The Secret History by Donna Tartt REVIEW

Those kids carpe diem'd a little bit too hard.

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[alexgreenblatt]

The big twist for me is that they did what they did for a way more petty and vapid reason than you initially think. The genius of the book, in my opinion, is that Tartt makes you fall in love with academia in the first half to make you believe that the gruesome act was justified and spends the second half examining how this almost robotic love for aesthetics and academica caused these people to do something so horrible. This is definitely highlighted in the dream sequence at the end.

[terryhorowitz]

I know I'm late here, but I couldn't help adding that your way of describing the book is spot on. I've seen lots of reviews on this book, but your descriptions & perception of events are really well
done.
Thanks for that! I love this book by the way. 😊

[mlle_darlling]

This novel is one of my all-time favorites. I can’t think of any other set of characters who are so fleshed out; it seems like I know exactly how they look and dress, their voices, their smells, their music and food preferences, etc. It contains one of the best examples of simple yet subtle and effective manipulations of the reader in the winter break section, when its very length and boredom lead not only the narrator but us as the reader to come to view the character who ends it all as the savior figure. I was surprised how well this effect held up in my second reading despite my knowledge of the entire plot. And I love the second half of the book precisely for that unraveling of the personas and fantasies constructed in the first half and being forced to reconsider them in the light of darker and more uncomfortable truths. My only complaint is that the writing of the first half is a bit too tight for my taste, I’d have added at least another 100-150 pages to it.

[ianp]

Foreshadowing is wonderful when it works well - opening sentence of 100 year of solitude (and Chronicle of a death foretold too of course).

[myfirstnovel]

I have ADD and am plot driven, so Tartt is a slug for me and I enjoy more the memories of it than the actual reading experience. I was almost moaning with despair as I turned the pages lol. I will always remember the winter attic scenes, I live in Canada and they rang such a bell, it remains one of my strongest reading memories ever. Goldfinch resembles Secret a lot but its changing settings are almost like vignettes. I think of Tartt’s books as pretend thrillers and both are similar yet different. You should enjoy it.

[timkjazz]

Read this book at a younger age and was totally drawn in and hooked, have very fond memories but not going to ever read it again because my memories are so great for this novel I don't want to be disappointed on a 2nd read, much like with Stephen King's 'The Stand', which I read when I was 13 and was completely absorbed for 3 days but will never read it again.

[SpringboardThought]

That’s a great observation about The Secret History. Wishing it wouldn’t happen and the dissonance does make it gripping. Especially with the rich prose where you get lost in the story and the dynamics. Felt like it had a lot to say on parasocial relationships too.

[twelvmnkys]

Great review. As the book goes on, as Bunny's character & personality flaws keep glaring and growing, he's taking on near monstrous proportions to me. And yet, people like this really exist in the world. I think the best way to analyze his characteristics is the definition of a "Cluster B personality disorder." As I continue to read (I'm on page 199), my sympathy and empathy for Bunny continues to decrease, page by page. At this point, I doubt I'll feel any sadness when he meets his bad demise.

Also, in the mid-1980s, I was in a (Koine) Greek class that lasted 2.5 years (five semesters), in a liberal arts university near Santa Cruz, CA. Each semester, our class size varied from 10 to 6 students, due to the weaker ones dropping out when the pressure became unbearable. Our professor, Dr. James Rider, was a true eccentric. Whenever someone would complain about the workload he would say in a creaky voice, "Don't squall like a mashed cat." Many of the other (non Greek & Hebrew) students viewed us as elite and snobbish. But we were never isolated from the rest of the student body as were the book's characters. Having this background makes me love the book even more!

And finally, the way Donna Tartt brings together several odd and rather troubled characters and, plays them off each other, is reminiscent to me of Iris Murdoch.

[Lavinia_Garcia]

Just came from a video essay on House of Leaves and stumbled upon your channel: really happy I did! Was really needing some guidance on interesting reads!

[stephenwalker]

All the characters are insufferable bores; the thriller situations are anticlimatic and silly; the book takes an age to even get going on its main plot. BUT I still love this book! All the characters are so alive, well-drawn and vivid - and yet - Tartt manages to somehow keep a good deal of their lives secret, off the page, hidden and mysterious. The secret isn't just the central 'non-twist' of the plot - the secret history is that secret side to ourselves that we all carry around with us. You can never know or unlock or 'read' a person - any person - completely. It's impossible. Perhaps undesirable to do so. Human beings are a closed book. We all live and die alone in some very real and very sad sense. The central narrator is almost an unreliable storyteller in the fact that he knows so little about his friends - and he (and we) remain in the dark by the book's end.

It's a masterpiece, I believe. It's also the book I was reading when my father suddenly died last year. So I adore, and recommend it, even more.

[soonova]

Read the Bacchae by Euripides It is central to this.

[nl]

In case you didn't know, your boy Jonathan Lethem also went to Bennington together with Bret Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt.

[Splackavellie]

I liked the book but I had a hard time finishing it. I have ADD and reading a book that have chapters that are 40-60 pages long is a real chore for me. I could have read a 600+ page book with short chapters, like FP or anything by Neal Stephenson, twice in the time it took me to get through this one.

The writing and story was really engaging though. I’d recommend The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason for a similar experience. I don’t see many people talking about it, but I really liked that book. You could get through it in a day or two and it won’t change your world, but it’s a really nice little thriller with similar themes to The Secret History.

[asormadeira]

I just finished this book yesterday, nice

[anastasiasafronova]

I am not sure if you would be reading my comments, but if you are, I think you understand that I am going down in a rabbit hole of you channel :))) So... just a short comment on this video, and the book, which I read a couple of years ago but just no longer than today discussed it with a friend who just finished it. I agree with everything you said, and it is absolutely 1. a page-turner, and 2. great novel to read. But you know what, I also didn't enjoy the second half as much as the first, and I also excused my opinion and always did what you did - said that Donna Tartt's still great and she must have done something good, which I just didn't appreciate due to some limitations. BUT now you said it too. And my friend today said the same thing... so I am started to doubt the greatness of the author, unfortunately. Especially considering that I also read the other two of her books, and although there was some good parts and good pleasure of reading them, I had some issue of another with both of the books, similar to the issue discussed above. Somehow, in ll her books Donna Tartt manages to disappoint me with the choice of structure and where the story goes and how the book ends. That's it. I said it!

I have another comment which I wanted to express - about the talent of revealing the twist in the beginning on the book. Thinking of it, I find Nabokov to be the master of such thing. Have you read/reviewed any of his books? I haven't noticed, but I will check more thoroughly. So, starting from Lolita, to Laughter in the Dark, to Invitation to a Beheading - they all start with the full disclosure of what's going to happen in the end, but all of them are so brilliantly written and grasp the readers' attention till the end.

[neuroticon]

Please do an INFINITE JEST READING PROJECT

[myrarucker]

I did read Goldfinch. I did enjoy reading it. I just ordered the secret history.

[jamesgwarrior]

One of my favorite writers, this is probably I guess if I had to, it’s not my favorite out of all her books.

[infraherald]

You should review Miranda July's The First Bad Man!

[constancecampbell]

I share your particular disappointment, but felt it more keenly. I can’t say that I enjoyed or even admired the story. Perhaps it is fair to say I dislike books that rope me in only to willfully withhold what they teased.