Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
About this edition
Audience Summary
Avg. Score:
77
(6 scores)
3 (38%)
0 (0%)
Story DNA:
1
Read by:
7
Abandoned by:
1
Under Consideration by:
7
To Be Read by:
7
Currently being read by:
0
Reviews
4342
1115
if this wasn't SO long (way too long imo) and had fewer slurs maybe I would've given it a higher rating
Jan 12, 2024
775
780
I am giving up. I got to the stage, where every time I picked it up I would squeeze it to see how far I had left to go. It's a shame, well-written and absorbing but oh so painfully slow.
Jan 3, 2020
1333
334
60
I enjoyed Little Friend and The Secret History, so I fully expected to love The Goldfinch.
I found it a struggle because there were so many plot holes, criminally underused characters, bored and boring white people, ending with a last chapter which had to explain the premise of the novel to the reader just in case they hadn’t got it.
The prose is beautiful, the writing about the artwork and...
I found it a struggle because there were so many plot holes, criminally underused characters, bored and boring white people, ending with a last chapter which had to explain the premise of the novel to the reader just in case they hadn’t got it.
The prose is beautiful, the writing about the artwork and...
Oct 8, 2014