The Silver Linings Playbook

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book reviews, books, Fiction, love books, Novels, Pat's Steaks, Philadephia, reading, The Silver Linings Playbook

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

So here’s the story with my blog post on The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I loved this book. I loved it so much that I wrote a lot about it in a draft entry and finally got to the point where I was going to list all the reasons that it was so great.  It was there, that I got stuck.  You see, I loved this book so much that I didn’t want to analyze it.  And when I tried to analyze it, I found it hard because for me, this book was so wonderful because it truly makes you feel. Does that make sense?  Do you ever read something that you find so powerful that it really makes you feel.  I might be talking gibberish.  Let me try another example.  You know that feeling you get when you’re listening to one of your favorite songs and you’re indescribably happy and it’s a good day and you really feel something because of that song.  This book kind of had that affect on me. It makes you feel so many emotions: frustration, love, happiness, bitter sadness, anger. While I can’t say that I can truly understand where the main characters in the book were coming from, I could understand and value the emotions of people living their lives, trying to find “their silver lining.”  So what follows in green is the draft that I wrote over a week ago. Following in black are my continued thoughts from today.

I read The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick in three days.  It was one of those books that I read whenever I got the chance.  I’m talking “according to the announcement, a subway train will be arriving in 3 minutes which means I can probably read 2 pages before it gets here, and then hopefully another 3-4 pages between 86^th and 68^th street where I get off the subway” read whenever I got the chance.  Then when I finally got to the end, I was so happy that I cried.  The ending made me THAT happy.  Then, after I cried because I was so happy, I was so sad because I just wanted to continue reading more and more and to have that happy feeling last as long as possible.  It took me forever to even pick out a new book to read because I wanted desperately to pick something that would fill the void that was left after I finished The Silver Linings Playbook.

To make a long story short, I loved this book. I loved it so much that I think you should read it immediately.  This would be one of those moments where having an e-reader would be convenient because you could download it and start reading it in less than 5 minutes (I’d be honored if you trusted my opinion so much that you did this.  I personally think you wouldn’t regret it).  In case you aren’t compelled to read the book simply because I’ve gushed about it for two paragraphs, I’m more than happy to tell you a little more about the book and why exactly I liked it so much.

It’s more than likely that you’ve heard about this book before, or actually what you’ve probably heard about is the movie that was made based on the novel.  I saw the movie on Christmas and at the time, didn’t even realize that it was first a book.  I really loved the movie version of the book as well, but I don’t want to try and compare or contrast the two right now until I have the opportunity to watch it again.  Because of that, I really want to focus this post on the novel and not the movie.  I will say though, that having seen the movie first did not in any way spoil the experience of reading the book.  I did however, picture Bradley Cooper specifically while reading the book (but is picturing Bradley Cooper really ever a bad thing? I mean, c’mon).

The Silver Linings Playbook is told from the first person narrative of Pat Peoples.  Pat has just been released from a mental institution that he has lived in for an unknown (to the reader and to Pat) period of time.  He finally gets to return home to live with his mom and Eagles football obsessed father but what he really wants is “apart time” to be over.  He is currently going through “apart time” with his wife Nikki, meaning he hasn’t seen her since entering the mental institution.  Everything Pat does, he does in the hopes that it brings him one step closer to the end of apart time. He exercises incessantly in the hopes of keeping his body in top form for when they’re reunited.  He reads classic literature, hoping to impress Nikki because she’s an English teacher. It is clear that something happened between Nikki and Pat but whatever it was, the reader is left in the dark because Pat himself is in the dark.  He has blocked out any memory of what exactly happened to cause “apart time.” The only thing the reader (and Pat knows) is that Kenny G really sets him off in a violent way. Along the way of trying to accept who he is and what has happened, Pat meets Tiffany, the sister-in-law of one of his best friends.  Tiffany’s husband passed away suddenly in a car accident and ever since she has been left unable to cope with the loss, becoming mentally unstable and ending up in therapy.  The two develop a friendship and slowly start to help each other with their individual problems.

So now here’s the part where I got stuck: trying to come up with concrete reasons why this book was so great other than “take my word for it.”  Instead of delaying the posting of this for another week (which I refuse to do seeing as how I’ve read one and a half books since finishing Silver Linings) I will offer up this.  Quick writes in a way that you completely believe his characters are real.  His portrayal of a man suffering from a mental illness is so heartbreaking while at the same time uplifting that it really resonates as real life.

Also, in looking at what I highlighted in the book, I had made note of a passage where Pat and all of his friends go to get cheesesteaks at Pat’s Steaks (of no relation to the book’s main character) in Philadelphia (the city that the entire book pretty much revolves around) because Pat’s has the best cheesesteaks. We are told that Geno’s cheesesteaks are inferior. Having grown up in South Jersey and gone to college in a Philly suburb, I most certainly agree that Pat’s has the superior cheesesteaks, so this made me happy.

So there you have it folks: my reasons are 1. it feels real and 2. Quick has the same taste in cheesesteaks as I do. Am I complete book blogging failure? I hope you don’t think so. I also hope you didn’t give up reading this post after the first paragraph.  And I really really hope you read The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. Clearly, I think it’s worth it.

The Pigeon Pie Mystery

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book reviews, books, Fiction, Julia Stuart, love books, reading, The Language of Flowers, The Pigeon Pie Mystery

The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart

I first read about The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart on a blog called The Tea Time Reader.  I enjoy Naomi’s blog and decided to add the book to my “to read” list and couldn’t be happier that I did.

After the scandalous death of her father, the exiled Maharaja of Prindur, Princess Alexandrina is left with his debts.  Growing up living the life of luxury, the Princess (nicknamed Mink because she used to take naps in her mother’s furs) is forced to sell her home and accept the offer of a grace-and-favor residence at Hampton Court Palace. She gives up all her servants except for Pooki, her personal maid, an Indian with very large feet, and moves into her less than desirable quarters.

The other residents at Hampton Court Palace are a bit kooky: some friendly, and others (like the General Bagshot) Mink genuinely dislikes.  When the General dies from what appears to be arsenic poisoning following a picnic where Mink and Pooki are in attendance, Pooki is found to be the main suspect. Taking it upon herself to solve who really committed the murder, Mink must make everyone a suspect in the hopes of proving Pooki’s innocence.

This book was a delight to read.  The Victorian time period called for absurd social rules that added to the general wackiness of some of its characters.  On a whole, the novel was funny, entertaining and didn’t take itself too seriously.   I actually found myself laughing out loud, particularly when Pooki spoke her mind.  In going through my highlights and notes of the book, at one line I actually wrote “Cheeky Pooki.”  And if you’re able to read the section of the book that details the inquest into the death of General Bagshot with a straight face, then I think I might question your sense of humor.

As an added bonus for me, given its Victorian time period, the language of the flowers was brought up.  Having read the book The Language of the Flowers, I was already aware that such a thing existed.  I always like when I can establish little connections between books that I read!

If you do read The Pigeon Pie Mystery, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  It’s meant to be fun and it succeeds completely.

The Fever Tree

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book reviews, books, Fiction, Jennifer McVeigh, literature, love books, nook, reading, South Africa, The Fever Tree

The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

I wish I could remember where I saw a recommendation for The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh. I must have seen the book somewhere and so I saved the title in an ongoing list I have on my phone of books I’d like to read. After I finished The Casual Vacancy I downloaded it to my Nook. Looking for a change of scenery with The Fever Tree, I moved from present day England to colonial South Africa around the year 1880.

Following the death of her father, Frances Irvine is left with little choice but to accept the marriage proposal of Dr. Edwin Matthews. Frances must leave behind everything she knows in Victorian London to travel to colonial South Africa where her soon to be husband practices medicine.  En route to meeting her fiancée in South Africa by way of steamboat, Frances is introduced to Mr. William Westbrook, a wealthy man driven by ambition whom she develops feelings for.  And, queue the love triangle.

But in all actuality, this novel is about so much more than a love triangle.  Set against the devastating cruelty inflicted onto the native Africans by the corrupt men controlling a majority the diamond mining, The Fever Tree tells the story of a naïve girl who has trouble facing the reality that doing what is right isn’t always what is easy. McVeigh’s beautiful description of South Africa brings the setting to life in a way that I could easily see this book being made into the movie.

I really liked The Fever Tree. While slightly predictable (I was easily able to tell who was ultimately the “bad guy(s),” and I think you will too), Frances’ road to self-discovery makes the read worthwhile.  And also, if you will notice, this post comes pretty much immediately after The Casual Vacancy. That is because this was a fast read that I didn’t want to put down.  I was fortunate to have free time this past weekend that I could devote to reading and finishing this book was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The Casual Vacancy

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book reviews, books, Fiction, Harry Potter, harry potter author, J.K. Rowling, literature, love books, reading, The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

As promised, the next book I read and will be blogging about is J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy.  This novel, Rowling’s first after the Harry Potter series, is categorized as adult fiction.  And adult fiction it is.  You won’t find any wizards, unicorns or goblin banking systems in this book.  Instead, you’ll find the quiet town of Pagford left in turmoil after one of its town councilors dies suddenly of a brain aneurism leaving a seat open on the council.

Right before his death, Barry Fairbrother was working to convince the town council to keep a part of town known as “The Fields” a part of Pagford instead of reconfiguring the town boundaries and kicking the Fields to the neighboring town of Yarvil.  Those opposed to keeping the Fields as part of Pagford do so because they view the Fields only as an area of poverty, a blight on the face of Pagford.  Barry Fairbrother sees the Fields remaining a part of Pagford as an opportunity for its people to possibly have a better life.  He grew up in The Fields and benefitted from the school system in Pagford, working his way up to the life he had with his wife and children before his death.

With a seat open on the council, those opposed to the fields see this as an opportunity to rid the town of the Fields for good, while those who were friends of Fairbrother want to sieze the opportunity to continue his work. What ensues is a nasty election where individual characters’ stories are interwoven together in this character-driven drama.

So here’s the thing about this novel.  Before you pick it up, you should actually read the back of the book description and honestly ask yourself “does this novel sound like something that I would enjoy?” Try and forget that you know it’s by J.K. Rowling, beloved Harry Potter author.  Try and forget the slight depression you experienced after finishing The Deathly Hallows and the desperate desire for J.K. Rowling to write more in the Harry Potter series. Why should you forget these things? Because it isn’t Harry Potter.  And if, when you read the back of the book and it doesn’t sound like anything that would normally appeal to you, then chances are the fact that it is written by J.K. Rowling won’t change that and you probably won’t enjoy it.

Did I enjoy the book? Yes, mostly. I was guilty, however, of doing everything I told you not to do in the previous paragraph.  I did read it simply because it was J.K. Rowling and didn’t put much thought into it’s subject matter.  Fortunately, it worked out for me.  I can definitely see how others would have been disappointed with it.  You will remember though, if you read my prior blog posts, that it took me a while to read The Casual Vacancy. This is where I have to admit that it took me a while to really get into it.  The main flaw I found with Rowling’s novel was I felt as though she got bogged down in a lot of detailed descriptions that at times, took away from the flow of the book.  I found myself forgetting which character was which, making it difficult to pick up the book if I hadn’t read it for a few days. Previously, Rowling had seven novels to tell one huge story.  I think she might’ve had some trouble narrowing her thoughts down into what became The Casual Vacancy. After reading the book, I read a review done by the Wall Street Journal that summed up my thoughts pretty nicely: “Once you get your Mileses and Simonses straight and events begin to unfurl, it becomes a positively propulsive read.” Once I really had a grasp on the characters, I found myself really looking for the time to read this book.  I stayed up way past my bedtime in order to finish the last 70 pages or so.

Earlier in this post, I stated that this was a character-drama. I should probably put some emphasis on the word drama. This isn’t really a happy book.  It has its moments of comedic relief, but it’s characters are realistic and so are their problems. And just because the book has an ending, that doesn’t mean it is a happy one.

Did you read J.K. Rowling’s first book after Potter?  If you did, I’d love to hear what your thoughts were (especially if you were a huge Harry Potter fan).

A Fortunate Age

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A Fortunate Age, book reviews, books, Fiction, GIRLS, HBO, Joanna Smith Rakoff, Lena Dunham, love books, reading

A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff

Do you watch the show Girls on HBO? Are you wondering why I’m asking you if you watch Girls? Well you see, this is what happened.  Almost two months ago, I started reading the book A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff. Yes, two months ago.  I’m sorry.  Why am I sorry? Well I finished it pretty quickly and then didn’t blog about it.  Why didn’t I blog about it? I started watching Girls from the beginning of the series and got so sucked into it that I didn’t write anything about A Fortunate Age. Then, once I finished watching Girls (yes, I watched the entire first season and then caught up with the second season and finished watching that as well), I started reading J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy.  Now that book, I didn’t read so quickly.  In fact, that took me probably a month and a half of the past two months when I didn’t blog. 

I’m rambling. I’m sorry. Here’s my point. I finally finished The Casual Vacancy and before I get sucked into another book, I’m going to write about the two books I read in the past two months.  And maybe talk some more about Girls (I promise, it kind of ties in). And, without further ado, tonight, A Fortunate Age. 

A Fortunate Age details the lives of a group of Oberlin graduates all trying to “make it” while living in Brooklyn in the late 90′s up until shortly post 9/11.  The narration moves from friend to friend in the group with gaps of time, and occasionally, gaps in information.  At one point, you’re reading about an awkward encounter between a character on a first date only to find out through the narration of another friend that she’s marrying that same man.  The reader never really learns how (what I at least thought was) a one night stand evolves into marriage and you have to be OK with that if you’re going to make it through the book.  Because it jumps. A lot. But not in a bad way.  The characters don’t really seem to know what they’re doing with their lives and as they’re trying to figure it out, the jumping seems to suit their disjointed lives.

For the most part, I enjoyed A Fortunate Age, although I have to say it wasn’t the most happy of books.  The characters have some really sad “it’s tough out there in the real world” experiences.  For any twenty-something out there who is looking for an uplifting “you’ll figure it all out!” book, this isn’t it.  Because some of the characters don’t figure it out. That’s why it’s realistic.

Stop it, stop it, stop it, Marnie!

And now, Girls. Wait, don’t stop reading! I promised that it would relate and it does. Part of me feels that Lena Dunham (Girls’ writer) had to have read this book.  When in the show, you find out they all became friends at Oberlin I had this “oh duh, that makes sense” moment after having read A Fortunate Age. Group of friends (all Oberlin graduates) trying to make it work and get their lives together in Brooklyn sounded very similar to Rakoff’s novel.  I mean, I guess in the grand scheme of things, that is a very broad (and not unusual) topic BUT I personally thought that the show and the novel shared a similar tone. Except Girls made me laugh a lot more. (It also made me so uncomfortable at parts that I almost couldn’t watch, but that’s a whole different story.  I’m looking at you, Marnie singing Kanye.)

A Fortunate Age begins with a quote from George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda. I liked it so much that I highlighted it right off the bat. I think it fitting to end this blog post with that very quote.

“What she was clear upon was, that she did not wish to lead the same sort of life as ordinary young ladies did; but what she was not clear upon was, how she should set about leading any other…”

Until next time, and The Casual Vacancy!

Tigers in Red Weather

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book reviews, books, Fiction, Liza Klaussmann, love books, reading, Tigers in Red Weather

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

Set over a twenty year period spanning from just after World War II to the late 1960′s, Tigers in Red Weather is a wonderful debut novel from Liza Klaussmann.  The novel is separated into five sections, each narrated by a different main character: beautiful Nick, her cousin Helena, Helena’s son Ed, Nick’s daughter Daisy and husband Hughes.  All sections of the book intertwine and mainly revolve around summers spent at the family’s vacation home in Martha’s Vineyard named Tiger House.

There is a tone of suspense throughout the course of the novel, particularly because at each particular moment, you’re only getting one of the character’s perspective on what’s happening.  The characters in the book are far from perfect and make up an even less perfect family.  When Daisy and Ed find a young maid, murdered in the woods, the supsense only becomes more heightened.  It was particularly interesting to see each individual’s reaction to certain events because there is a large age gap between parts of the narration depending upon what section of the book you’re reading.

I particularly loved the way that Klaussmann described almost everything in the book.  I had no problem feeling as though I was a part of this world, enjoying cold gin drinks on hot summer nights in Martha’s Vineyard.  One particular sentence that I highlighted while reading was “Daisy could smell the fishing boats docked behind the Quarterdeck and she felt the breeze riffle her hair, making the down of her neck rise up.  Summer seemed to arrive at that moment, with its mysterious mixture of salt, cold flesh and fuel.” I felt as though I completely understood that almost eery moment when you know that it’s finally summer.  While a good feeling, there is something so unsure about it; you never knew what can happen in one summer.

Do yourself a favor and check out Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann.  Also, a special shout out to Allison over at her blog, The Book Wheel, for the suggestion! You commented on my blog a while back in September and I’d been meaning to read this ever since.  So happy that I did!

Gone Girl

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book reviews, books, Fiction, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, love books, reading

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I would like to start this blog post with the fact that it took me one week to read Gone Girl.  While only being about 50 pages shorter than Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, it took me 1/12 the time to read.  I’m not saying this to brag about how little time it took me to finish Flynn’s novel.  I’m pointing this out to prove how I obviously could not get enough of this book.

Now maybe it is a little unfair to compare reading time between the two most recent books I’ve read.  Truthfully, I think I’m still a little bitter towards The Little Friend. I still think, though, that there’s something to be said for how much faster you can get through a book if you’re looking forward to picking it back up every time you have to set it down.  I was pretty sad every time I had to stop reading Gone Girl that it got to the point where I got home from work and didn’t do anything but read until I finished the last hundred or so pages.

Flynn weaves a truly suspenseful story revolving around the lives of husband and wife Nick and Amy Dunne.  On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy goes missing from their southern McMansion on the Mississippi where there are signs of a struggle.  Told in alternating first person narratives from each spouse, the reader slowly tries to figure out who to trust in the situation, husband, wife or both? While I won’t give away any spoilers, I will say my favorite part of this book was how just when I thought I’d figured out a twist, Flynn would come right back at me with something out of left-field.  This novel is a truly exemplifies what it means to have an unreliable narrator.  ”Who’s unreliable?” you may ask.  I’m not telling.  Go read it for yourself!

Guess who’s back?

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book reviews, books, Donna Tartt, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, Secret History, The Little Friend

If you answered “Baxter” then you are correct!  After almost three (eek) months of no blogging, I’m ready to dive back into the blogging world.  If you have trust issues, right about now you’re probably saying “sure sure, but what if you leave again?”  Well, I can honestly say that I’m going to try really hard not to disappear quite like I did before.  And, if it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t as though I read tons and tons of books that I now have to review.

That’s right.  I actually just finished reading Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend.  There were a number of factors that contributed to the extended length of time it took for me to read Ms. Tartt’s second novel.  The holidays took up a lot of time and work got busier in the fall.  Also (gasp) I got sucked into a bunch of new television shows.  But here’s the thing, if you will remember back to my first post on the beginning of The Little Friend, I was immediately hooked on the novel.  I think that if the novel had continued to hold my attention the way it did at the beginning, none of those factors would have kept me from reading.

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Super Bowl Hangover.” My boyfriend, being a big Giants fan, has been using the phrase a lot recently.  It means that the team that won the Super Bowl the previous year doesn’t even make the playoffs the next year.  I think that, essentially, Donna Tartt’s second novel experienced a bit of a “Super Bowl Hangover,” or should I say…. it wasn’t really that good.  Actually I hated it.  Whoa, harsh right? With how wonderfully it started, it started to drag soon after.  I kept up my reading with as much enthusiasm as possible but it got to the point where I really didn’t want to read it anymore.  However, I refused to give up on the book.  I loved The Secret History and I held out hope that eventually, the book would stop dragging and I’d fall in love with the book all over again.

Unfortunately, that never happened.  There were only a few factors that kept me reading.  The first was, I had already devoted hours of reading over 200 pages of the book.  Granted, the entire book was over 500 pages long so that didn’t really equal a huge sum of the story but regardless, I’d already invested a lot of time in the novel.  Second, there were a lot of stories that I wanted resolved.  I don’t want to spoil too much if you do decide to try and read this book (cough*don’t*cough) but basically, I didn’t get any of the resolutions that I wanted.  I finished the book and my exact stream of consciousness was “THAT’S IT! I SPENT MONTHS READING THIS BOOK AND THAT’S ALL I GET? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I FEEL LOST AND EMPTY AND ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED AND I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT’S IT.”

So yeah.  I hate to be so harsh.  Especially because I loved Donna Tartt’s first novel so much.  I don’t know, maybe I missed the bigger picture of the book?  Did I miss something? If you’ve read it, please let me know.  I wanted to love this book.  I really really did.  But I didn’t.

Wow, anyway. Sorry to start off the new year such a negative Nancy! Moving on as quickly as possible, I just started reading Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. So far, even though I was wary about starting another long novel, Gone Girl is flying by.  ”Flying by” meaning that it shouldn’t take another 3 months for me to make another appearance here!

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and I’m wishing all the best for a happy New Year!  Here’s to more reading and more blogging in 2013!

A Fall Weekend in New York City

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Beer, Coolhaus, Food Trucks, Manhattan, McSorley's, Museum of Natural History, New York City, Shake Shack

This past weekend, I had friends visiting me in the city and as a result, I didn’t get much reading done.  While I’m still interested in reading more and more of Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, I was perfectly content spending the weekend sharing some of the wonderful things that this city has to offer with two of my close friends.  So much fun, in fact, that I thought I’d share it with you.

McSorley’s Dark and the Cheese Plate

Friday night, we made our way downtown to McSorley’s Ale House, one of the oldest bars here in New York City.  Even though McSorley’s was the last bar in Manhattan to allow women to enter, I don’t hold this against them because their beer is so tasty and the atmosphere is so fun.  You have two choices of drink at McSorley’s: their light beer or their dark beer.  While both are delicious, I prefer the dark.  If you ever get the chance to visit this wonderful bar, be sure to order the cheese plate (my boyfriend would consider this blasphemous but I might like the cheese plate even more than the beer).  The cheese plate consists of a sleeve of saltine crackers, sliced cheddar cheese and raw onion.  Put it all together with some spicy horseradish mustard and somehow the combination works perfectly.

Saturday, we made our way across the park to the Upper West Side for lunch at one of New York’s favorite burger spots, Shake Shack followed by a wonderful afternoon at the Museum of Natural History.  I’m sad to say that even though I’ve lived in New York for more than a year, this was my first time at this museum.  I find that a lot of my friends grew up in the New York area and have visited so many of the museums on class trips growing up, so I haven’t been able to convince as many people to visit museums with me.  I took the fact that I had friends not from New York visiting as an opportunity to check one off my list.

I couldn’t wait to see the giant whale!

I think I’ll go out on a limb and say that the Museum of Natural History is one of the coolest museums I’ve ever visited.  All the exhibits made me feel like a little kid in school, super excited to learn (I was a bit of a nerd growing up). I’m glad that we were able to spend as much time as we wanted exploring the enormous museum (and that I wore comfortable shoes).

Pick your cookie, pick your ice cream!

Snickerdoodle and pumpkin, salted double chocolate and salted carmel, red velvet and Tahitian vanilla.

Following the museum we stopped by the Coolhaus ice cream sandwich food truck, parked conveniently across the street on Central Park West.  Coolhaus features make your own ice cream sandwiches with all kinds of delicious cookies and ice cream.  I highly recommend checking out their website to track down this truck and take advantage of creating your own tasty treat.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend made up of some of the best things that New York City has to offer: good beer, good food, good friends and some culture thrown in the mix.  You can’t ask for much more than that!

The Little Friend, part 1

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book reviews, books, Donna Tartt, Fiction, reading, Secret History, The Little Friend

Earlier last week, I started reading Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend.  Tartt has only written two novels, the first being The Secret History, which I really enjoyed.  Since I liked her style of writing so much, I decided to pick up The Little Friend.  Both of Tartt’s novels are long and require more time to read. I thought I might try a different approach to blogging about this book since it is on the longer side.  With this novel, I’m going to blog as I make my way through the novel.

The Little Friend is broken-up into a prologue followed by seven chapters.  So far, I have read the prologue and the first chapter and I’ll admit that I’m hooked.  Interestingly enough, both of Tartt’s novels start with a murder.  The difference between the two is that The Secret History is told from the perspective of one of the killers, while The Little Friend leaves the reader with no real clue as to who committed the crime.  Both novels had me going from the start.

I think one of the reasons that I loved The Secret History so much, and why I’m thoroughly enjoying The Little Friend, is how Tartt challenges her readers to think a little differently.  I have continually found myself really thinking about the questions the main characters have asked themselves.  In the case of The Little Friend, the main character is Harriet.  Harriet is one of the younger sisters of the boy who is found murdered in the book’s prologue.  Harriet never settles with a “because that’s just the way it is” response to her questions.  She is feisty and sassy and wants answers to her questions.  And one of her questions is who murdered her brother.

Now obviously I want to know who killed Harriet’s brother, but there are a few underlying themes that I’m interested to see Tartt develop throughout the novel.  One theme is religion.  Harriet is constantly questioning religion.  She quotes the scripture and uses it to back almost all of her arguments.  Harriet’s mom tells her that she should tell a white lie so as to not hurt someone’s feelings but Harriet’s stance is there is no grey area when it comes to lying.  The Bible says lying is wrong; therefore even lying to spare someone’s feelings is a sin.  A second theme is racism.  Set in the south in the 1970’s, racism is present while at the same time not right out in the open (I have a feeling I should add a “yet” to the end of that sentence).  Yes, there are a few offhand comments, but I’m suspecting that race will play a much larger role in the chapters to come.

So those are my thoughts so far on The Little Friend.  I can’t wait to read more of this book and share my thoughts!