Rating: 
Summary: The Past Is Never Dead
Review: In Mark Twain's _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, Huck Finn exposes the failings and hypocrisy of 19th century American society, and in the end, decides to turn his back on, choosing to begin his life in the wild, uncivilized West. In Donna Tartt's _The Little Friend_, Harriet Dufresnes draws into relief all of America's cultural institutions, limning the class distinctions, racial boundaries, religious ethics, and gender relations, as well as the past that created them, for all to see; but, unlike Huck, who experienced America as an outsider, observant and critical, Harriet experiences America as a child, unconsciously and uncritically. Tartt, unlike Twain, isn't interested in using her to critique society. She's interested in observing the ways American culture reproduces itself, again and again, generation after generation; she's interested in taking Faulkner's observation "The Past is never dead. It's not even past" and showing her readers how that's possible; and she does that very well.Her book, _The Little Friend_, is a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: aye not bad
Review: This book is really frustrating. The first hundred pages are brilliant - you get a main character who is completely unique, funny and intriguing placed in a community with a terrible history. At page 100 you're mouth is watering at the prospect of how Harriet powered by her imagination is going to unravel the mystery and in the process cause an outpouring of chaos and disorder in the town. Then instead of maybe another couple of hundred pages of drama and powerful conclusion 'The Little Friend' turns into a big rambling bore of a novel - where you actually begin counting the pages and feeling pleased you got through another half-inch of it. I am sure the purpose of the middle section is to deepen the characters and the sense of place but many of these long passages are simply repetitions of other character/place development passages. I always thought brevity was a virtue and repetition a vice of literature and I'm sure Tartt's main aim here in writing this section was to write something 'long'. It's terrible to see her sacrifice all of the suspense and intrigue she has created initially but this is what she does. It reminded me of the film 'The Graduate' where the director plays the 'Strawberry Fayre' tune over and over again until you actually feel as irritated as Hoffman's character. Is Tartt trying to irritate us too? I always wonder if these 'hype' books get away with so much bad editing because of the writers ego or maybe because the 'hypers' haven't read anything better. In which case for a dramatic and evocative vision of the south I recommend Flannery O'Connor's 'The Violent Bear it away' Daniel Woodrell's 'The Ones You Do' and Joe R Lansdale's 'The Bottoms'.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Sorry about all the readers who wanted a more conventional ending, in which we find out for sure who killed Robin. The author hints that, yes, it might have been Danny (consider what his nightmares are about), then leads us to believe that, no, maybe Danny was innocent. Either way, what's important is that Harriet (and Hely) decide to try and kill him based on a hunch (and on class prejudice?) not on any real evidence. And yet...he is an evil man, who tries to kill Harriet. And yet...he survives.
And the story ends, and yet...it's not over. Will Harriet move to Nashville? And why would the father give up his mistress? And will Eugene decide to leave Harriet alone? Will Harriet challenge Edie's genteel racism? Will Pem and Allison get it on?
The tale continues to resonate.
Rating: 
Summary: And the point is...?
Review: I haven't read The Secret History yet, but apparently I should have started with that one. I was really intrigued by this book at first, but it is entirely too wordy, with many sections that just don't need to be there at all. And I'm still trying to figure out what the title refers to...
Rating: 
Summary: What Happened?????
Review: I wish this book had ended differently, Actually, I wish that it had just ended. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "The Little Friend" with its wonderful attentive detail to atmosphere and characterization, but when I closed the cover, I felt cheated. I'm dismayed that I spent all the hours, many of them late at night, turning pages and devouring word after printed word, only to find that when it ended, there was no resolution. Nada, none, zip, zilch. Bleah. I like my books to have an ending. It doesn't have to be a warm, fuzzy, happy, feel-good ending, just an ENDING!
I sure didn't find it here.
Rating:
Summary: Not again!!
Review: I guess I should leave well enough alone. I was absolutely captivated by The Secret History as were most. I rushed out to buy The Little Friend (in hardcover I might add). While I enjoyed it well enough, it was pretty disappointing to discover that this is what we've all been waiting for. Besides the big let-down, I also was unsatisfied by the Little Friend because too many questions were left unanswered and it left me feeling empty and annoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Nice effort, but I think her editor let her down on this one...needed some judicious trimming.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating.
Review: The book is compulsively readable for most of its (unnecessarily great) length. Would we have read it and if we had, would we have been debating it at such length, had it not been for The Secret History? The answer to at least one of these questions, I fear, will have to be no. The morass of irrelevant, if frequently fascinating, detail, the flawed structure and lack of conclusion puts one in mind of an extremely sophisticated exercise in creative writing gone wrong.
Rating:
Summary: What just happened here?
Review: Ahhhhh! Ok, first off, there are two kinds of books for me: those which grab you the second you open the front cover, so that you have almost no choice but to read with urgency... and those which slightly intrigue you in the first few pages just enough to keep you reading. The Little Friend was definitely the latter, and a huge disappointment. I just now realized, in reading previous reviews, that the title is referring to Danny as Robin's "Little Friend." Someone else said Hely was referred to as Harriet's "Little Friend." What's going on? What did I just read? Where am I? Where is the resolution, the pay-off for some absurdly gripping dramatic scenes in the end? The spooky cover makes no sense. The ending made no sense. I do feel incredibly cheated, as I forced myself to get through page after page out of sheer stubborn need to find closure and unravel the deep, dark secrets of "The Secret Friend," whoever that was! I suppose I feel rather like a voyeur into the intimate life of a family who suddenly, and without warning, disappears in the night. No forwarding address, no note, no explanation. Just an abrupt departure from one's life. ;(
Rating:
Summary: Thank goodness I'm not the only one
Review: Like everyone else I looked forward to this book with great expectations. "The Secret History" is one of the best books I have ever read and I expected this book to be of the same calliber. I was dead wrong
I thought the plot was thrilling, the characters well developed, I understood Harriet's pain and obsession and I even undersood why the book wasn't a "happy" one. What I did not understand was the ridiculous ending. Like others I asked myself "What in the world was the point of all of that?" Just a little bit of resolution would've been nice. I am thourougly dissapointed.
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