Secret History

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read
Review: Without going into detail about the story (lots of others have done that already) I'd like to just cooment on the perfection of this book. Its one the few you read and wish it would not end. Donna Tartt keeps the story going and going. I am very impressed with her writing ability and I can't wait to read The Little Friend. If I could give this book 10 stars I would do it in a heart beat. This book is satisfying to the end. Thank you Donna Tartt....Give us another one!

Rating:
Summary: Incredible read if you're willing to work a little
Review: I found this book to be enthralling and a great twist on the mystery genre (if it can really be qualified as such). Having a strong background in the Humanities will help as the frequent references to classical literature greatly enrich the story. I found this to be a dense read but highly rewarding - the kind of book you don't want to end.

Rating:
Summary: Wish I could give it more than 5
Review: I have recently picked up this book for a 2nd reading. It was better than the first time I read it. The characters, the story, the setting, I just can't think of anything but good things about this book. I remember years ago, when I tried to read it the first time, I picked it up, put it down, two or three times. Then finally one day, it just clicked, and I couldn't put it down until I was finished. There are some books that get better with a second reading and this is one of them. I LOVE this book. Now that I have read it a second time, I will let some time pass and read it a third. I look forward to it. I read Ms. Tartt's second book and it too was good, although not as good as this one. I hope she is working on another book.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Tartt's characters are vivid, memorable, and inviting--even if they are not all likeable. The book begins with the description of a murder and unfolds with the backstory as well as the aftermath. Even though the murder is central to the plot what stood out was the richness of the characters and the compelling world the author creates. This is great read! Strongly recommended. An impressive first novel by Ms. Tartt.



Rating:
Summary: Impressive piece of writing; worth reading...
Review:
Donna Tartt - 'The Secret History' (1992)

This book was well-written and exciting. My criticisms of it included:

1. The camera got in very close, giving us a blow-by-blow account of every word, action, piece of interplay. We were treated to numerous detailed accounts of what the weather was doing (no cloud left unrecorded!), what the landscape was doing, who was busy stretching his arms across the settee and at what angle, who was making a cup of coffee and with how many coffee beans and how much steam came out, and so on. This level of detail made for a very slow book. The pace crawled along, somewhat.

2. The book was a little too overwritten for my taste. A 300 page novel became a 650 page novel.

3. Once Julian left, it became clear that the characters were probably going to get off the hook (in terms of not getting caught). Having kept the tension up to that point, the writer let the tension slip when Julian left. The pages that followed were less exciting as a result, and the book ended up on an anti-climax (rather than the climax being taken right through to the end).

However, this is an impressive and almost faultless piece of writing, ideal for the person who likes long, intricate, involved novels with great attention paid to detail, and the author must have considerable stamina to have been able to put it down on paper and work it up into a well-polished novel.

Marks out of five: 4 and a half out of 5.




Rating:
Summary: Tedious at first
Review: My friend recommended this to me and I only picked it up because I was obessed with classical studies at the time. However, I found myself skimming the philosophical discussions towards the begining of the book as I found it incredibly boring, despite being interested in the subject. Right from the start you already know who dies and, being bored out of my mind, I nearly gave up because the story was developing so slowly. Other people I have talked to have expressed the same opinion so perhaps, although it was vital to the story, the novel could benefit from a shorter and more simplified start. Preserverance through that, though, is required and more than rewarded because the story progresses dramatically to gripping heights as events leading to the eventual murder becomes critical. The tension is gradually built up, helped along by amazing characterisations. You believe that these are real people, with real motivations, albeit misguided and a little radical. They draw sympathy depite being flawed and conspiring murder and it is not hard to feel for their desperation after the death. The ending is both shocking and poignant and, yes, it did compell me to go back and read the beginning properly.

Rating:
Summary: Behaviour is the mirror of emotion.
Review: This is not a murder mystery. You know from the first page who got killed, and who did it. What you will learn is how killing someone can change your perception of everything.

In a private Vermont college, Donna Tartt introduces us to five students, who you've no doubt read about or seen before. They are rich misfits, lacking in parental love, academically brilliant but undisciplined. They turn to their charismatic Classics teacher for guidance, and together form an introspective, elite group. But, as the title suggests, they have a secret, and one of them is threatening to betray his friends.

Enter the poor scholarship boy from California. Seemingly neutral, they confide in him, and together hatch a plan to "dispose of" the traitor in their midst.

The rest of the book describes the aftermath of the murder, though not in terms of emotional impact. The words "guilt" and "remorse" don't get mentioned. Rather, Tartt cleverly leaves us to percieve these in how the friends behave. We see how they act in the face of a body search, police enquiries, the grieving family. And most importantly, how they begin to treat eachother.
In short, the group crumbles and turns on eachother, as none are stable enough to support their friends. This way of "showing rather than telling" is done brilliantly.

One things that might have been done better: there is frequent mention of alcoholic excess and drug use. In the beginning, it is supposed to denote the characters as a little bit rebellious, but also that they are really very uncertain of themselves, and need it as a social tool. After the murder, this behaviour escalates. Unfortunately, Tartt relies too much on this device to reinforce their dependent personalities, and lack of coping skills. I got a bit tired of it being mentioned, because it was used in such an obvious way.

Other than that, this is a brilliant description of human behaviour as a mirror of emotions. You will peer past the flawless surface, the cool demeanors that let the characters get away with murder, and see the scaffolding of their entire lives crumble.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid and entertaining.
Review: I read this about two months ago. It's a very long, somewhat haphazard book. I bought the edition with a Readers' Guide and browsed through it before I started reading the actual novel. I was very put off by the artists condescending manner to the interviewer and her trivialization of the issues that were brought up. I was so turned off, I almost didn't read it.

Donna Tartt is not the first writer full of herself.

But the woman can write. Two months later, the characters are still vivid. It's a wonderful story, a little Fitzgerald, a little Maugham and some Wilde, to boot. While there are glaring inconsistencies in the book and the end is somewhat unbelievable, I would recommend this book to anyone. I've heard a lot of people who believe that there should have been more focus and detail concerning the ritual itself, I didn't feel that was necessary--it would have merely detracted from story that the narrator felt was important.

Also read Matthew Pearl-The Dante Club and Arturo Reverte Perez--The Club Dumas.



Rating:
Summary: Boring, boring.
Review: This book was just far too long for the little it achieves. The characters all seemed two dimensional, the plot plodded along to the extent that I found it difficult to focus and concentrate and was always wondering if I was missing something.I kept asking myself why was D Tartt going into this much detail. And I couldn't believe one review I read that suggested that if you don't like the book then you're stupid. No, if you don't like the book it's just because you're too bored reading it to take it all in. I just wish I'd given up after a hundred pages of it instead of wasting so many more hours of my life, but I persisted because I hoped foolishly it would pick-up. I have to say the best thing about the book was the very attractive D Tartts photo inside the back cover. I would advise people to look at that and ignore the print!

Rating:
Summary: Absorbing, smart fiction
Review: Very well written. When I started reading this novel, I couldn't tear myself away from it.
I will not get much into the story itself here(you can find that in other reviews, and I don't want to throw in spoilers); but I'd like to highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of literary, historical, or "scholarly" fiction. I personally loved Matthew Pearl's "The Dante Club", most of Umberto Eco's work, and am a huge fan of all of Margaret George's historical novels.
If you find yourself reading(and loving) books of that nature, then you will love this one as well.
This is the first book I've read of Tartt's, but I will be sure to read anything else of hers that I can find.