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What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

Have you read The Little Friend by Donna Tartt?

49 replies

aloha · 15/03/2004 11:15

I finished this last night and am soooo disappointed by the ending - I got through 555 pages for WHAT? Does anyone else feel like me? I want my money back!

OP posts:

Evita · 16/03/2004 13:29

Well, it is a relief to hear that 2 other people did like it! I was beginning to feel like a bit of a freak.

aloha, I think you've got a bit fixated on the dead animals under houses stuff, I think that only happens twice rather briefly. And the snake episode is only a middle section of the book too.

Ok, we don't find out who killed Robin, but I don't think that was the point. The point to me was that it was about a young girl growing up in a house which was submerged in unspoken trauma. A trauma which happened when she was 1 year old to someone she never knew. What compelled me was the psychological effect of this event on her and her 'reality', the way she 'found' the murderer and chased him, the way she tried to speak out to people about her home / mother disintegrating before her eyes but there was no-one to hear. I don't think it's a book that one should approach with beginning-middle-end logic, I think it was psychoanalytical in that it was about what things mean and how they seem rather than being realistic. And to me that's my favourite. It's always a disappointment to have the mystery solved.

The other thing is how beautifully written it was, how atmospheric too. I'm not surprised it took 10 years and to me was far superior to Secret History.

By the way, I think the little friend was Hely and I think that's why the book ends on him. He was the only person to have faith in Harriet. Though even she couldn't see it.

Janstar · 16/03/2004 13:43

Bron, it was me you offloaded it onto! But I was very happy cos I had planned to read it sometime anyway.

I haven't started it yet though. If it is pants I'll be over to Wales with a pile of Jeffrey Archers for you!

Original poster

aloha · 16/03/2004 16:33

BK, I didn't give up...I plodded right throught the whole 555 pages! I'm going back now to count all the incidences of being under houses - definitely more than two

OP posts:

Posey · 16/03/2004 20:13

Bossykate - a twist in Little Friend or Blood Doctor? Certainly there was no twist in the latter before I gave up, and if there was one in LF then I missed it.

Paula71 · 16/03/2004 21:43

Totally agree, I felt like she waddled about silly side stories rather than answer the question the whole book was hinged on! Even if it hadn't been answered properly, to have some kind of outcome would have been better. It was almost like she realised how long the book was getting and rather than do some trimming she just stopped!

Evita · 16/03/2004 21:49

NO! She's such a great writer, she wouldn't just leave the ending badly. She spent so long writing it - have a little faith!

Ok, so it's not a 'pot boiler' etc. but it is an amazing book. No-one will convince me otherwise.

aloha - you found all the under the house scenes yet?! I think I can remember two but no more.

Evita · 16/03/2004 21:51

Paula71, there IS a conclusion. The book is about trying to solve something that can't be solved. The conclusion is that Harriet realises that.

Bron · 17/03/2004 21:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

scoobysnax · 18/03/2004 12:52

A very different book to TSH, and not as good, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nevertheless!

Evita · 18/03/2004 20:48

yay, scoobysnax. But I thought it was way better than TSH.

Socci · 15/09/2004 11:55

Message withdrawn

Demented · 15/09/2004 16:39

I bought this one from Amazon the other day, when it arrived I realised I meant to order The Secret History (couldn't remember which book was 'the one to order') so I am going to put my fingers in my ears at this thread, la, la, la ..., it only cost 1p (plus P&P), was advertised as never read, when it arrived a page was turned down at about page 50, so looks like it's original owner didn't get to grips with it! Ho hum!

Marina · 16/09/2004 09:35

Well I'm with Socci, Scoobysnax and Evita (as she was back then ) on this, I enjoyed The Little Friend greatly. I think she's a fine writer even when not reaching the heights of The Secret History. Hope you will too Demented.

Demented · 03/10/2004 18:42

Started this now, have read further than the previous owner did and so far I am enjoying it, the story has caught my attention, going on holiday on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to having some time to really get into it!

Miaou · 03/10/2004 18:52

I with all those who loved the Little Friend, and I think Evita's description of how it is about how mysteries are not always solvable was spot on (and so much better put than I have just put it...brainache this evening!)

You have to read it as an "experience", not a mystery-investigation-solution book. In which case, you will enjoy it.

I am just re-reading Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow ... another one where you are left without a definitive conclusion....I just love those sorts of books!

Roobie · 03/10/2004 19:29

I loved "The Little Friend" although I was also initially surprised at the abrupt ending but have now grown to understand why DT did not deem it necessary to tidy things up for the readers. I thought the characters were marvellously drawn - I particularly loved the gorgeous maiden aunts (I was very close to my mothers maiden aunts who were like grandmothers to me) and was also terrified by Farish. I understood the "little friend" to be Danny - Harriet's mother and father describe him as Robin's little friend when they are talking about him at the hospital and this is what make Harriet eventually realise that he was actually a friend of Robin's and not a threat.
Hope she writes a third book soon - The Secret History has to be one of my all time favourites.

Original poster

aloha · 03/10/2004 19:37

But mysteries ARE solveable if you invented them as the writer! It's not a real story. I think that's just such a cop-out. It's like saying, things don't always have endings in real life, so it's Ok for the writer to just stop half way through. I have rarely felt so annoyed by any book. I threw my copy away in irritation, so never managed to count up the number of times the heroine had to hide under a house with a dead animal, but it was an absurdly recurring theme.
Gosh, still cross after all these months!

OP posts:

Original poster

aloha · 03/10/2004 19:39

I think it's just very badly plotted. Plots are hard. Atmosphere is easy. I think it's lazy, lazy, lazy to set up lots of atmosphere and not bother with a plot (aka story).

OP posts:

Skate · 03/10/2004 20:13

Oh poo. I've started this too as I loved The Secret History. Mind you, like others have said, I started it a while ago and have since read other books in between that I've not been able to put down so that says something doesn't it.

Oh bugger, shall I not bother with it?!

Demented · 03/10/2004 22:31

Read it Skate, then we can moan about it together and say that we wished we'd listened to the others! You never know might even enjoy it!

Skate · 03/10/2004 22:34

I'm out of books to read at the moment so maybe I'll give it a whirl!

Gomez · 03/10/2004 22:47

Right - now I am out of the cupboard so to speak (and drunk) - this book is atrocious!

Get some Christopher Brookmyre - don't be put of by that appalling TV adaptation a few weeks back. The books are brilliant!

Demented · 16/10/2004 10:57

Loving it!

Demented · 18/10/2004 17:43

I´ve finished it now. Perhaps if I hadn´t been reading it on holiday I would have become more frustrated with it, it´s a thick book with small print, but I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed it and was not in the least disappointed with the ending.

I agree with Roobie that Danny was The Little Friend.

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