Put me down on the "I liked it" side of the tally board. I think what impressed me the most was the ability of the author, a 50-ish woman born and raised in Mississippi, to convince me that I was reading the thoughts of a 13-year old boy living in Manhattan, who has endured a terrible loss, who suffers from depression and addiction, whose life is not so much a roller coaster as an endless carnival fun house. That, and the question that hovers over this story: "What if?" That's a question we've all asked ourselves time and time again, but The Goldfinch asks the question on a much deeper level than "what if I had taken that job". For instance:
“Well -- think about this. What if all your actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the pattern is pre-set? No no -- hang on -- this is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can't get there any other way?”
Huh. What if, indeed?
I suppose 770 pages seems like alot. But I have been known to skim when the sheer length of a book has made my eyes glaze over. And not once did I think about skimming this book.
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