From the Bookshelf of 101 Books to Read Before You Die…

The Secret History

Donna Tartt

Start date: April 1, 2014

Finish date: April 30, 2014

Discussion: Completed Reads

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Completed Reads

March read - Ham on Rye
By Mike · 9 posts · 13 views

last updated May 10, 2020 04:29PM

April Read - What A Carve Up
By Mike · 2 posts · 4 views

last updated Apr 19, 2020 06:52AM

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What Members Thought

May 04, 2013 Alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: boxall-s-1001-books

I'm not even sure what category to put this in. It's not a mystery exactly, except maybe in the vein of a Columbo episode where one already knows who the murderer is and the rest of the story is just watching the detective put the pieces together. It's not purely philosophical, pondering the value of human life or friendships or right and wrong. But it has those elements, along with many other bizarre features.

It's not a light read, although it's not challenging. It's very thought-provoking on a ...more

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Apr 18, 2014 Irene rated it really liked it

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Richard, the narrator of this book, shares with the reader the events of his junior year of college, events which both defined and revealed the characters of his close circle of friends. This is a masterfully rendered novel. An intimacy was created with me, the reader that immediately engaged me in the story. The details are carefully chosen to create vivid characters that shift incrementally. The longing, the stress, the ambition, the loss, every movement in ton ...more

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Jul 30, 2021 Sagheer Afzal rated it did not like it

Donna Tartt is an intellectual maybe even a genius. And this book is the kind of book that critics love, it is filled with elegant prose and has lots of literary allusions, the kind that the highbrow literati would swoon over. Unfortunately, as a novel it has many flaws. I think Donna Tartt tried to plot the evolution of how a bunch of intellectuals misfits can as a result of their eruditon come to murder. Not a bad idea, but not exactly original either. Meyer Levin did it brilliantly in 'Compul Donna Tartt is an intellectual maybe even a genius. And this book is the kind of book that critics love, it is filled with elegant prose and has lots of literary allusions, the kind that the highbrow literati would swoon over. Unfortunately, as a novel it has many flaws. I think Donna Tartt tried to plot the evolution of how a bunch of intellectuals misfits can as a result of their eruditon come to murder. Not a bad idea, but not exactly original either. Meyer Levin did it brilliantly in 'Compulsion', in this novel Donna Tartt loses her way.

Firstly, we have the insufferable, snobbish, self-absorbed characters. I am not the kind a reader that needs to like the characters but I want them to be interesting and vivid. The six students felt the same to me, even the main character did not possess any special trait. Maybe Bunny was the only one that gave me strong feelings; it almost brought me to the point where I thought it would be a good idea to be killed. The point is, I enjoy well done villains with interior conflicts but there were none to be found here.

Secondly, there is the discrepancy between what I understood the book to be about and what it really was. The blurb states that .“Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries". Let’s begin with the first line, .“under the influence of their charismatic classic professor”. In all the 400 pages that I read I did not see the classic professor as a charismatic character. Actually, the professor was almost non-existent. We are sometimes told about him but when he actually appears in the picture he only has a few flat lines. Oh, and he smiles a lot. I was expecting the teacher and the intellectual conversation between him and the students to have an important presence in the novel, to challenge my thinking, but I was out of luck. I believe we are presented only one discussion from the class, which was essential for the plot, although I did not feel its importance when I read it. We are told about how great and eccentric this professor is but we never actually see it. I was expecting him to be some sort of a disguised devil if he manages to influence his students to commit murder but I do not see how their acts had anything to do with the professor. If anything, he was worried about them when they disappeared for a while and lost contact with them.
Going forward, to .“a group of clever, eccentric misfits”. Same problem here, we are told and not showed how smart they were. A .“living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries”. basically means expensive restaurants, a mansion in the countryside and vacation in a palace in Rome. I guess it is a typical existence for people with money, not necessarily something out of ordinary that should deserve our awe.

Their first act of “evil” felt underclimatic since, again, we are told about it, we do not actually experience it. It would have been a totally different experience to be there when it happened not to be told by it from a character after a month or so after the deed was done.

Finally, I thought there was too much flat, useless dialogue. Like Arundhati Roy and Gore Vidal, Tartt's style of writing is better suited to essays. ...more

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Jul 31, 2014 Mary rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, unreliablenarrator

Having rated “The Goldfinch” as one of my all-time favorites, I was excited to read “The Secret History”. Tartt’s writing style is amazing, captivating. Initially I was completely enthralled by this novel; I can’t think of another novel that informs the reader of a main character’s death in the opening paragraphs and yet continues to be suspenseful and mesmerizing. However, I’m disappointed because the novel was overly long, with too many detailed descriptive sections. I found myself skimming ov ...more

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