The Secret History

Rating:
Summary: FÖR SVENSKA NÄTSHOPPARE
Review: Från en platt, tom betongstad utan känslor, sådana det finns så många av runt om i USA, kommer bokens huvudperson till Camden, tror jag det heter, ett universitet någonstans på östkusten. Kontrasterna kunde inte bli större. Plötsligt blir han tagen på allvar och han ser fram mot sina studier. En liten, exklusiv grupp studenter läser klassisk grekiska vid universitetet. De umgås bara inbördes, släpper inte in någon. Bokens huvudperson dras oundvikligt till gruppen. När han slutligen accepteras fylls hans inre av rusig lycka, och han inser bara alltför sent studenternas mörka hemlighet. "The Secret Story" är en underbar bok, med en stor pricksäkerhet i modellerandet av karaktärerna. Handlingen är rolig och suggestiv på samma gång, och miljön på universitetet kunde inte vara bättre lämpad för en thriller. BUY IT!

Rating:
Summary: Everyone I recommended it to seemed to really enjoy it.
Review: I really enjoyed this novel. My brother recommended it to me but the first time I read it I was in the middle of a rather hectic semester. I remember wishing I'd had more time to devote to it. So, I read it again during Christmas break. The second read was even more enjoyable. I have recommended this book to several people including three English professors. After they returned the novel, two of them implied that my ethical sensibilities may be a bit warped for having found the tale so delightful. But, I gotta tell you, they never pass up an opportunity to discuss the story with me. I personally haven't met anyone who read it who didn't like it.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but still a really good read.
Review: I just finished this book this morning, and I have to say, I am going to miss the characters and the world that Donna Tartt created. My feelings about this book fluctuated quite a bit throughout reading it, but in the end, I was quite satisfied with it. I look forward to her next book because I think maybe with a little more experience and maturity, her writing will be superb. The biggest weakness of the book is, in spite of the fact that she succeded in creating a gripping tale, that she just couldn't seem to wrap things up concisely. The book wasn't necessarily too long, it was just too meandering in certain parts. Also, the narrarator (Richard)was slightly flat in characterization. I think she intentionally made him flat to highlight his numbness, but there were certain parts of the story in which he was supposed to show more emotional depth. For example, in his love for Camilla. I think Tartt completely intended for his love for Camilla to be the one splash of color on an otherwise blank slate. But the cliche descriptions of love didn't really come across as believable. The only other thing I didn't like about the book was that some of the writing was slightly pretentious. I do not mean that it was intellectual or beyond what the average reader can comprehend, but that it tried to be. I think that in some parts Tartt's concern was more with using as many big college words as she could rather than with conveying her images and details as accurately and concisely possible. Although this irritated me at the beginning, once I got used to it, I could ignore it and enjoy the story. Which, as I mentioned was compelling and made the book well worth the read. I recommend this book to anyone with the time to read it. Read it for the story that will suck you into itself, and read it to get the first glimpse into the mind of a writer that I think will produce much more provocative, intriguing and well-crafted work in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Best book I have ever read
Review: "The secret history" was such a great book. I could not put it down I had to read another twenty pages and see what happens to the characters. It was suspenseful and exciting and I loved Donna Tartt's description of college. Since i'm a high school student I thought this was a great college book. I loved all the characters and since i'm from new england i know vermont. I reccomend this book highly for people who love college based mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: Bet the Kirkus Reviewer feels like an idiot...
Review: I loved it -- locked myself in my apartment for a weekend until I finished. I think it's interesting how many reviews focus on how "pretentious" the book is -- frankly, I think the most fantastic part of the book was being introduced to the classics in such a seductive way. This book made me reach intellectually, and inspired me to learn about the Classics and regret not studying them in college. I don't read many books that challenge me, and I think my tastes are pretty sophisticated but most of the literary books that are on the shelves seem to be spare and stylish these days. This was a book I could sink my teeth into, and a world I could lose myself in. Also, I went to a college extremely similar to the one in the book and I was impressed by how well she evoked the feelings of isolation and craziness that a few months of snow and ice can bring about. And the people were pretty dead on as far as I was concerned -- shallow preppies and their pushy parents, kids just trying to be a part of a group, and the rare few charismatic personas floating around campus.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Suprised how many people didn't like this book.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I am a 30 something female who found it extremely interesting. Perhaps it is for bratpackers.

Rating:
Summary: Classics Majors Take Note
Review: The Kirkus Reviews reviewer was obviously a business major, for anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the classics (or even a true liberal education, for that matter) could not help but be utterly enthralled by this book, depicting as it does the consequences, in real-life present-day America, of trying to live the Dionysian ideal of 400 B.C. If Tartt's characters seem "cardboard," "precious" or "blank slate," it far from being because of dearth of literary talent, which Miss Tartt has in abundance, but rather because those who would attempt seriously to emulate the ancient Greeks in their Dionysian aspect, of necessity, would be amoral thrill-seekers with philosophical veneers, like Henry, and their captive admirers, like Richard. Make no mistake: this is harrowing, full-bodied fiction, immense in its psychological detail.

Rating:
Summary: Wretched
Review: Thank God I borrowed this and didn't buy it. Pretentious, far too long, not a single likable character. The students come across more as inmates at a prep school for the emotionally and academically inept rather than an elite progressive college. This book wants its charcters to be dangerous and decadent and depraved and they're just silly, boring, spoiled children. Elizabeth Hand's "Waking the Moon" is a much better, though far more fantastic, novel about college students, mysterious rites, and the results thereof.

Rating:
Summary: Going Nowhere Slowly
Review: During the past 3 years, three women recommended this book. I finally read it over the last several weeks and I was rather disappointed for several reasons. The book is too long for the story it tells. I was reminded that Dickens was paid by the word and I wonder if Tartt had the same deal. There is an extreme amount of unnecessary details that do not advance the story in any clear way. There are passages that reminded me of story drafts where I'd like to ask, "What's the point of all this? I found almost no suspense in the plot. I expected the "murders" to be explained as some finely integrated scheme but it was not to be. Tartt is a gifted writer who could use an editor and a plot supervisor. If you have nothing to do for a few weeks and you want to wrap yourself in a blanket and drink several pots of coffee, you may enjoy being pulled into this story. I did enjoy the college setting but I wondered why the entire student body didn't flunk out of school because of the drinking, smoking, and drugs they comsummed. Julian's character was not developed to my satisfaction. Who was this guy and why were these 4 or 5 losers drawn to him? I just began Stranger in a Strange Land as a break from this book.

Rating:
Summary: utterly brilliant!
Review: This is the most haunting, beautifully written work of conteporary fiction I have ever read. Disregard any bad reviews; this book is astounding and put together with such amazing attention to detail and atmosphere that, after reading it, you are never the same again. It contains some of the most extraordinary sentences and paragraphs you will ever read; (and, by the way, I am getting a PhD in literature, so I am a rather tough critic!) And if you are bothered by all the literary and historical references...as another reviewer said, just look them up! Or ask someone! You will be learning something new. That's what reading is all about, no?