Peter Kemp VS The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times called Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch a “glorious, Dickensian novel, a novel that pulls together all her remarkable storytelling talents into a rapturous, symphonic whole and reminds the reader of the immersive, stay-up-all-night pleasures of reading”. Peter Kemp in The Sunday Times didn’t agree:
As if The Little Friend — a 555-page whodunit that ended with the revelation that its author had no idea whodunit — weren’t adequate proof that suspense isn’t Tartt’s metier, The Goldfinch can read like a parody of a crime thriller. The solution to the predicament presented by Theo’s possession of the painting is glaringly obvious hundreds of pages before it is finally realised (“I wish I had thought of it myself, years ago…shining in plain sight, like the sun!” Boris remarks).
