Rating: 
Summary: Tartt writes a novel that is creepy,creepy and oh so smart!
Review: Donna Tartt!!! Where is your new book? Please tell me you are in the midst of writing your latest masterpiece and you just stopped to check out the reviews of A Secret History on amazon.com.(most of which are obviously written by people who completely missed the delicate, eerie mood you managed to capture in the book I found to be brilliant.) Every time I search for a book I begin with the last name Tartt- Perhaps I will be surprised to see a new title soon!
Rating: 
Summary: The Secret History Draws You In and Will Not Let Go.
Review: From the first sentence of Donna Tartt's "the Secret History," the reader is plunged into another world. As with all great storytellers, Tartt begins the tale form the middle, giving the reader a tantalizing glimpse of the story to follow. I was amazed by this book from cover to cover. I have read it more times than I can count on one hand; sometimes I read it simply for the flowing prose that makes up Tartt's distinctive style. This book is a work of literary art. Tartt should be held up as one of the great American novelists, despite her disappearance from the literary world and the fact that this is her one and only book. Donna Tartt's The Secret History will disappoint no one, from serious minded literary critics to murder-mystery fans. This is among my three favorite books of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Remember Back to your College days
Review: When this book came out in 1992 I was 20 and beginning Grad school, wallowing in the humanities. I devoured and loved it for all its "mundane collegiate" arrogance (as someone wrote earlier). Having left college and put my feet on the ground the book's attraction has waned. instead I see a well-written yarn, with a good plot and a decent stab taken at , yes, mundane collegiate arogance that does exist. This is one of the best novels I have ever read for several reasons. Someone criticised it below for not delivering exciting, endearing, characters. yeah, but these are college kids that have a narrow life experience, they don't think things through. the book itself delivers its strongest punch through this lack of thought, lack of remorse, lack of consequence. Yeah, the characters are largely unsympathetic and there are no heroes. Good for Tartt. This book delivers in much the same way Douglas Coupland does (not in its litereary style) - simple, empty-ish characters and an interesting background. This pretty much somes up the late 80s and 90s for me, when a lot of the generational 'fizz' has already been absorbed by preceeding generations. A thirty-something friend of mine who hates this book for these reasons, loves the movie 'Dazed and Confused' because it accurately reflects his view of the buzz of the 70s. I like them both for delivering good fun. Oh, and the person who started hating the book because it was dedicated to Brett Easton Ellis - well. Ironically you suffer from the same closed-mindedness as Tartt portrays superbly in the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Puffery, triteness, tedium
Review: Don't believe people who tell you this book is 'spellbinding' or 'beautifully written'. Indeed, it opens with the end then spends 400 odd pages on puffery, triteness, tedium and pathetic endeavours at high-brow, literary credence in a meak attempt to make that 'end' interesting. Ms. Tartt has floundered, badly, where the likes of Patrick Suskind flourish.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing story
Review: I really enjoyed this book, i am 14 now and am studying greek. unlike a lot of books on the line of murder and colege students it had a strong sence of reality to it which is probably why i enjoyed it so much. The characters were brilliantly describbed and u could relate to them by the end of the book. My favourite character is definatly Henry though.
Rating:
Summary: Potential--Wasted
Review: What a great premise for an interesting story completely wasted. This book is largely about mad genius. However, the author is unable to deliver charaters as brillant as we are supposed to believe they are. On Page 32 we find the best passage in the book. The mysterious professor Julian is set up as a central intelligence source. His philospically provoking passage on the contraints of society, however, is dropped and only loosely correlated to the central action. What's worse, Julian becomes a non-entity after this point. How disappointing. I felt as though the author had neither the knowledge of philosophy or the wear-with-all to create a truly genius character. Instead of letting us learn through Richard, a man with little or no character himself, we are forced to see things like Richard does, with no revealing character development. There are no surprises in this book and leaves you feeling totally cheated.
Rating:
Summary: Has stayed with me for a long time
Review: There haven't been many books that have stayed with me the way this one has - this is coming from a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction literature. This may not be a great technical work, but there is something to the narrator's coldness, while still giving vivid description of events, that is mesmerizing. I have read this book several times and enjoyed it upon each read. Like others who have written in, I wish Ms. Tartt would attempt another offering.
Rating:
Summary: Some Cure albums could have saved us all a lot of trouble
Review: Ms Tartt and I did not get off to a good start, even before she'd written a word of text. She dedicates the book to her pal Brett Easton Ellis, author of several dreadful books. And any friend of Ellis's is no friend of mine. 'The Secret History' is a long, but very slender story of friendship, murder, guilt and disintegration, both of the individual and of the group. The group here consists of six young classics students who sulk and brood around a Vermont college feeling superior to everybody else (and, I got the creepy feeling, to me, the innocent reader). The characters range from irritating (Richard Papen, the book's narrator) to despicable (everybody else) and I think it's a great pity that Tartt didn't kill off more of them. The book is by turns over-written, under-written and poorly-written while, at other times, it is simply inept. But most of all it's just plain boring - full of hollow, adolescent musings on how difficult it is to be young, "different" and brilliant. (I thought listening to old Cure albums was supposed to help with that tough problem.) It's the kind of thing the Ally Sheedy character in 'The Breakfast Club' might have written if she was in detention for five years instead of just a day. Tartt's mock-Gothic, Vermont Victorian style also allows her to use the word 'apt' far too often, as well as indulge in some mighty purple prose, mostly concerned with endless descriptions of the weather. Perhaps her true gift lies in meteorology. Despite all this, I managed to finish the book because Tartt succeeds so well in presenting murder-victim Bunny as such an annoying pinhead that I couldn't wait for the others to kill him. But once that's over, the rest of the players revert to their customary behaviour of saying 'apt', drinking cups of tea and being young, different and brilliant. Good for them! As an examination of despair, the book works - if you finish it, you'll really know the meaning of the word. And you'll wish that 'The Secret History' had remained just that - a secret.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!!!!!!
Review: I have read this book twice over a period of three years. I loved it. Donna Tarrt has written a wonderful book concerning the social aspects of high school days. (Though these kids are not your typical school mates). I loved the setting and you felt as though you were right there with them throughout the story. I can't wait for her next book!
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely wonderful first novel...
Review: Donna Tartt, in The Secret History, provides her reader with a first person account of what is perhaps the most profound and difficult experience imaginable. A group of five Greek language students, secluded from other students in thought, imagination, and experience, make the ultimate decision to murder a comfrere. This narrative tells the when, why, and how in a method quite unlike any other book I have ever read. From the first page, the reader is drawn in, and he cannot bear to skip a word for fear that he may miss something. Tartt's only weakness, and a minor one at that, is her tendency to overdramatize. However, this is a small price to pay for the insight she offers into human spirit and habit. In addition to the unique story line, The Secret History provides the reader with funny cliches, Greek and French asides, and one-of-a-kind wit. It's a book that any reader will enjoy.
|
