{"id":1557,"date":"2014-02-10T19:19:59","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T00:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2019-01-14T16:21:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T21:21:41","slug":"the-goldfinch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=1557","title":{"rendered":"*****The Goldfinch"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Donna Tartt<\/strong> \u2013 The 1654 painting, The Goldfinch<\/i><\/a>, animates the action of Donna Tartt\u2019s third novel, which is receiving much-deserved attention (and the Pulitzer Prize). The story begins when twelve-year-old Theo is injured in a terrorist explosion at the Metropolitan Museum, and an elderly dying man orders him to pick the painting\u2014which happens to be one of Theo\u2019s mother\u2019s favorites\u2014out of the rubble. Stunned, confused, and pretty much ignored in the aftermath of the explosion, he stumbles home to show it to her. Yes, there is an over-long interlude in Las Vegas when Theo lives a feral existence with his father and delightfully reprobate Russian friend Boris, and yes, it ends with a rambling 20-page essay. Still, it\u2019s a wonderful adventure story that at its heart is about how we decide what\u2019s important in life, what\u2019s real to us and worth saving, and what is simulacrum and worth saving anyway. In that essay was one of my favorite lines of the book, about how different people are strongly, inevitably drawn to certain things\u2014\u201ca city, a color, a time of day. The nail where your fate is liable to catch and snag.\u201d Don\u2019t let the length put you off\u2013it\u2019s a page-turner. \u00a0(2\/10)
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