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What does /lit/ think of Donna Tart?
Personally, I had a good time with this one.
>>7382260
Just started reading this last night before bed. It's a good light read (I got to Ch3/100pgs in 90min or so), but unless she impresses me more later on, it's gonna stay light. She's terribly obvious with what I assume are omens throughout the first two chapters, and her characters are mostly gossip right now. Still thoighx she has a way with metaphor and atmosphere.
It's just a very comfy book with lots of edgy material in it.
>>7382308
I agree that it's comfy. I wasn't sure whether I just associate it with comfy times or if it was in the content but it's a brick of warmth in a blanket beneath the tapping rain on the roof... for me
>>7382314
Tbh I wish I could find another comfy book like it.
Are you guys me? I read the first 70 to 80 pages of this last night and think it's the best book I've read for a long time.
I agree though. It's much too enjoyable to be classed as patrician / high brow. I'm actually looking forward to reading it again tonight. Maybe she could do a rewrite with half as many commas, replace every third line of dialogue with "He spat", add in some lolsorandum talking dogs and weird character names, and make it twice as long.
I'm only half joking, though I do so far get a vibe that the novel was written to read like a novel, the main characters relocation and new friend grouo feels like its written in a wish fulfillment style. I'm waiting to see whether those elements are played with
>>7382347
>It's much too enjoyable to be classed as patrician / high brow.
kek
I read this a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. The literary allusions also stirred within me a wish to know more about the classics and pursue more self-study in languages, though not Greek.
If anyone has read The Little Friend or The Goldfinch, how did they compare to this?
>>7382477
Little Friend is a mediocre book, but Goldfinch yeah, the same quality or even better than The Secret History. It's a fucking long book but managed to finish it in two weeks, I was so addicted to it.
>>7382815
Why don't you like TG? Okay, sometimes it's tedious, but overall a really well written piece. After 11 years of pause though.
If you liked TSH but wish it was a little more tongue-in-cheek and ambiguous, read Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics. It's basically Secret History but with a girl protagonist.
>>7382831
>Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics
gonna read it, thanks
>>7382844
Yeah, big disappointment. The movie deal fell through too, apparently.
>>7382260
Actually, one more thing to be said: this book made me learn Ancient Greek for two semesters. The language itself was hell but it was worth it. I read this book for 4-5 times since 2010.
>>7382260
I remember now that I read a similar book too called The Furies from Natalia Haynes.
>>7382314
This, the most comfiest book.
>Gives that inexplicably comfy brown autumn in vermont vibe.
I hated this.
>>7382260
comfy. enjoyed the ebook version of the first part (up until they succeed in killing bunny and are trying to elude the police) and am going to buy a physical copy before i finish the rest.
>>7382901
seconded. very fucking comfy autumn vibe
for me the idea of entering an exclusive intellectual club of people getting really close together is what excited me about The Secret History.
>>7382952
seconded. crazy about Donna Tartt i went out and bought this book. It does not compare. seems like Tartt has decreased drastically in style and ability over the years. the intro was really crappily written imho. but i ploughed through to the end. The Goldfinch just never gave me the same likeable/comfy atmosphere as The Secret History
also there is a ton of things Tartt has recycled in her newest book, when compared to The Secret History:
• Condoning and taciturn protagonist: Richard Papen / Theodore Decker
• The protagonist is male
• The protagonist’s unreciprocated hetero-love: towards Camilla / Pippa
• Heavy alcohol (&partially other substance) consumption. Protagonists are mostly inebriated throughout the story
• The protgaonist’s brief but unspoken homosexuality: Richard & Francis / Theodore & Boris
• Eloquent, cumbersome, large-framed, quaint, focused figure: Henry / Hobie
• Murder, its repercussions (moral, regret): Bunny / two of Horst’s henchmen
The secret history felt to me like a very good story had fallen to a mediocre writer, who incidentally adored the gay.
>>7382347
>I agree though. It's much too enjoyable to be classed as patrician / high brow
>>7383076
>• The protagonist is male
>>7383018
good op. ebooks aren't comfy enough
