A Pilgrim's Progress and other novel adventures

Sunday 17 November 2013

A little bird told me...




...about Donna Tartt's new novel 'The Goldfinch'.  The beginning describes a terrorist bomb explosion in a New York art gallery.   It feels so real, and is so relentless that it literally made my ears ring.  The writing is superb.

Tartt's prose reminds me a bit of Hilary Mantel's.  But where Mantel's writing is like a piece of antique treen, mellow and polished smooth by experience - Tartt's has protuberances - phrases and passages of such beauty and clarity that make me weak-kneed with jealousy. 

If you enjoy virtuoso literary fiction, I heartily recommend The Goldfinch.

Photo courtesy of my 'little bird', book doctor and writing guru Andrew Wille.
You can find him at  www.wille.org.