This happened with all four Twilight books. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Or rather, she agreed that the characters were pretentious, and then she told me that that was part of the point; she loved the characters precisely because of their deep insecurities, the things that led them to need to act in the ways they do. The Secret History was published in 1992 and became an instant best seller, making Tartt a literary phenomenon. For a start, there's a dark secret at it's heart – in fact several dark secrets. He’s also the first to really welcome Richard into the exclusive Greek-studying club that Richard so wants to get into (he excelled in Greek in high school). They’re masks. Or if you can’t relate to him, you can relate to his odd friendship to the rest of the characters. And that is what the characters in this book try to do so much—while also, conversely, doing what young people do all the time, seemingly everywhere, which is: try to rebel.

The rest of the novel is a breathtakingly poised explanation of how the murder was allowed to happen (for this reason, The Secret History has been described as a ‘whydunnit’), and its devastating effects on the characters. The Brat Pack meets The Bacchae in this precious, way-too-long, and utterly unsuspenseful town-and-gown murder tale. |
Donna Tartt It is Richard’s ability to play fast and loose with the truth that allows him to ingratiate himself with a small group of eccentric Classics students and their mercurial professor, Julian Morrow: he casts aside his humble origins in small-town California and invents a past filled with expensive boarding schools and oil-tycoon parents to fit in with his affluent classmates. Some spoilers are below here, so fair warning. “Beauty is terror”: The Secret History Review, View sophie.haynes05’s profile on Facebook, View sophieehaynes’s profile on Instagram, Always, Always, Live Forever: ‘The Secret History’ – Generally Gothic, Follow Books in the Belfry on WordPress.com, “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?”: Pride and Prejudice Review, 5 Classic Gothic novels that everyone should read, 'FEAR stands for fuck everything and run': Doctor Sleep Review, “The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited”: Bag of Bones Review, How gluten intolerance gave me the health kick I needed, “We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why” - 11.22.63 Review, Eating Vegan in Cornwall Day 6: 'The Twisted Currant'.
Well, that was partly the time period the book was probably set in and that I had missed—fair enough. What makes The Secret History so brilliant is Tartt’s ability to capture the multiple dimensions of her characters.

You’ll also recognize the very logical desire of the group of friends to keep their secrets safe, to not let the new guy in too quickly in case he either runs away in fear or goes and tattles on you to everyone. Sophie McKenzie's latest novel is 'Here We Lie' (see review above) Show 0 comments Although his clothes are stuck up he isn’t as arrogant as one would expect. Maybe you’ll manage to convince someone that this or that book you disliked is really problematic and maybe you’ll teach someone something about how they read! Don’t forget to share it on social media! It follows the young life of scholarship student Richard, who finds himself drawn to a group of mysterious students at his new college and then discovers they are keeping a truly terrible secret. Retrieve credentials. It was also recommended by people who know my taste as well as those who don’t, seemingly by the world of book lovers itself, by some of my most literary and well-read friends, by my mother. During the only one that actually comes off, a local farmer happens upon them—and they kill him. “This is the only story I will ever be able to tell”, Richard claims in the prologue; immediately we see how Tartt’s skill is in giving the reader the impression that they are being let in on an enormous secret. Their covers make me curiouser than a cat. Thanks to Richard we never get to see Camilla’s true self and Charles never seems to express himself correctly. And then, as in this case, all I needed to do was talk to others who’d read the book, who’d loved it, and listen to them explain what was worthy about it. Entertainment. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. And so he too is dispatched. It is a small class containing only the five outsiders and Richard and is taught by the eccentric Julian. George Orwell Now I think it does. In other words, when I started to think beyond my surface response to the plot and the characters of The Secret History, I realized just how incredible the book actually was, and how badly I’d misunderstood it. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  She is the founder of TheOtherStories.org, a podcast for new, emerging, and struggling writers. I love them, everything about them, and I almost never find a work of fiction that I adamantly dislike while reading it. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. I felt cheated, angry, the promises of beauty and amazingness left unfulfilled. Tending bar as a side job in Beverly Hills, she catches a glimpse of her mother’s doppelgänger. He idealises them and is determined to join the elite Classics class in which the five attend. ... For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. When I first read it in 2018 I found it to be a beautiful book, but felt that the characters were a bit too unlikable. How Lockdown brought out the runner in me. Sophie McKenzie's latest novel is 'Here We Lie' (see review above). But the death isn't ruled a murder—and might never have been if one of the gang—a cadging sybarite named Bunny Corcoran—hadn't shown signs of cracking under the secret's weight. This ersatz-Fitzgerald mix of moralizing and mirror-looking (Jay McInerney shook and poured the shaker first) is very 80's—and in Tartt's strenuous version already seems dated, formulaic. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Why did I hate The Secret History so much? The novel’s first scene is that of a group of friends, including nineteen-year-old narrator Richard Papen, driving back to Hampden College after murdering a friend and classmate. What this boils down to was that I found the book entirely unbelievable and hard to swallow because of the characters. influencers in the know since 1933. by Join our contributors’ group here or email us – click here for contact details, The Great British Bake Off: truffle along or a leg, "I’ve found myself pandering to a predominantly, Athena Kam, Daniel Morgan and Nelson Fernandes Ser.