well-deserved, and I am delighted to see people still actively reviewing this work a full 14 years after its original publication.
Book Review: Captivating... rather like a mystery novel
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Secret History" starts with a scene of murder. Puzzling and broken without immediate explanation, it is an invitation for a good read, stimulating curiosity. Then, the narrator, Richard Papen, sets off to explain the sequence of events. He starts with his arrival at Hampden College and the resolve to study ancient Greek. He joins the group of five eccentric students and their mentor, professor Julian Morrow. Each of his colleagues is an original, and all are quite spoiled, with their own little (or not so little...) perversions. The professor has a perplexing personality as well, and he manages to transfer his love for ancient Greek language and culture to the students.
The students, however, apart from being easy to influence, have the mind of their own. The natural leader of the group, Henry, has an idea of recreating the Eurypidean bacchanalia. The friends are quite fond of it, until a disaster happens...
The whole story is told from a position of an outsider, observer, a new student eager to enter in the group. The secrets are revealed to him gradually and in the same way he reveals them to the reader. At the end (and beginning) he fully participates in the events and perhaps regrets it.
The anti-climax of the story, the revealing of what happened to each of the friends after the tragic fiasco their bacchanal experiment, is also very interesting psychologically.
Although written in a much simpler style, this novel echoed in me somehow like "The Magus", one of my ever-favorites. Probably because of Greece and the ancient rituals alluded to in both books.
Donna Tartt has succeeded in her debut (it is much more interesting than "The Little Friend", her second, long expected novel), although the novel lacks the depth and sometimes the plot seems a bit stretched. It is a remarkable effort and an engrossing story.