Does the Goldfinch get any better?

[FlyingForest]

I’ve seen this recommended on here. I’m about 200 pages in and really bored. Is it one that gets better or should I give up if I’m not enjoying it already?

I loved it. It’s one of my most favourite books. I didn’t get on with ‘The Little Friend’ , however.

I couldn't get into it and gave up. It just wasn't for me. A hard slog, I felt.

I loved the Vegas bit too. I also loved the film which was exactly how I had pictured it in my head. I love his Russian friend (forgotten his name, read it years ago when it first came out) who called him ‘potter’ the whole time. I’ce loved all her books.

but yes, 200 pages is a decent way in - if you’re not a fan, give it up - there are plenty of other books which will resonate with you more.

I didn’t enjoy it, I’ve got to the stage where if I’m not enjoying a book I’ll give up and go onto something else, there are so many fantastic books out there to read instead.

Erh, no. I was so excited at it coming out and then found it so dull. But I know people who loved it so I think it's quite marmite.

No

No. I got about 90% of the way through, hoping it would get better but then gave up and didn’t finish it. I loved Secret History but this did not live up to it. .

I finished it but my god it was a hard read! I won’t tell you the ending but I felt it was better than 97% of the book 😬

I thought it got really bogged down in Las Vegas - i enjoyed it up til then.

I also enjoyed the Las Vegas section and the ending is more of a page turner so I rather binged the last third.

It is very reminiscent of The Catcher in the Rye which I remember left me completely cold when I read it as a teenager, just didn’t connect with it at all.

I loved it from the beginning so maybe it’s not for you. I couldn’t get into The Secret History at all!

That is a book which needed but did not get some proper editing to tighten it up and lop a third off its length. I’d give up now, the first 200 pages were the best bit frankly.

I loved it. But as PP say, it hooked me from the start. I think the plot gets ridiculous by the time it moves to Amsterdam, but I just loved Theo and hated Boris and adored some of the crazy locations like the housing estate outside Vegas. It's a study in human relationships and trauma but not the greatest plot. For perfection in both, read Demon Copperhead.

Loved the Goldfinch and The Secret History but didn’t finish the little friend

It started off well but felt like even Tartt got bored of it half way in as it just seemed to meander all over the place. I did preserve but didn’t really enjoy it.

I didn’t know there was a film. Will have to try and find it later, hopefully a bit more snappy than the book.

I've read it twice. I loved it from the start and will read again in a few years.

Should a book be "snappy"?!

TSH is one of my favourite books ever, so was so excited by both TLF and TG. For me, they were too long winded, too wordy and not particularly interesting; she could have chopped them in half and they'd still have been too much. I think I need to resign myself to the fact that while I loved TSH, I am not a Donna Tartt fan.

My brain is totally fried by the Internet, so I'm trying to read more.

Tried The Bee Sting: abandoned because I couldn't relate to the characters.

Ditto Caledonian Road: the richer people pissed me off and the drawing of the more working class characters was a bit cartoonish. Abandoned.

Woman, Girl, Other. Just didn't get on with it.

As the Women Lay Dreaming. I bought this in Ullapool to try and submerge myself in the culture of the Highlands and Islands but got pissed off with how Christina was treated. Abandoned.

I think unless the story grabs you within three chapters it's not worth continuing. I have some books to drop off at the charity shop today

I liked it a lot, but I wouldn't say it was an enjoyable read. It was exhausting, miserable, and often bleakly ugly (the Las Vegas bit). I took that to be a deliberate re-creation for the reader of the rather bleak and unredeemed life of the main protagonist.
Same with The Little Friend. I think there is a scene in that book where the main protagonist tries to save a bird whose wing has become stuck to hot tarmac? But her attempts just lead to her tearing off the bird's wing, and it dies? That seems to encapsulate the entire experience of both The Little Friend and The Goldfinch: the characters are trying to 'making things right' in a world of trauma. But they can't. All remains awful. They are denied resolution and we are denied the satisfaction of a comfortable narrative arc.

In TLF, as I remember, there is no resolution. In the Goldfinch the resolutions available are either fake (the antiques fraud? I can't remember the details) or extremely limited and unconsoling.

No, it doesn’t. Unbelievably tedious, dull and boring, could do with a decent edit. Didn’t finish it

I loved it but I listened to it as an audiobook. It’s a long book so if you’re not into it, just stop! It’s not compulsory to finish a book you’re not enjoying.